Good morning all,
It was a long-standing dream of mine to be able to bump the old discussion thread from 2012 on the North Broad/South Penn concourses with new information, but unfortunately it has since been lost to time.
I am now much older, and an employee of a certain Authority that very graciously granted me access to these two concourses yesterday evening. It was a lifelong dream finally realized.
I am uploading some photos right now to Flickr, would be more than happy to share. In the meantime, I'd like to address some of the questions that people have had in the past, and any you may have in the present.
For those unaware, the North Broad Concourse refers to a disused pedestrian connection between the Municipal Services Building and Race-Vine Station. It was closed due to safety concerns, partially used as a fallout shelter, and was partially used as a police barrack until 2004. The South Penn Concourse refers to the old disused pedestrian connection between the former routing of the Subway-Surface lines at 15th and Walnut-Locust. It was closed when the trolleys were rerouted to their current path due to the El requiring underpinning running right through the concourse.
1) What condition are the two concourses in?
The North Broad Concourse has fared far better than the South Penn Concourse. They put Bakelite (or something similar) on the ceiling to waterproof it, which has held up quite well. The sections that don't have this have fared about as well as you could have hoped. The North Broad Concourse has also been cleaned a little, with SEPTA disposing of most of (but not all of) the stuff left behind by the PPA. The South Penn Concourse is easier to access but lesser known, so there had clearly been more... intrusion than the North Broad section. The girder underpinning City Hall is still intact (thank God!) and has held up well.
2) Can the Arch Street Subway be accessed via the North Broad Concourse?
No. This was a question I had always wondered myself and now finally have the answer to. I found no evidence of any such connection. All doors running east of Broad led to rooms with no other exits. I assume this confusion stems from the fact that part of this concourse was built to provision for a future loop of the Broad Street Line under the Merritt Taylor plan.
3) Is 15th Street Station still there?
Barely. The turnstiles are long gone, and very little evidence remains that there was ever a station. Most of what exists is just the trolley ROW.
4) Is the North Broad Concourse still a fallout shelter?
Yes. The 10-gallon drums are still present, full of various survival items from the 1950s/60s. Plenty of laxatives.
5) Can I get in?
No. SEPTA has barricaded both concourses to prevent vagrant activity. Please do not attempt to get in, you will quickly be caught.
One question of my own that I pose to the group now is the following: off of one of the fallout shelter rooms, on the west side of Broad, there was a secondary room with a large hole above Track 1 of the Broad Street Line. Above it, the ceiling pattern (I believe I've heard the term "scalloping" to describe this PTC hallmark) abruptly stops. Was this at one point access from the street to lower equipment into the tunnels? It is very close to some very minor provisions for the aforementioned loop, but I don't think the two are related (more likely, the PTC realized they had some extra space, so they dropped a crane in and used it for that instead).
It was a long-standing dream of mine to be able to bump the old discussion thread from 2012 on the North Broad/South Penn concourses with new information, but unfortunately it has since been lost to time.
I am now much older, and an employee of a certain Authority that very graciously granted me access to these two concourses yesterday evening. It was a lifelong dream finally realized.
I am uploading some photos right now to Flickr, would be more than happy to share. In the meantime, I'd like to address some of the questions that people have had in the past, and any you may have in the present.
For those unaware, the North Broad Concourse refers to a disused pedestrian connection between the Municipal Services Building and Race-Vine Station. It was closed due to safety concerns, partially used as a fallout shelter, and was partially used as a police barrack until 2004. The South Penn Concourse refers to the old disused pedestrian connection between the former routing of the Subway-Surface lines at 15th and Walnut-Locust. It was closed when the trolleys were rerouted to their current path due to the El requiring underpinning running right through the concourse.
1) What condition are the two concourses in?
The North Broad Concourse has fared far better than the South Penn Concourse. They put Bakelite (or something similar) on the ceiling to waterproof it, which has held up quite well. The sections that don't have this have fared about as well as you could have hoped. The North Broad Concourse has also been cleaned a little, with SEPTA disposing of most of (but not all of) the stuff left behind by the PPA. The South Penn Concourse is easier to access but lesser known, so there had clearly been more... intrusion than the North Broad section. The girder underpinning City Hall is still intact (thank God!) and has held up well.
2) Can the Arch Street Subway be accessed via the North Broad Concourse?
No. This was a question I had always wondered myself and now finally have the answer to. I found no evidence of any such connection. All doors running east of Broad led to rooms with no other exits. I assume this confusion stems from the fact that part of this concourse was built to provision for a future loop of the Broad Street Line under the Merritt Taylor plan.
3) Is 15th Street Station still there?
Barely. The turnstiles are long gone, and very little evidence remains that there was ever a station. Most of what exists is just the trolley ROW.
4) Is the North Broad Concourse still a fallout shelter?
Yes. The 10-gallon drums are still present, full of various survival items from the 1950s/60s. Plenty of laxatives.
5) Can I get in?
No. SEPTA has barricaded both concourses to prevent vagrant activity. Please do not attempt to get in, you will quickly be caught.
One question of my own that I pose to the group now is the following: off of one of the fallout shelter rooms, on the west side of Broad, there was a secondary room with a large hole above Track 1 of the Broad Street Line. Above it, the ceiling pattern (I believe I've heard the term "scalloping" to describe this PTC hallmark) abruptly stops. Was this at one point access from the street to lower equipment into the tunnels? It is very close to some very minor provisions for the aforementioned loop, but I don't think the two are related (more likely, the PTC realized they had some extra space, so they dropped a crane in and used it for that instead).
