48.6

In 1979 I moved to Philadelphia and this was my first apartment. I lived on the second floor and the apartment went from the front to the back and had a lovely fireplace. I made many good friends with some of whom I'm still in touch with today.
This building always looked so different than most of the others in the neighborhood so we got together and researched the building. It turns out that at one time this area was considered the more "gentrified" area of the city and the whole building which is pretty big was bought by John Wanamaker for his daughter for a wedding gift. The very top floor with the teeny windows was where the servants quarters were and the kitchens were in the basement. the middle of the building which you canot see were the sitting rooms on each floor and the end I lived on and the opposite end were the bedrooms. The middle of the building was renovated and made into studio apartments but the two ends had a lot of the original wood paneling on the hallway walls and the banisters. Each end unit had a fireplace and were quite spacious. I lucked out because the second floor had that little bit of extra space from the part that jutted out.

I have many fond memories from this building and it's inhabitants. We were mostly people in school for different things and had not much money and we would get together in the evenings and have pot luck dinners out back on the fire escapes. Sounds strange but it was fun.