Vanishing Philadelphia: Ruins of the Quaker City

The ruins of Philadelphia’s grandest structures show the city’s dramatic evolution. Smoke no longer spews from the Philadelphia Electric Company’s hulking riverside power plants. Nature long ago reclaimed the rusted steel bones of the Frankford Arsenal. Graffiti artists tag the Beury Building, while Philadelphia’s Gilded Age elite rest beneath the weeds of the forgotten Mount Moriah Cemetery. Such sites mark three centuries of progress and destruction in William Penn’s Holy Experiment. Through deep research and his stunning photography, J.P. Webster documents the slow decay caused by neglect and the passage of time in Philadelphia’s factories, military sites, schools, cemeteries and more. Discover a bygone American era through Philadelphia’s vanishing cityscape.