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1970s

    University Redevelopment Unit 3

    Image shows Market Street between 34th and 40th Streets following demolition for redevelopment projects. The area shown was once the heart of "Black Bottom," a former neighborhood in West Philadelphia.

    Exterior of the Arena shortly before its auction in 1977
    The Final Years of the Arena

    White outmigration, owner turnover, and construction of the Spectrum brought the Arena to its final years of operation.

    MOVE Headquarters Barricade

    MOVE members brandishing guns on the porch of the barricaded Powelton Village house in May 1977. The display was non-violent bravado and Mayor Frank Rizzo's police did not press the issue.

    Police surveillance of MOVE in Powelton Village

    The Powelton Village MOVE house under police surveillance in February 1978.

    MOVE Neighborhood

    MOVE members looking things over at their barricaded Powelton Village house in March 1978.

    MOVE Demonstration

    MOVE demonstrators marched to City Hall in August 1979 to protest the imprisionment of members charged with murdering a police officer during a confrontation in Powelton Village the previous year.

    MOVE

    Though the MOVE organization is notoriously famous by dint of the tragic 1985 MOVE fire, an event that shook the city to its core and ramifies even today, their history in West Philadelphia spans more than forty years, from the mid-1970s to the late-2010s.

    The West Philadelphia Community Free School

    The West Philadelphia Community Free School—an experimental school annex created to alleviate overcrowding at West Philadelphia High School—was ultimately undone by conflicting visions for how it would function.

    Free School House Model

    Model of West Philadelphia Community Free School House at 3833 Walnut Street, showing three floors arranged by curricular activities.

    Exterior of the Arena shortly before its auction in 1977
    Up for Auction

    Exterior of the Arena shortly before its auction in 1977.

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