In the 1980s, faced with mass demolitions and urban blight marring its otherwise magnificent urban streetscape, the city of Philadelphia responded with a sustained campaign of mural-painting. Over the course of the next half-century or so, the city’s artistic community, both mobilized into organizations such as Mural Arts Philadelphia as well as with the help of independent local artists (many of whom were virtuosos that sharpened their skills in the city’s budding graffiti scene) has wrought thousands of pieces of street art, earning the city the moniker of the “Mural Capital of the World.” Such works range from dazzling tour-de-force masterpieces stretching many stories high to humble works of that may be easy to overlook at first glance yet were nevertheless crafted with just as much love and care. Over the years of Philly YIMBY’s coverage of urban development, we have come upon many murals large and small, some seemingly eternal and other faced with the specter of obstruction or demolition. Below we have collected a few mural exemplars as part of our second installment of our ongoing retrospective series.
Note: listed addresses generally refer to development as previously covered by YIMBY, rather than to physical locations of the murals themselves, unless specified otherwise.
Mural Name: A People’s Progression Toward Equality
Mural Location: 724-26 Ludlow Street
Development: 19-27 South 8th Street
Location: Market East, Center City
Original Coverage by YIMBY: December 2021
Status: Existing
19-27 South 8th Street. Credit: Parkway Corporation
One of Philadelphia-s better-known murals sits in the centrally located Market East neighborhood, gracing a large blank wall at 724-26 Ludlow Street. The site sits just two or so blocks to the northwest of landmarks such as the Liberty Bell, Independence Hall, and the President’s House Site at 6th and Market streets (the latter was once home to America’s first President, George Washington and the several enslaved persons that he held at the location).
The stately mural at 724-26 Ludlow Street depicts sculptors crafting a blue-paneled statue of Abraham Lincoln, the country’s 16th President. The Mural Arts Program describes the artwork, officially titled A People’s Progression Toward Equality, as follows:
A People’s Progression Toward Equality by artist Jared Bader is located in the City Center neighborhood of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. This mural is intended to explore the notion of Abraham Lincoln as a figurehead for ending slavery and starting equal rights. Within this theme is the idea that although Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation and later, with Congress, passed the 13th Amendment abolishing all slavery, it was the effort of countless abolitionists and civil rights advocates who created the atmosphere where abolition could be considered and enacted. The composition of the mural is divided into three parts as designated by the scaffolding that supports the giant statue. The workers help to construct the “Colossal Lincoln” but also act out an allegory of the people’s struggle to end slavery and form equal rights. Lightness and darkness, through chiaroscuro effects, also help in illuminating the idea of people struggling for higher, more enlightened ideals the closer they are to the top of the mural. The use of color is important with the surrounding background and scaffolding planks being relatively muted. To contrast this, the light that floods into the scene will brighten and saturate up the images. The figures are painted with more saturated blues and reds that push forward from the background.
The abolitionist message of the mural is ever more relevant today. Earlier this month, a memorial commemorating enslaved persons once held at the President’s House was scandalously removed by a decree from the administration of the nation’s current 47th President (by now you may be noticing a certain presidential theme emerging in this writing).
It is also curious to note that Lincoln’s status is being assembled from what appear to be metal sheets mounted on a steel carcass, in a construction method somewhat reminiscent of that of the Statue of Liberty. Though Lady Liberty’s coloring was originally bronze copper, while those for the Lincoln statue appear to have pre-weathered green patina upon them, the artistic license of this technical departure makes for an acceptable nod to the overarching message of liberty within the composition.
19-27 South 8th Street. Credit: Parkway Corporation
Honest Abe’s verdigris visage has its gaze turned upon a sizable, 14,495-square-foot parking lot next door at 19-27 South 8th Street, bound by 8th Street to the west, Ranstead Street to the south, and the alley-like Ludlow Street to the north. The lot, which measures around 138 feet long east-west and 106 feet wide north-south and currently accommodates 69 or so parking spaces, is poised as a redevelopment opportunity by the Parkway Corporation, a parking operator that specializes in developing its asphalt-covered properties, whether by itself or with a partner, whenever a feasible opportunity arises.
According to Parkway, the lot may support a 174,204-square-foot building if constructed with a floor-area-ratio of 1:12, or one spanning up to 289,900 square feet if developed at an FAR of 20:1. Generally speaking, such proportions may easily yield a building rising 30 or so stories, if not significantly taller.
Five years after YIMBY first reported on the development site, the property remains undeveloped, which is unfortunate for the city’s urban fabric and tax base yet is good news for those looking to appreciate the mural or the Postmodernist crimson and cerulean bollards and entry gate, with the latter reminiscent of the mural’s turquoise color scheme.
Incidentally, the parking lot also allows for direct visibility of two large murals immediately to the north, painted upon the large blank wall of the eight-story, Beaux-Ars styled prewar commercial building at 726-28 Market Street. The murals face west upon Market Street and advertise budget retailer Five Below as well as Citizens Bank, with the latter offering a branch within the building itself. Despite their overtly corporate nature, the side-by-side murals are colorful, skillfully painted, grounded in both the city’s artistic tradition and historic legacy, and are overall surprisingly delightful to look upon, at least as far as large commercial ads go.
Commercial murals for Five Below and Citizens Bank at 726-28 Market Street. Looking northeast. October 2024. Credit: Google Street View via Google Maps
Mural Location: 1227 South 4th Street
Development: 1227 South 4th Street
Location: Dickinson Narrows, South Philadelphia
Original Coverage by YIMBY: January 2021
Status: Obscured from view
1227 South 4th Street. Looking southeast. Credit: Google
On the other end of the art spectrum from the professionally crafted Lincoln mural gracing the parking lot-facing Center City wall at 724-26 Ludlow Street, a much more humble, yet no less lovely in its own way, artwork was painted on a formerly exposed wall of a three-story prewar rowhouse at 1229 South 4th Street, one-and-a-quarter miles to the south in the predominantly residential Dickinson Narrows neighborhood in South Philly.
Measuring around 45 feet long and ten or so feet high, the folksy mural depicted sports and patriotic themes, as illustrated by the five iconic Olympic rings and a Revolutionary-era American flag. A tophat-and-bowtie-sporting, star-spangled bald-headed eagle cheered on the passersby. The good-natured feathery fellow was styled in a decidedly plainer yet more mirthful manner than its imposing counterpart that once graced the side of the building at 1350 North Front Street in Fishtown (covered in the previous installment in YIMBY’s murals series). A gold medal, emblazoned with the word “Neighborhood,” was anchored upon a white band with red-and-blue trim. The band cheerfully proclaimed “South Philly” and “We have the gold!!” Five-pointed stars and flower motifs rounded off the composition.
1227 South 4th Street, with the mural painted at 1229 South 4th Street. Looking south. Credit: Google
By 2022, the mural had been obstructed from view by a newly-constructed three-story single-family rowhouse at 1227 South 4th Street. While the residence makes for much better use of a formerly vacant lot and effectively reinforces the street corner, we cannot help but miss the original artwork. The rather plain mural may have won no awards for its artistic style, but it won all the medals in our hearts. South Philly, we may no longer have the Olympic mural, but we still have the gold.
1227 South 4th Street. Photo by Jamie Meller. October 2022
Development: 203-09 Diamond Street
Location: Norris Square, North Philadelphia
Original Coverage by YIMBY: December 2020
Status: Existing (slightly altered)
203 Diamond Street. Looking east. Credit: Google
Next on our rundown is another low-key yet wholesome mural, this one emblazoned on a side wall of a humble car service center at 203-09 Diamond Street in Norris Square. According to Yelp, Vision Auto Center, the business at the site (also addressed at 2100 North Second Street) specializes in windshield installation and repair, oil change, and car window tinting.
Meanwhile, an industrious international bunch painted on the Diamond Street-facing side of the property apparently specializes in “working together to make a difference,” as the mural optimistically proclaims. Seven people dressed in various national outfits are seen busy at work painting and repairing a globe that is literally cracking at the seams. Until obscured by graffiti and subsequently by repainting, a note at the lower right corner described the mural as “A Youth Work Project” and further captioned “Darling 96” in empathic cursive font.
203 Diamond Street. Looking northeast. Credit: Google
203-09 Diamond Street. Credit: KCA Design Associates LLC
In 2021, YIMBY reported that the business and its hard-working occupants, both literal inside the structure and metaphorical ones painted onto its walls, were slated to make way for a four-story, 11,520-square-foot, eight-unit residential building. Situated within reasonable walking distance of the Market-Frankford subway line to the east and within biking distance of Temple University to the west, the density would have been more than appropriate for the site at hand.
Unfortunately, the project has not panned out as of the time of this writing. On the other hand, the positive message of international collaboration, much-needed in our turbulent times, still continues to delight the neighbors as it has for years, albeit with faded colors on the national costumes and a highly detailed artistic intrusion in the form of a crouching yellow-outfitted figure painted onto an otherwise featureless left-hand side.
Mural at 203-09 Diamond Street (or 2100 North Second Street). Looking north. May 2023. Credit: Google Street View via Google Maps
Development: Station Square
Location: Germantown, Northwest Philadelphia
Original Coverage by YIMBY: March 2021
Status: Demolished (original), Not painted (proposed)
After taking in the stately sight of A People’s Progression Toward Equality, the Lincoln-themed mural at 19 South 8th Street covered in the beginning of this article, an art aficionado may head several blocks northwest to the Jefferson Station of SEPTA Regional Rail, hop on a Fox Chase Line train, and in half an hour or so end up at the Chelten Avenue station in the Germantown neighborhood in Northwest Philly.
Upon emerging onto the street from the below-grade, open-cut station, the rider would come upon the appropriately named Station Square, a recently completed five-story, 49-unit mixed-use development decked out in balconies, courtyard parking, and… a very familiar-looking mural on the station-facing blank wall, where sculptor crews are seen assembling a turquoise sculpture identical to the one in Center City nearly six miles to the southeast, which the rider had observed so very recently.
Station Square at 308-16 West Chelten Avenue. Credit: Tester Construction Group
19-27 South 8th Street. Credit: Parkway Corporation
Or so would project renderings lead one to believe. Evidently, during the construction and marketing phase, the design team opted to use A People’s Progression Toward Equality as a placeholder for a mural that would face the train station. While the placeholder selection is understandable, given the iconic and artistic quality of the original, what is truly disappointing is the lack of any mural at the location (a pinned-on leasing banner for the building does not count). Also unfortunate is the substitution of plain gray horizontal siding for originally-depicted red brick on the side walls; more troublingly, Google imagery taken in April 2025 shows that the siding already appears to shed on the opposite, northeastern lot wall.
In a further aesthetic blow to the commercial corridor, the unadorned new structure replaces a two-story building that had a large mural painted on its side, which depicted a quaint, leafy Germantown cityscape, fluttering birds and butterflies, and a very meta mural depiction of painters painting a Germantown mural.
Station Square at 308 West Chelten Avenue. Looking east. April 2025. Credit: Google Street View via Google Maps
Station Square at 308 West Chelten Avenue. Looking south. April 2025. Credit: Google Street View via Google Maps
Station Square at 308-16 West Chelten Avenue. Site conditions prior to redevelopment. Credit: Google Maps
In all, with its street-facing red brick and slanted mansard-style top level (reminiscent of the city’s classic Second Empire edifices such as City Hall), Station Square makes for a reasonably attractive building, as well as for a much-welcome, high-density addition to the transit-adjacent lot. We do, however, implore the owner to embrace the Philadelphia vernacular further still by adorning its rail station-facing wall with a mural, as promised in promotional imagery. Even a reproduction of the Lincoln artwork, as glimpsed in the renders, would suffice. Better yet, we would like to see a recreation of the murals that were lost to new construction, as is occasionally done with new development elsewhere.
Mural at 308 West Chelten Avenue prior to building demolition. Looking east. September 2015. Credit: Google Street View via Google Maps
Further installments in Philadelphia YIMBY’s murals series are on the way. You may read the preceding article in the series here.
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