What’s on the other side of the window …

Every day when I was at the comic-con I walked the same hallway to either get to or get out of the event.  It wasn’t until the last day that I actually looked out of those big windows and really saw what was there.  There was some amazing old architecture that I had been ignoring and very well would’ve happily explored (if I could) were I not preoccupied with other things.  So this one day I decided to look and shoot through the windows at the windows that were on the other side.

This building really caught my attention because I have never seen a building before with an animal head as part of the facade; big antlers and all!  When I later zoomed in on the photo I was able to see that the animal head has some big bulbs (possibly it lit up at one time) around it and that above the front door it says Philadelphia Lodge BPOE and the number 2.   So I had to go and look it up and this is what I found:

Elk’s Lodge BPOE No. 2, also known as the Philadelphia Athletic Club, was a historic Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks (BPOE) lodge occupying 306 to 320 N. Broad Street in the Callowhill neighborhood of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The lodge, built between 1922 and 1925, was a 13-storey building. The BPOE moved into the new lodge from the 4-storey building, built in 1900, that still stands a few blocks away, at 1320 Arch Street.^[2]

The old lodge became an intake center for the homeless and then became the Salvation Army’s Eliza Shirley Woman’s Shelter, the same function it serves today.  How fascinating; a 100+ year old building still standing – elk head and all.