A thread popped up on Philadelphia Speaks the other day, sharing the news that Murray’s Steaks and Other Fine Foods, located at 26th & Girard, had closed its doors. Based on the commentary from several posters who seem to live in the neighborhood, Murray’s wasn’t exactly serving up particularly high quality fare.

No more Murray's

From the west

As you can see in the photos above, Murray’s was located in a rather unattractive one-story building that was clearly built in recent decades. We believe that the Fairmount Theater once stood here, but we can’t find very much information about it online except that it existed and was located at this intersection. But now the old building is lost and we’re left with what you see now.

In all likelihood, the owners of this property will seek to lease it to a new business, probably similar to the one that’s now closed. There’s even a handwritten sign in the window of Murray’s with a contact number for interested parties. But wouldn’t it be great if someone stepped in and offered to buy the building from Zora Enterprises Inc., demolished the entire structure, and built something new, interesting and exciting? With all of the development going on in the surrounding neighborhood, this would seem to be a sensible and workable plan, no?

Sadly, we don’t see this scenario playing out. Five, maybe ten years from now, we might have something to talk about. But in the meantime, residents of Brewerytown, let us just hope for something a little more satisfying than what came before.