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PHILCO PHORUM

CHAPTER 8.
...AND THE WALLS CAME TUMBLING DOWN

	The photo at left, taken around 1960, shows Philco Headquarters (also known as Plant 2) facing Tioga Street. You can tell that this building was added on to and enlarged several times over the years. One can imagine Jim Skinner saying, “Why build a new plant when this building is perfectly sound?”
This photograph, taken in early 1998, shows Plant 2 at the corner of C and Tioga Streets. Photo courtesy Domi Sanchez
	Unfortunately, as can be seen here in this back view of Plant 2 from Ontario Street, it was in the process of being razed. Photo courtesy Domi Sanchez
By 2000, Plant 2 was gone, and the lot had become a junkyard. Philco’s television factory, built in 1952, is clearly seen in the background on the north side of Tioga.
	Two years later, the lot is mostly clear but remains fenced in. What a sad end to what was once America’s number one radio manufacturer.
In early 1998, Philco’s radio-phonograph factory, which had been built in 1945 on the southwest corner of Ontario and C Streets, was still standing... Photo courtesy Domi Sanchez
	...but it, too, was torn down. This is all that remains at the site as of 2002. It is doubtful that this area will ever again see the manufacturing activity that once went on here, although there are still signs of activity inside the old Baxter, Kelly & Faust mill on the opposite corner of C and Tioga Streets.
Ron Ramirez stands on the remaining tile of what had been the first floor of Philco’s 1945 radio-phonograph factory. The building in the background may have been Philco’s chassis factory on Allegheny Avenue, as it appears to match the style of the old Plant 2 building. Photo by Kandi Ramirez

Map of former Philco complex in Philadelphia’s Kensington District
NOTE: Map is not exactly to scale.

LEGEND:
ORANGE indicates a building still standing as of 2002.
GREEN indicates a building that has been demolished.

0 – Original 1909 Ontario & C Street site, newer building on this site now occupied by Victory Outreach Church
1 – Plant #1, produced storage batteries until just before WWII, now empty
2 – Philco Headquarters or Plant #2, razed 1998
3 – Plant #3, rebuilt 1945 as a radio-phonograph factory, razed 1998-99
4 – Possible site of Plant #4, now home of McVeigh Recreation Center
5 – Boiler room for Plant #2, demolished
6 – General area of Plant #6, where metal work (chassis) was done
7 – Baxter, Kelly & Faust mill, never connected with the Philco complex
8 – Unknown extant building
9 – Site of Philco parking lot and service facility for cars of upper management
10 – Plant #10, the TV factory built in 1952

Thanks to Mel Cox, Frank Krider and Ray MacWilliams for their assistance in identifying these plant sites and buildings.

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