Second and Chestnut

200 block of Chestnut, the interesting side.

As regular readers probably know, I get to Tuesdays with Toomey as often as I can. Which is pretty often. Our venue, at Second and Chestnut, is on the southern border of Philadelphia's Old City, and I've fallen in love with it.

You may also know that I'm fond of color in buildings, and as the picture above shows, there's quite a bit of color in the architecture of Old City.

Here's a picture of what our meetings are like.

Tuesdays with Toomey, June 5, 2018.

We've been meeting here since Toomey moved his office to the well-fortified Custom House in early 2017. Before that, he was up on JFK near the Comcast building, and those Comcast folks would come pouring out at lunchtime and join the rally. I once estimated our crowd at 700. Today, it's more like thirty, sometimes fifty. When John Fetterman showed up, we were over 100.

So the crowd is smaller, but guess what? The snowflakes didn't melt in the spring of 2017. We have persisted.

I'm not terribly fond of Pennsylvania's junior senator, but I am grateful to him for bringing me to this neighborhood. And, as a bonus, I'm quite certain that I will never, ever see him here.

I've had the opportunity, before and after our rallies, to wander around the neighborhood. In the 200 block of Chestnut there are two little streets, Strawberry and Bank, that run north to Market. And, if you're in the mood, you can do some time travel. But this is also a very modern, hip locale that is using its old bones well. Here's a view down Strawberry to the Custom House, where Toomey's office is.

And here's a shot north on Strawberry, showing the spire of Christ Church on the other side of Market.

Here's the view north on Bank.

Strawberry Court, Bank Street facade.

Okay, let's walk up Elbow Lane to Bodine Street and have a look at the beer garden there.

A different take on parking.

Strawberry Street and Trotters Alley. A parking lot and Second Street are reflected in the windows.

In the days before electricity, vault lights were used to let the sun shine in to basements, which typically extended under the sidewalk. Here's a vault light on Chestnut Street.

The shot below is for my friend Justin Coffin, who has been photographing real Arctic Splashes for years. The rendering here is part of a large and pleasantly incoherent mural on a wall that helps to define an utterly unremarkable parking lot.

Strawberry and Trotters Alley.

Sticking with the monochromatic approach, here's something I stumbled across in a little alley next to the Ritz garage. Aside from the poorly maintained Belgian block pavement, this was literally the only point of visual interest on the entire block. Calling Isaiah Zagar.

Ionic Street.

Back to color: How about some orange?  Here's the sidewall of the European Republic restaurant on Strawberry. Decent food.

Strawberry at Chestnut.

See also Senator Skedaddle, Senator Toomey Called My Son A Burnt-Down House, My New Favorite Alley.