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This 2019 photograph shows the building that once housed WFIL-TV and Studio B at 4548 Market St., where Dick Clark’s American Bandstand was broadcast live every weekday afternoon from 1957 to 1964. Today the building is the home of West Philadelphia’s Enterprise Center, which maintains American Bandstand memorabilia in the space once used as Studio B, today used as a room for Enterprise Center events.
This historical marker recalls Dick Clark’s American Bandstand, which was broadcast from West Philadelphia from 1957 to 1964. The marker stands opposite 4548 Market Street (not shown here), which once housed WFIL-TVand its Studio B, the original home of American Bandstand.
Vidas Athletic Complex, formerly Drexel Field, home to Drexel University’s outdoor varsity sports teams, provides a splendid greenspace venue on the eastern flank of West Park Apartments in West Powelton.
The headquarters building at the Lee Cultural Center is a rehabilitated red-brick country mansion built around 1806 by the Italian-immigrant land broker Paul Busti. In the early 19th century, Busti’s 112-acre rural estate, formerly Mill Creek Farm, was known as “Blockley Retreat.”
Located on the north slope of the West Park ridge at 4328 Haverford Avenue, the Lee Cultural Center offers an array of recreational, athletic, and cultural arts activities for young people, including a Parks & Recreation swimming pool and summer swimming program.
The view is east toward the elevator towers of West Park Apartments in West Powelton. These refurbished “towers in the park” constitute the only remaining high-rise public housing project in West Philadelphia.
West Park Apartments rises above the 46th St. Station of the Market Street Elevated. Looking toward the South Tower.
Contemporary photo of Martha Washington Elementary School. For all the public housing innovations and sprucing up in the Mill Creek neighborhood east of 48th Street, this landmark school serving low-income African American children remains under-resourced and under-performing.
This Google map looking north shows the proximity of the Martha Washington Elementary School playground to the site of the “Lex Street Massacre” above Aspen St. The city and school district tolerated the presence of a crack house within yards of a public school—a situation that was only rectified after a mass shooting took place in the house.