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Exploring Philadelphia’s Abandoned Subway Stations

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Closed in 1989 due to low ridership and safety concerns after nearly 60 years in service, SEPTA’s Spring Garden Street Station on the Broad-Ridge Spur is now an abandoned mecca for graffiti artists and urban explorers alike, who are arguably the only people showing the old station any love.

In total, The Broad-Ridge Spur includes the Spring Garden, Fairmount, Race-Vine and Market Street stops. And while today both the Race-Vine and Market Street stops exist in some new/updated form, the Spring Garden stop is completely non-operational and the Fairmount stop, while still partially open, has been left fairly untouched. In our exploration, it looked as though at least half the Fairmount station’s platform was closed to the public. (The half photographed here.)

Check out more photos below, and on the Instagram accounts of @medlowminus and @austinxc04!

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Find more explorations into Abandoned Philadelphia HERE!

15 responses to “Exploring Philadelphia’s Abandoned Subway Stations”

  1. Eraserhood › Exploring Philadelphia’s Abandoned Subway Stations | Streets Dept

    […] Exploring Philadelphia’s Abandoned Subway Stations | Streets Dept. […]

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  2. Joseph

    So. Fucking. Cool.

    Reply
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    […] Filed under: Abandoned Philadelphia, Around Town, Photos …read more […]

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  4. Meredith Edlow’s Amazing Shots From Inside SEPTA’s Abandoned Subways Stations | Streets Dept

    […] I posted my photos from a little exploration I took last weekend with Philly-area photographers, Meredith Edlow and […]

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  5. A Trip Inside Philadelphia’s Abandoned Subway Station | Septa Blog – All the Latest News.

    […] your Exact Flight & time or Name Your Own Price! Proclaimed by Benner on his site as a “mecca for graffiti artists and urban explorers alike,” the former station was easy to find since it remains visible for SEPTA riders. ”We […]

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  6. » Boston, Baltimore and Philadelphia: best blogs for travellers

    […] This is a wonderful site to spend some time exploring, following in the footsteps of the site’s main curator, Conrad Benner, who describes himself as a “blogger/photographer/all around very curious fellow”. Less word on the street, more sights of the street, there’s little text here, just compelling photos from around town. Think street art, abandonded buildings, intriguing posters. Philly has never looked cooler, or more intriguing.Useful post: OK, not exactly useful, but certainly interesting – Philadelphia’s abandonded subway stations […]

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  7. Boston, Baltimore and Philadelphia: best blogs | Maabus.in

    […] This is a wonderful site to spend some time exploring, following in the footsteps of the site’s main curator, Conrad Benner, who describes himself as a “blogger/photographer/all around very curious fellow”. Less word on the street, more sights of the street, there’s little text here, just compelling photos from around town. Think street art, abandonded buildings, intriguing posters. Philly has never looked cooler, or more intriguing.Useful post: OK, not exactly useful, but certainly interesting – Philadelphia’s abandonded subway stations […]

    Reply
  8. Boston, Baltimore and Philadelphia: best blogs for travellers | Maabus.in

    […] This is a wonderful site to spend some time exploring, following in the footsteps of the site’s main curator, Conrad Benner, who describes himself as a “blogger/photographer/all around very curious fellow”. Less word on the street, more sights of the street, there’s little text here, just compelling photos from around town. Think street art, abandonded buildings, intriguing posters. Philly has never looked cooler, or more intriguing.Useful post: OK, not exactly useful, but certainly interesting – Philadelphia’s abandonded subway stations […]

    Reply
  9. Boston, Baltimore and Philadelphia: best blogs for travellers | ACom archives

    […] This is a wonderful site to spend some time exploring, following in the footsteps of the site’s main curator, Conrad Benner, who describes himself as a “blogger/photographer/all around very curious fellow”. Less word on the street, more sights of the street, there’s little text here, just compelling photos from around town. Think street art, abandonded buildings, intriguing posters. Philly has never looked cooler, or more intriguing.Useful post: OK, not exactly useful, but certainly interesting – Philadelphia’s abandonded subway stations […]

    Reply
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  11. buttguyrekkids

    Are the third rails down there still live?

    Reply
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    […] 1. Exploring Philadelphia’s Abandoned Subway Stations […]

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    […] this photo was included in a larger post I did profiling graffiti in Philly’s subway from September 2013. While I don’t know how […]

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    […] Exploring Philadelphia’s Abandoned Subway Stations […]

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  15. Grey

    When I was in HS , we used to hang out in the abandoned part of Fairmount Station (which is HUGE by the way). This was about a year after Spring Garden closed.

    You could see the station from the end of the old Fairmount station. So one day we decided to walk it. There are some interesting things in the tunnels, including a huge room off to one side that I assume was used for maintenance storage, or civil defense (it’s not far off of Fairmount) and escape ladders.

    Once we got to the station itself, it was eerie and cool. Only about 1 in 3 lights worked (this was by design though) and it looked like it was frozen in time. This was well before blight and decay, and before the homeless moved in. It was still pristine (well as “pristine” as a Philly subway station in the 90’s gets anyway) just dark, and cold.

    I’ve done a lot of urban exploring, long before it was a thing, well before YouTube and camera phones… This is one of the memories I will never forget.

    My one regret is that we never made it to Franklin Square which was the Holy Grail of abandoned stations at the time.

    Reply

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