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Civic Center

    After 1929, a large portion of the multi-building Commercial Museum complex was razed and an auditorium was built in its place. This auditorium, later named the Civic Center, served as the city’s major convention and events center until the Spectrum arena was built in South Philadelphia in 1967. The Commercial Museum was closed in 1982. Shortly after the Pennsylvania Convention Center was built near the Reading Terminal Market in Center City in 1993, the Civic Center fell into disuse and was demolished in 2005.

    1954
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    Athenaeum of Philadelphia; authors' use of this image under the partnership agreement between the Penn Libraries and the Athenaeum of Philadelphia, Almanac , 19 February 2019; image  via Edward W. Duffy “Making & Breaking Of the Philadelphia Convention Center,” via Edward W. Duffy, “The Making & Breaking of the Philadelphia Commercial Museum,” https://hiddencityphila.org/2018/11/the-making-breaking-of-the-philadelp...