Matt Blanchard

Only one building remains of the once world-famous Cramps Shipyard, and it’s about to be torn down. The Cramps Shipyard Building is a square-shouldered former machine shop that stands with its back to Interstate 95 at the corner of North Delaware Avenue and Dyott Street. Decades of neglect have not effaced the building’s industrial beauty. Banks of many-paned, double-height windows suggests a soaring space within. In May 2006, the owners floated a plan to convert the structure into condominiums. PennDOT’s plans to reconfigure the Girard Avenue interchange of I-95 call for the building’s demolition. Work on the project is to begin in 2009. PennDOT officials say that while the building is deemed to be a “contributing resource” to the Fishtown Historic District, saving it would require the highway expansion to go west into neighborhoods rather than east towards the river.