“Walking the Eraserhood” represents an ongoing street-level exploration of the Callowhill district and surrounding environs, a sort of virtual walking tour of the neighborhood.
Standing at street level here, we can get a very different perspective on the sites we just viewed from the Viaduct. The elevated portion of the City Branch comes in to the northwest, crosses 12th Street due north, and gracefully curves to the south, to meet with the main line due east of here, in the middle of the 1100 block of Callowhill. The northwest corner is occupied by the former rail yard, bordered to the north by the stone bulk of the Viaduct and to the west, across 13th street, by the Terminal Commerce Building. (Some have suggested piles of earth in this rail yard, as it appeared in the late 1960’s, provided the model for the “rough hillocks” Henry Spencer climbs in the beginning if David Lynch’s Eraserhead.) We can also appreciate the sheer bulk of the Wolf Building from here, and even look west down Callowhill to see the entrance to Underground Arts, a performance venue in a deep sub-basement of the Wolf.
Copyright © 2009-2013, Bob Bruhin. All rights reserved.
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