Mystery Broad Street Line entrance - North side of City Hal

I was walking around City Hall the other day and noticed, on the North side of the building, hiding behind a statue of Mathias Baldwin, is a locked Broad Street Subway entrance. Looking at a SEPTA map of the area it looks like this entrance would lead into the North end of the City Hall Broad Street Station. At the North end of that station, if you look up, you can see a sealed area above and the wall tiles indicate a stairway used to lead up to that area. None of this is terribly unusual, just a closed entrance.

What is unusual is that the locked subway entrance, that should lead to nowhere, is lit up and monitored by a camera (both the camera and a sign pointing it out are easily visible). Stenciled on the inside of the metal fence surrounding the subway entrance are the words "MCHALE SHOP DELIVERY - AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY"

Anyone know what this is?

Probably led to the old (now closed) north concourse which followed Broad up to the Inquirer Building.

Thats what I thought, but the maps I've found don't show that and the map appears to be post-north-broad-concourse closure.



The entrance is the first orange dot from the left on the upper left corner of City Hall. It appears to go nowhere. But if it goes nowhere, why is it lit, with a security camera and what is the McHale Shop?

I believe its being used for storage.

Mc Hale shop is a somewhat large underground facility where certain equipment is repaired. The old green entrance on the North side of city hall is one of its entrances. Mc Hale shop was an old mezzanine but has not been in use in many years, prior to Mayor Dilworth's tenure.

There is another abandoned Mezzanine to the south as well.

Clearfield wrote:the old (now closed) north concourse which followed Broad up to the Inquirer Building.

I never knew about this before! When did it close, and why? Is it something that could be cleaned up and put back into service? (Of course, parts of the still-open-to-the-public concourse should be cleaned up, too.)

lefty wrote:Mc Hale shop is a somewhat large underground facility where certain equipment is repaired. The old green entrance on the North side of city hall is one of its entrances. Mc Hale shop was an old mezzanine but has not been in use in many years, prior to Mayor Dilworth's tenure.

There is another abandoned Mezzanine to the south as well.

I guess the other entrances are underground?

rslitman wrote:

Clearfield wrote:the old (now closed) north concourse which followed Broad up to the Inquirer Building.

I never knew about this before! When did it close, and why? Is it something that could be cleaned up and put back into service? (Of course, parts of the still-open-to-the-public concourse should be cleaned up, too.)

It's been cut in half by the Vine Street Expressway. Even if it could be reopened as-is it doesn't really go anywhere anymore.

The platforms used to have six sets of stairs each, which were numbered south to north. 2 and 5 were no longer in use by the time I came here and started riding regularly--anyone know where they went?

1--South Penn Square
2--??
3--Market-Frankford EB
4--Market-Frankford WB
5--??
6--Subway-Surface

At the BSL City Hall station, when walking up the stairs to the MFL, you should be able to figure out where there used to be access points for stairwells and walkways.

Matthew Mitchell wrote:The platforms used to have six sets of stairs each, which were numbered south to north. 2 and 5 were no longer in use by the time I came here and started riding regularly--anyone know where they went?

1--South Penn Square
2--??
3--Market-Frankford EB
4--Market-Frankford WB
5--??
6--Subway-Surface

Stairway 5 appears to be the one this thread is about. The maps tend to bear that out. As for stairway 2... now that's an interesting question. Perhaps to the original Subway-Surface tracks before they were moved?

By the way, this seems obvious, but would I be correct in assuming that stairway six from the BSL City Hall station used to lead down to the North Broad Concourse rather than up to the Subway-Surface station as it does today?

Also I found a picture I had taken of the closed mezzanine where stairway 5 used to lead.

there used to be an entrance into the marriott (the old bank) on the east side of broad at city hall? interestnig, that would be a useful restoration. as it is, I use the stairwell on the east side but I still have to cross the circle to go east. it would also be useful if the msb entrance was made open to the public.

The old starway 6 still exists from where it used to go up to the north Broad Concourse. If you look carefully to the left as you enter the station southbound on a local train you can still see the original stairs just before the stairs to the "new" trolley station.

Sean

I'm posting this again because it may have gotten lost among other variations of this topic. I'd appreciate it if someone could try to answer it for me or at least to acknowledge having seen it but didn't know the answer. Thanks.

rslitman wrote:

Clearfield wrote:the old (now closed) north concourse which followed Broad up to the Inquirer Building.

I never knew about this before! When did it close, and why? Is it something that could be cleaned up and put back into service? (Of course, parts of the still-open-to-the-public concourse should be cleaned up, too.)