Drexel - Neighborhood Resistance

Cover of "The Crisis in Powelton VIllage: A Report Sponsored by Powelton Neighbors" by Walter Thabit

"East Powelton Concerned Residents (EPCR) Rally"

Philadelphia Free Press, December 8, 1969

"E.P.C.R. Resis Demolition"

"Seize the Land!"

Philadelphia Free Press, 1969

"Off Drexel! The Land Belongs to the People!"

Philadelpha Free Press, January 26, 1970, Page 3

The resistance to Drexel's campus differed from that of Temple in that it involved two phases and two groups of residents.  

The first phase came as the strip north of Market Street (known as Area V in the literature), though occupied, was alotted to Drexel for development as a residential area of its campus.  Van Rensselaer dormitory, built in the 1930s, was the first purpose-built dormitory for Drexel and initiated the use of Powelton neighborhood as a reidential campus for the Institute.  Neighbors living in Powelton Village banded together and hired their own planner, Walther Thabit, to propose an altrnative direction for incorporating campus housing into the neighborhood than that set forth by Drexel and its arechitects.  The resulting document is the "Crisis in Powelton Village" report.