Market Street, 40th to 50th (from 1995 to 2015)

I first started working at The Enterprise Center about 20 years ago this month.  One of the organization's focuses was a physical location, and in particular Market Street between 40th and 50th Streets.  Back then, the difference between east and west of 40th was stark; driving west on Market you'd even hit a dip at that very intersection, in case the arrival wasn't memorable enough.  Indeed, it was essentially a formal part of freshman orientation at Penn that you just didn't go west of 40th.

I decided 20 years ago that I was going to take four pictures at each intersection on Market between 40th and 50th (one pic from each corner), and do so every five years to see where things were changing and where they were staying the same.  I have kept to that schedule every fifth September since then, and this past weekend I took my three kids with me; Aaron and Jada dutifully pushed Asher around and carefully crossed streets while I raced around each corner at each intersection.

The whole exercise took well under an hour, plus another few minutes uploading photos onto a Google+ album.  I decided to put my other pics, from 1995, 2000, 2005, and 2010, on Google+ albums as well.  You can peruse them all here (I'm pretty sure you don't need a Google account to see these):

1995

2000

2005

2010

2015

I suppose that I could put photos next to each other, so they are organized by place rather than by year.  Seeing the change over time, after all, is the whole point of this exercise.  But that is beyond my technological ability and time availability.  Still, I hope you will take a quick peek and marvel at what was (if you are new to this neck of the woods) or what is (if it's been awhile since you've been).  And, if you're interested in tagging along next time, look me up in September 2020 and we'll go for a walk!

(Btw, kudos to The Enterprise Center, which has played a big part in a lot of the positive transformation.  That building itself is, in my opinion, the most incredible before-and-after story.)