Lincoln Square features the adaptive reuse of the historic train shed on-site, a stop along the funeral tour that followed Abraham Lincoln’s assassination in 1865.
Developers of Lincoln Square, a new retail space located on the northwest corner of Broad Street and Washington Avenue in South Philly, last week attended a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the finalized project along with State Sen. Larry Farnese, City Councilmen Mark Squilla and Kenyatta Johnson, State Rep. Jordan Harris and Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney.
“People always talk about responsible development,” said Farnese. “What is responsible development? What you see here is exactly that. This is responsible development. Working together with the community, making sure everybody has input.”
Lincoln Square features the adaptive reuse of the historic train shed on-site, a stop along the funeral tour that followed Abraham Lincoln’s assassination in 1865. The train shed will be turned into Sprout’s Supermarket, which will open Sept. 19.
“There is a food desert in this area and having a place where folks can come and do shopping and get fresh fruits and vegetables is extremely important,” Harris said at the ceremony. Harris also touted the project’s parking situation, which features a 400-car capacity parking garage on nearby 15th Street between Washington and Carpenter, according to spokesperson Devan West.
The retail space will also include a Sprint store, PetSmart, Target and Starbucks, which are all slated to open at some point in the next two months.
Kenney sees Lincoln Square as a continuation of the development Broad Street has seen over the past several years, on both the north side and the south side, including projects like the reopening of the Divine Lorraine and the opening this December of the Metropolitan Opera House in Philadelphia. Kenney also touted the ease of access to the location, which is just steps away from the Ellsworth-Federal station on the Broad Street Line subway.
“This is a place where President Lincoln’s body came through after the assassination,” Kenney said, “but it’s also important because so many tens of thousands of Union soldiers left Philadelphia for parts around the country to fight the Civil War. I believe my great-great grandfather fought at Gettysburg, left from this location and it’s just wonderful that we could keep the architectural integrity that particular part of the parcel.”
The location is especially better than its previous use, Kenney said.
“Most of this space was used before as a snow dump,” he said. “This is much better.”
