A Virtual Walk Through Yorktown

By Ken Groninger and Ashley Helaudais

Yorktown is an idealistic little piece of suburbia built in the middle of North Philadelphia in the 1960s that still flourishes today. Clean lawns, caring neighbors and quiet culs-de-sac are just some of the unique features that give Yorktown its community identity. Click the photo to read an article about Yorktown's unchanging pride despite ongoing changes around the community.

The home of the Opportunities Industrialization Center of America, an organization created by Rev. Leon H. Sullivan. The OIC is responsible for teaching people job skills and how to be self sufficient and has spread not only across the country, but into many other countries as well. Click the picture to watch a video about Reverend Sullivan.

 

Progress Plaza was the first African-American-owned shopping center in the country. Another project piloted by Reverend Sullivan, the shopping center has always been an important part of the community.

This vacant lot that sits in the plaza used to hold a SuperFresh until the groccery store left in 1998. Construction is underway to bring in a new groccery store and redevelop the rest of the plaza. Click the picture to watch a video on these developments.

Construction crews broke ground here at what was once a pharmacy at Progress Plaza. This building is set to be renovated, and the area will house a new bank and retail space for some of the plaza's existing stores. Click the photo to watch a video report on the redevelopment of Progress Plaza.

Hear David Adler, public relations representative for the Food Trust, speak about the experiment surrounding the plaza's new grocery store.

After 10 years, the community will finally get a grocery store, a Fresh Grocer, like this one in West Philly. The store sits at 40th and Walnut streets, right on the edge of the University of Pennsylvania's campus and caters to a mixed population of residents and college students, as the store in Progress Plaza will. Click the picture to visit the Fresh Grocer Web site.

Alexander Fainberg has been selling produce in Yorktown for 11 years now, and for many he provides the only access to fresh fruits and vegetables in Yorktown. Fainberg says he's not worried about losing business to the new grocer and hopes that the added traffic will actually bring an increase in his sales.

 

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The Zion Gardens apartments are another work of the late Reverend Sullivan. The apartments sit off along Girard at 10th and 12th streets. Click the photo to watch a slideshow about the reverend's works