We’d imagine that at least a few of you are preparing to run in this weekend’s Broad Street Run. A Philly tradition, this race gives participants the opportunity to experience almost all of Broad Street, from Somerville Ave. all the way down to the Navy Yard. For some, however, the Broad Street Run will merely be a warmup for a slightly longer race coming up next month- the ODDyssey Half Marathon.

From last year

While the Broad Street Run had become an institution for serious runners in Philadelphia in its thirty-plus years of existence, the ODDyssey Half Marathon is a sillier take on things, with (optional) costumes, a post-race party with beer from Sly Fox, and secret (and again optional) challenges along the way. The course, by the way, runs through Fairmount Park, starting at Memorial…

Forty years ago, the Philadelphia Water Department discontinued use of a reservoir next to the Strawberry Mansion neighborhood. The 37-acre man-made lake located around 33rd and Oxford Streets, is now a nesting place for migratory birds traveling along the eastern seaboard.

Large lake

The National Audubon Society and Outward Bound (OB) have introduced plans to transform the lake and about 13-acres of land that surround its perimeter into the East Park Leadership and Conservation Center, a state of the art educational center. Members of the group met with the Parks and Recreation department this month to discuss pre-lease approvals, according to Katie Newsom Pastuszek, OB’s executive director. The group is on target to present their plans to City Council this spring. A best-case scenario would mean a new $20M LEED certified center by the end of 2015.

Entrance

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To art or not to art? Such is the question Septa officials often face. Is it worth it to allocate resources for murals and more at its stations despite its precarious budget situation?

Yes, is the answer, or so say the folk at Septa, and we agree. For example, this call for artists from last month to submit qualifications to participate in the creation of a permanent sculpture to be installed at its 33rd and Dauphin Loop, across the street from Fairmount Park, which now emanates the color of old mustard.

The intersection

SEPTA’s Art in Transit program is designed to incorporate art elements into renovation and construction projects for selected stations and facilities with the goal of creating more dynamic and vibrant public spaces. The program allocates up to one percent of Septa’s construction budget. In June, Septa issued a…

It’s hard to believe, but from 1908-1911, Fairmount Park hosted the Quaker City Motor Club 200-Mile Race, a short-lived race car event. In this contest, primitive automobiles repeatedly raced around an 8 mile loop of public roads for two-hundred miles, with the distinguished winner receiving the Founders’ Week Cup.

In 1908, there was a massive struggle between the new-money industrialist Philadelphians and the old-money Philadelphians who inherited their fortunes. The old-money citizens were not terribly interested in change or growth in Philadelphia. Many of them believed that the city limits were the area between Washington/Rittenhouse Squares and between Market and Pine Sts., and that the then-7-year-old City Hall should be demolished because it was too garish. They thought that the city shouldn’t try to attract too many visitors and that the city’s green spaces were sacred.

The new-money citizens were obsessed with growth and industry. They wanted Philadelphia…

A nice building

In 2008, the Please Touch Museum moved to beautiful new digs at Memorial Hall in Fairmount Park after delighting children at their location at the corner of 21st and Race Sts. for twenty-five years. Since that time, the building has sat vacant, waiting for a new owner to take advantage of its fantastic location. In actuality, the Please Touch Museum not only operated out of the handsome former warehouse building in the picture above, but it also owns the sort of gross looking building on the corner and the row home to the north.

Large, but not so nice

Kind of a standard two story row

The buildings are for sale as a package  for $4.5M and are listed by Binswanger. The building on the corner…

Often times what makes a place special is its people, because even a trip to the Super Bowl would be disappointing if the surrounding crowd was miserable. When you factor in the community, there is no better public park than Sedgley Woods in East Fairmount Park. This community, known as Friends of Sedgley Woods, gives me hope in humanity. There, on the edge of a historically impoverished community, you’ll find an island of like-minded individuals who have pulled together to preserve something they value. Since the group’s inception in 1990, the community has changed a drug and prostitute-laden area into an oasis, which is less than three miles outside of Center City. Friends of Sedgley Woods even has a written constitution with a non-profit, self-maintaining philosophy and often reaches out to the community, most recently plating trees in collaboration with the Horticultural Society.

On…