Vestige

The residential neighborhood that once stood in and around the campus of the University of Pennsylvania was called Hamilton Village. This church, built in 1871, was one of the remaining structures reminding people of the old community's life, at least for those old enough to remember it. It is in the heart of the commercial strip at the center of the campus. Efforts to save it were defeated by the university's alleged "financial hardship" (let's all laugh together).

In the 1970s, the university simply bought all the buildings and used its powers of imminent domain to tear all the houses down, sometimes putting nothing in their place. For some years there was an area with park benches and trees, but those were removed in order to keep homeless people away.

The deletion of Hamilton Village is still resented by those who remember it, and for good reason. It took place in an age when race relations were still very bad in the US, and this was an African-American section on the edge of an Ivy League school that would "red line" the map for its incoming students. That meant that students were told that if they wandered past a certain street, away from the campus itself, any problems they might have there were their own fault. About ten years ago a mural was painted nearby, showing the vanished homes of Hamilton Village, just floating in space like ghosts. College officials were said to be quite upset by that.

Here is more about the church.