AREC Garage, before rehabilitation

Detail of elevation and roof

American Railway Express Company Garage. Powers & Company, Inc. has been hired as the historic preservation consultant for the rehabilitation of the American Railway Express Company Garage. This two-story concrete garage is located at 3002-3028 Cecil B. Moore Avenue in North Philadelphia.  It was constructed in the Commercial Style in 1922 as a private parking garage for the electric truck fleet owned by American Railway Express Company the parent company of American Express.  In the proposed rehabilitation, the building will be renovated into thirty-six residential units with 1st floor commercial space.  Powers & Company, Inc. listed the American Railway Express Company Building on the National Register of Historic Places on August 2, 2006.

The trapezoidal-shaped, reinforced concrete building is largely clad in red brick with buff brick and polychrome tile accents and has a shallow-pitched gable roof structure that is partially concealed behind a low parapet wall. In 2004, the roof was removed for safety reasons.  

The American Railway Express Company was a nationalized corporation formed in 1918 that provided express rail service of packages and local delivery of goods via trucks to its patrons.  In the 1920s, local developer John Presper Eckert, Sr., the president and owner of the Philadelphia Realty Company, was contracted to build a garage for the American Railway Express Company.  The architecture firm of Harris & Richards, a successor firm to the Wilson Brothers, Co., was selected to produce the design.  The construction costs for the American Railway Express Company Garage were estimated at $100,000.