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The controversial suburban-like ambience of Lucien E. Blackwell Homes.

Looking west from N. Markoe St., the western boundary of Lucien E. Blackwell Homes. Shown here in their proximity to Parkway West High School (formerly Sulzberger Middle/Junior High School) are Lucien E. Blackwell Park and Lucien E. Black Community Center. The park is bounded east to west by N. Markoe and N. 47th Street. It lies on the buried floodplain of the Mill Creek sewer. Running along the base of the high school embankment, N. 47th Street charts the path of the buried sewer. 

N. Markoe St., opposite Lucien E. Blackwell Park and Parkway West High School (formerly Sulzberger Middle/Junior High School), marks the western boundary of Lucien E. Blackwell Homes

Lucien E. Blackwell Homes. N. 45th St. between Fairmount Ave. & Aspen St. spans a landscape that once housed the three apartment towers of Mill Creek Homes.

Carl Greene was executive director of the Philadelphia Housing Authority from 1998 to 2010. Greene championed the “New Urbanism” design concept that inspired new low-rise, low-density projects like Lucien E. Blackwell Homes. His tenure as the city’s housing czar was clouded by accusations of unethical and unprofessional behavior, for which he was fired in 2010.

The name Lucien E. Blackwell Homes memorializes the West Philadelphia politician Lucien E. Blackwell (1931–2003). This photo shows Blackwell when he was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives.

On the night of 28 December 2000, seven people died and three were wounded in an abandoned rowhouse on Lex Street in the immediate neighborhood of Mill Creek Homes. News media called it the worst mass murder in Philadelphia’s history. The ill-fated crack house, 816 Lex St., stood about a hundred yards from the Aspen St. entrance to the Martha Washington Elementary School playground. 

Lucien E. Blackwell Homes replacement housing on Aspen St., with Parkway West High School (formerly Sulzberger Jr. High/Middle School) in background. Two-storey twins of the kind shown here with redbrick facades, Doric columns, cultivated lawns, and wrought iron or picket fences, contribute to the suburbia-like ambience of the new housing development.  

Looking east from the 56th St. station of the Market Street Elevated. Market St. is the boundary between the Haddington and Cobbs Creek neighborhoods. The station is nearly four miles from Center City’s towers, visible in the background.

Haddington row houses on 53rd St. between Vine and Race.