Our image shows the demolition of the Forrest Theatre on South Broad Street between Sansom and Walnut Streets. Built between 1905 and 1907, the Forrest Theatre served as Philadelphia’s leading venue for musical comedy until its destruction in 1927. The following year, a new Forrest Theatre opened at 11th and Walnut Streets. The Fidelity Building, now known as the Wachovia Building, rose on the South Broad Street site. The William Jennings Photograph Collection includes thirty one photographs documenting this site from the demolition of the Forrest Theatre in March 1927 through the completion of the Fidelity Building’s exterior in the spring of 1928.

Sarah Weatherwax
Curator of Prints & Photographs

The following people correctly answered one or both of the questions posed in our most recent Ben’s Lens.:

Tom Keels
Steve Lynch