915 Arts is a 5-story building that was once filled with artists, musicians, designers and arts-related businesses. It closed in September 2015.
In 1909 the Reading Railroad completed construction of the 915 Spring Garden Street train station. During this prosperous era of heavy industrial construction, trains were the primary means of long distant travel, making 915 Spring Garden Street a focal point of commerce for Philadelphia. The 915 Spring Garden stop included a gigantic turn table for trains to switch tracks, it was at the epicenter
of modern transportation here in Philadelphia. In 1981, the 915 Studio Building, as the public had come to know it, was inaugurated with a group of painters, potters, and graphic designers making up the role as tenants. The entire 5 floors and 75,000 square feet of well-lit space provided studios for over 100 artists of brilliant and varied disciplines, from potters, furniture makers and jewelers to painters, photographers and sculptors. Within this extraordinary roster of nationally and internationally known artists, is a visual slice of Philadelphia which may only be seen within these studios. 915 artists have gathered up achievement awards from such organizations as the Leeway Foundation, Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, the Pew Fellowship on the Arts, as well as the National Endowment for the Arts. In September 2015, the city of Philadelphia’s Department of Licenses & Inspections closed the building due to numerous safety violations. This once-bustling building now stands empty awaiting its next purposeful use as the neighborhood transforms the abandoned railway into a highly anticipated Rail Park. All of the artists have relocated to new studios. You can find many of them on Facebook.
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