Camac Street
Come one, come all: It's America's only woodblock-paved street. Residents and travelers have a right to know--we've got wood here in Philly. I don't usually share my Philiaphile side in these radars, but this area of the city involves sex, so who doesn't like that? South Camac was the heart of the "Latin Quarter" at the turn of the 20th century which means it had a whole lot of bordellos. Preceding the Civil War Camac St. had a tunnel running underneath to shelter slaves in the Underground Railroad. Now, unfortunately, the street is kind of in disrepair, as seen in this photo. Although this is pretty cool, there's no historical marker here and I'm assuming it's only remained wood just so long as re-paving remains unnecessary. Kind of a shame, because I love those non-touristy reminders of the layers of history we have in our city.
|