This morning, I popped into an abandoned art school a few minutes away from our house in Elkins Park. Stepping through a busted out window, and through a haze of buzzing flies, I was immediately glad that I’d at least packed my asbestos mask and flashlight; there was plenty of dust throughout the dimly lit and boarded up building. In search of an interesting scene, I climbed the dark staircases between the identical dorm room layouts on each of the four floors. I found myself wondering why this school closed down. The rooms were small, even by older standards. A set of twin beds, stand up closets & drawing desks with tilting desk tops, rounded out each room. I’d have loved to go to art school; I wish I did sometimes. A cafeteria & dining hall occupied the first floor. A lounge on the second floor held two pool tables and a foosball table. seemed like a nice set up. At age 43 this morning, I found myself standing in the damp darkness, huffing noisily through a sweaty asbestos mask and missing dorm life. ha!
When I got back to the house I was eager to process these images. Through a quick search of the Tyler Art School I gleaned that it was donated to Temple University in 1934 by the family of financier George Elkins. Temple recently sold the site to an International Evangelical organization, previously busted in an embezzlement scheme… woah!
