Goodisville: Northwood

"The house was a bungalow on the outskirts of Frankford, where Philadelphia gives way to the Roosevelt Boulevard. It was a neighborhood of new homes, low-priced but solidly constructed. The bungalows were detached and each had a reasonably wide skirting of lawn, a small garage, an open porch, and an altogether attractive appearance. They were nice little bungalows and it was a clean and pretty little neighborhood. But the fact remained that it was lower-middle-class, and Alvin Darby told himself it wouldn't sum up as the usual target of a burglar."

From: Of Tender Sin (1952) by David Goodis

Photo: Adams and Castor Avenues, Northwood, June 2, 1950

About this series: Adrian Wootton, CEO of Film London, wrote that Philadelphia is "the hometown [David] Goodis celebrates, described with almost maniacal attention to topographical detail and re-imagined in almost all his writing." So I thought it would be fun to tour the Quaker City through Goodis's eyes, pairing selections from his novels with photos of the city as Goodis saw it. Hence, "Goodisville," which will be updated throughout the coming year.

(Photo courtesy PhillyHistory.org, a project of the Philadelphia Department of Records.)