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    Lee Cultural Center
    Lee Cultural Center

    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. 

    A Storied Athletic Venue in West Philadelphia: From Passon Field to Pollock Field

    An undeveloped tract of land at 48th and Spruce streets became a baseball field that in the early 1930s was home to Black professional and semi-professional baseball teams. In the wartime 1940s, the field was home to hundreds of Victory Gardens. From the 1950s on, it was home to West Philadelphia High School’s football and baseball teams.

    Pollock Field

    In the 1930s, baseball entrepreneur Harry Passon, a Russian-born immigrant, profited by collecting fees from the Black professional and semi-professional baseball teams he scheduled to play on this field, which he rented, upgraded, and branded with his name. In the decades after the Second World War, the field was used by West Philadelphia High School. Located at 48th and Spruce streets, it is now called Pollock Field. The venue provides multiple opportunities for youth athletic participation. In this photo, the Tudor-Gothic towers of the building that was once home to West Philadelphia High School rise in the background along 48th Street. 

    Excited spectators pack the stands of the Arena at a 1966 76ers and Celtics game.
    The Peak Years of the Arena

    The Arena reached its peak in the post-war years with the emergence of professional basketball.

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

    Exterior of the Arena shortly before its auction in 1977.

    Excited spectators pack the stands of the Arena at a 1966 76ers and Celtics game.
    Glory Days of the Old Arena

    Excited spectators pack the stands of the Arena at a 1966 76ers and Celtics game.

    The Arena

    For over six decades the Arena marked the southeast corner of 45th and Market streets as a center for Philadelphia sports, entertainment, and civic events.