Is Aramark Trying to Kill University City's Food Trucks?

Don't you just love this food truck trend? Finally, we're as hip as Chicago. Good food for your lunch break that doesn't enlist a $10 bowl of kale. Seriously, when did kale become the food du jour? Didn't it used to waste away in the meat aisle separating the pork from the chicken?

If you're a cash-strapped college student, food trucks are an affordable opportunity to opt out of the monotony of the dining hall. It's a boon for local businesses too, because students still clinging to their Massachusetts and New York licenses are sopping up some local eats. Who knows, maybe they'll like those Cap'n Crunch infused tacos so much they'll stick around for another four years.

Well, Jannie Blackwell wants to make some changes. Blackwell, the Councilwoman presiding over University City wants to regulate the hell out of the foot trucks near Drexel University, and Bill 150600 would do it.

Why? Well the answer isn't clear from Blackwell's office, but according to armchair activists, the food trucks are cutting into Drexel's on-campus dining options. This may sound like conspiracy theorist lunacy. How could Steak Me Home Tonight compete with the Big Boys operating Drexel's dining halls?

So why would a local politician want to stifle local businesses? Why would Jannie Blackwell - a Council Member who's consistently fought for locals and on behalf of her community - decide to propose a bill that sides with Big Business? 

Well, who operates Drexel's dining services? Aramark. It sounds like the Big Boys of Market East might be giving Blackwell a little push to free up a little business for them. If that's the case - and let's face it, it probably is - it's pretty damn irresponsible. Not only would a local Big Boy be enlisting politics to grab a few bucks, Blackwell created a bill to help the Big Boy crush a few local businesses. 

Aramark might be local, but in the food truck world, they're Wal-Mart. They don't need the business food trucks are taking, they'd just maneuvering their political position to expand beyond their dining halls onto the streets of West Philadelphia. And Jannie Blackwell would helping them.

The Other Center City

Shortly after I moved to Philadelphia, ground broke on the Cira Centre. I was living in a modest studio apartment in University City and coming from DC, my impression of a skyline was Arlington, VA or college road trips to Richmond. Needless to say, Philadelphia wowed me. But still, as Cira Centre rose, I thought, "What?? A skyscraper in West Philadelphia??"

After Cira Centre grew synonymous with 30th Street Station and the west bank of the Schuylkill River, developers throughout University City became less shy about building vertically. Today, from Belmont Plateau, Philadelphia's skyline is as dramatic west of the Schuylkill as it is east of the Aramark Tower. 

For years, proposals for Cira Center South, even Cira Centre North were floated. They were fun to look at but seemed like a dream. We were sure that University City would never grow taller than Cira Centre. 

But with the FMC Tower, part of the Cira Centre South we never thought we'd see, one of "Philadelphia's tallest" will be west of the Schuylkill. And that's significant.

Let's face it, skyscrapers are built to make a statement. Working in one is a laborious hassle if your day is full of meetings. Once a building exceeds 300 feet, you can easily spend several hours a day in elevator banks. FMC Corporation needed space, sure. But its landlord, Liberty Property Trust, encouraged FMC to relocate to the yet-to-be-built Cira Centre South because Liberty knows University City is open for business, and they want other businesses to take note. 

And take note they will. Amtrak commuters from DC, Wilmington, and all points south will be greeted by FMC's crystalline skyscraper, backdropped by our growing Center City skyline. But what's more interesting than our growing Center City - the Comcast Innovation & Technology Center, 1919 Market, East Market, and the LDS Church's residences on Vine - is University City's true introduction into Philadelphia's skyline.

We're no longer a city bound by two rivers, we're a city straddling the Schuylkill. 

University City office space now costs more than office space in Center City, and University City continues to grow. And for good reason. University City is easily accessible by regional rail, the Market Street El, and the surface trolleys. It's also right on the Schuylkill Expressway, Baltimore Avenue, and Market Street, and chock full of parking. While that doesn't bode well for New Jersey; the Main Line, Upper Darby, and Media are essentially in University City's backyard. That's a lot of people. And they don't have to pay a toll to get here.

What's ever better, it doesn't seem that businesses are trading Center City for University City. With the exception of the FMC Corporation, University City is rising on its own, either growing its current base or attracting new. 

With ample sites for future development, low NIMBY intervention, and a precedent to build taller, University City's skyline may challenge Center City's in ten years or so. Imagine a complex on par with Liberty Place occupying the surface lot at 38th and Market. Now imagine what that would look like from Fairmount Park. 

As residents of Philadelphia, it's easy to discount University City. It's full of college kids. It's not "local." And perhaps that's why it's growing so rapidly. Unfettered with local politics and fueled by academic cash, University City is growing in isolation, and doing so at a fantastic rate. But while locals may be ignoring much of the growth west of the Schuylkill, the growth isn't ignoring us. 

From Drexel's proposed Innovation Neighborhood, plans floating to cap the railroad tracks north of 30th Street Station, and University City's hospital district, University City is organically growing as an extension of Center City's gridded urbanity. Pedestrianization has always been key, and development is seamlessly integrated into the streets leading to the bridges that connect University City to Philadelphia's core. 

It's exciting, and to more seasoned Philadelphians, perhaps a bit scary. Development has begun to snowball, and in a good way. As for University City, sure, it still contains a swell of college students between 30th and 40th Streets, but the way that swell is being developed is bridging West Philadelphia's residential neighborhoods with Center City. 

Once inner-burbs of Philadelphia, neighborhoods like Spruce Hill and Powelton Village are going to soon find themselves part of the cohesive, walkable fabric of Greater Center City. And that truly is a great thing.

3201 Race

University City isn't done challenging Center City. Radnor Property Group has proposed a new 200 foot apartment building at 32nd and Race and it's pretty sexy. 

If it happens, this 17 story Erdy-McHenry bad ass will be situated along 30th Street Station's Amtrak lines and beefing up University City's growing skyline.

Farewell, Old Friend

As Philadelphians, we've all enjoyed watching University City transform into Center City's towering sister. Ugly midcentury disasters have made way for their modern equivalent, architecture that will likely be just as abhorred by future generations. Some may even remember a time when West Philadelphia's universities proposed building a wall to separate students from once-dangerous neighborhoods now adorned by preserved mansions, renovated condos, and Victorian twins. 

Architecturally, it's been great. And University City and its West Philadelphia neighbors have managed to evolve without accommodating the suburban ills that tend to play out in isolated college towns. The University of Pennsylvania, Drexel, even Temple don't just cater to their students, they embrace the city of Philadelphia by indulging our rigid adherence to urbanism and sustained walkability. 

Universities are no stranger to change. They exert enormous political influence and have the cash to build what they want, where they want. Historic preservationists have abandoned all but the most historically significant of colleges. And even in those instances - William and Mary, Harvard, Penn - those charged with protecting urban heritage largely assign the task to the universities themselves. 

We've see buildings fall in University City - the good, the bad, and the meh. But there's more to a building's legacy than bricks and mortar, be it Colonial or academia's wild fascination with Brutalism. These places also hold a significance for a vast portion of the public who experienced the most poignant piece of personal history within these buildings. 

Just today, an old college friend of mine posted a link on my Facebook page. The link? An offer to buy a piece of my college dorm, recently demolished to make way for a new Student Union. Now, I know this is a blog about Philadelphia, but it's also about architecture and history. Plus, it's my blog, so I'm going to stray from my adoptive city for a moment or two.

Everyone has their college stories, or stories from a pivotal point in their life when they start their next act. I might think mine are unique, but no matter how hard I try, I know they're not. But sometimes good stories are those most relatable. And that's exactly what I experienced living on the third floor of South Cunningham for the bulk of my college career.

The building was dated. The architecture has been replicated across Longwood College's (now University's) campus. There was nothing significant about the Cunninghams other than our own personal experiences, and that's why it was so sad to see it go.

This is the building where I (sorry, Mom) lost my virginity. This is where I spent countless nights crying with friends in the laundry room, coming to terms with my sexual orientation. It's where I spent even more nights crying in that same laundry room with friends - still some of my best to this day - struggling with the same.

It's where we somehow managed to cram forty students and a DJ booth into a dorm room for an epic Christmas party, one graced with performances by my then-drag persona, Empress Savannah of the Fourteenth Shue. 

It's where we would strut down to the hall perfecting our "Model Walk" to the Sugar Cubes. It's where we watched the O.J. verdict. It's where we sang Seasons of Love at the top of our lungs. It's where we watched Kimberly Shaw blow up Melrose Place. It's where we realized that Murder She Wrote's Cabot Cove had a murder rate higher than Honduras.

It was more than a dorm or a building...it was a friend. 

Anyone who's been to college knows what it's like to sit outside their dorm until 3am deconstructing the nature of existence, solve all of the world's problems, and declare that we'll own this world by the time we're thirty. This is where we did that.

But most of all, this was the place where we laughed, cried, smoked, drank, and looked to the new millennium, clad in flannel, with relentless optimism. It's where we fostered friendships that have endured marriage and pregnancy, distance and divorce, and substance abuse and recovery. 

The Cunninghams created the people we are today. And while I think it's fantastic that the campus of my alma mater finally resembles, well, a campus, I am sad to see the Cunninghams go. But their legacy will live on through the people its inhabitants have become, the stories we tell, the stories I continue to tell throughout my thirties and will continue to tell well into my forties and beyond. 

Farewell, old friend. 

With that said, enjoy a little 90s awesomeness...

3601 Market

3601 Market, part of the University Center Science Center and a mixed use apartment and commercial tower, will now be a little taller and a little bit more interesting.

A little.

Perhaps riding Drexel's new style guide, BLT Architects will be staggering many of the windows and some of the balconies on the 300 foot high rise. While it's not quite as exciting as Campus Crest's Grove or Drexel's most recent additions, BLT has angled the 28 story tower towards Center City to offer residents a view of the skyline.

Of course with seemingly no cap on University City's rising skyline, Center City developers might soon be offering their potential tenants a view of a new Philadelphia, one west of the Schuylkill River.

West Philadelphia Tour

Because sometimes you just want to look at pictures, here's a small pictorial tour through West Philadelphia. Mostly Spruce Hill, I noted historical information where I could find it. Surprisingly, little information is readily available on some of the neighborhood's grander mansions.

41st and Spruce

A similar neighbor in 1964.

4206-4218 Spruce Street

4206-4218 Spruce Street in 1965.


42nd and Spruce
4200 Spruce Street
Clarence Howard Clark, Jr., Residence
Built c.1868
Designed by Mantle Fielding, Jr.
Alterations by Furness & Hewitt c.1875

Clarence Howard Clark, Jr., Residence c.1901

4201 Spruce Street
Saint Andrew's Chapel
Designed in 1923 by Zantzinger, Borie & Medary.

4201 Spruce Street was originally the site of the residence of Clarence Howard Clark, father of Clarence Howard Clark, Jr.

42nd and Locust

42nd and Locust in 1964.

4300 Block of Spruce

45th and Spruce

4418-4422 Spruce Street

Concord Hall Apartments
Built c.1923

Concord Hall c.1925


4400 Block of Spruce


4501-4507 Spruce Street


4501 Spruce Street

4537 Spruce Street
Built c.1904
Designed by Mahlon H. Dickinson

4500 Block of Spruce


4600 Spruce Street
Built c.1910
Designed by E. Allen Wilson.


4600 Block of Spruce


46th and Pine

4600 Block of Pine



4431-4439 Walnut Street
Built c.1907
Designed by Clarence Eaton Schermerhorn
Originally the 40th Street Methodist Episcopal Church
Mount Ephraim Tabernacle Baptist Church
As of 1992, serves as the Association of Islamic Charitable Projects Headquarters.


Restaurant School of Philadelphia

The Restaurant School building in 1965.


Renovated offices of Campus Apartments property management.

The Other Bergdoll Mansion

A Ghost Story

In the fall of 1962, construction began on the first major residential development in West Philadelphia in decades. As part of a campaign to revitalize the declining neighborhood beyond the city's university district, University Mews launched a concept that remains to this day.

But before anyone spoke the moniker "University City", the neighborhoods surrounding West Philadelphia's universities were known by their historically proper names such as Powelton Village and Woodland Terrace. Unfortunately the architectural playground of Philadelphia's Victorian nouveau riche had an expiration date.

Many of the larger palaces built by the Industrial Revolution were left behind with unclaimed inheritances. The Great Depression left even those with means without the excessive resources to maintain the grandeur of the Gilded Age, so many of our city's greatest estates stood for as little as two decades.

Some properties passed through the hands of relatives and colleagues, often boarded up and home to squatters. Others burned or simply collapsed. And one example, befitting the dark humor of Charles Addams, inhabited by mysterious and unknown eccentrics fed neighborly folklore, rumors, and ghost stories.

4500 Spruce Street, the Charles Moseley Swain Mansion, was surrounded by a stone wall which remains today at University Mews.

Deserted by 1958, the Swain Mansion at 45th and Spruce was mistakenly claimed by neighbors as the Bergdoll Mansion, named for Grover Cleveland Bergdoll, a famous World War I draft dodger. The actual Bergdoll Mansion still stands 2201 Green Street and is on the Pennsylvania National Register of Historic Places.

But while there is no evidence that Bergdoll ever owned the house at 4500 Spruce, the rumor is characteristic of a time and place when a struggling neighborhood would spin tales of their colorful past as a proud source of entertainment. There was nothing historically significant about the Swain Mansion, but its soul lived on long after its prime creating an infamy far more notorious than anything that actually happened at 45th and Spruce. Even as a ghost, the Other Bergdoll Mansion was inspiration.

The Fire Insurance floor plans for 4500 Spruce Street

The History of 4500 Spruce Street

The real story behind the rubble that now lies below University Mews isn't so exciting, so unless you're a history nerd, the rest of this article may bore you. I find it interesting because Charles Moseley Swain, the man who originally resided at 45th and Spruce, is my great-great-great-grandfather.

One of two brothers, Charles M. Swain grew up in the affluent North Broad Street section of Philadelphia at 1426 N. Broad, now the site of the YMCA. His father, William Moseley Swain, with Arunah S. Abell and Azariah Simmons, founded the Philadelphia Public Ledger and the Baltimore Sun.

Swain moved into his house at 45th and Spruce in 1876. While the architect is unknown, alterations were designed by his colleague Wilson Eyre in 1892. Eyre also designed the City Trust, Safe Deposit, and Surety Company of Philadelphia building, over which Swain presided.

Charles Moseley Swain died in 1904, leaving the house and a fortune without a will. The house was sold to Thomas M. Thompson in 1913 by Swain's son and daughter. Thompson, a colleague of Swain's, served with him as directors of the Edison Electric Light Company.

Swain's son, Charles James Swain, built a group of Tudor revival townhouses uniquely contrasting the Victorian architecture that dominated the block, across the street from his father's home. 4501-4507 Spruce still stand today.

4501-4507 were built by Charles Moseley Swain's son, Charles James Swain, across the street from his father's home.

The Swain Mansion, obviously and unfortunately, did not share the fate of his son's sustainably scaled townhouses. The property was divided and the carriage house was demolished to build the Pinehurst Apartments. The mansion remained in the Thompson family until it was sold to the Hanna Realty Company in 1954 who prepared it for development, selling it to Universal Properties in the spring of 1962. It was demolished that same fall.

A West Philadelphia Elite

Although the wealthiest pioneers of Philadelphia's Industrial Revolution lived west of the Schuylkill River, Philadelphia's culture warriors snubbed the sprawling Victorian estates of West Philadelphia. Center City's elite thought themselves proper Philadelphians and limited themselves to Rittenhouse Square.

The University of Pennsylvania and its fraternal system segregated itself during West Philadelphia's prime. Students prided themselves on having no family living west of the river. These "proper" Philadelphians even claimed their counterparts had accents unique to the West Philadelphia neighborhoods.

Today, Philadelphia's historic caste system remains, in part. Rittenhouse's most dedicated elite even turn their noses to Society Hill, pegging it a rebranded Colonial theme park. But regardless of its stigma and patchy architectural legacy, West Philadelphia's residents ran Philadelphia during its golden age.

Among many other charges, Charles Moseley Swain was a director of the West Philadelphia Passenger Railway Company, a director of the American Academy of Music, and founded the Charles Moseley Swain Lodge at Philadelphia's Masonic fraternity.

Homewood Suites

Hilton Worldwide's Homewood Suites in University is under construction at 4109 Walnut Street. Designed by Alesker and Dundon Architects, the hotel will be open in the spring 2012 with 136 extended stay suits. The project is being developed by Campus Apartments.

The site is being developed with the anticipation of an additional 150,000 office building as a second phase.

It's not the most exciting new construction but it's a pleasant enough looking piece of infill.