Pepper Middle School

This modern middle school was conceived in 1968. The plan for the site was actually to build two schools, George Wharton Pepper Middle School and Eastwick High School. Only Pepper was completed and it can be seen that the building is surrounded by open space, an oddity for Philadelphia. The building is a prime example of Brutalist architecture and even won an award for its example of it in 1969. The school had a capacity to hold over 1,000 students but was seeing only around 400 at the time. The school was shut down in 2013 as part of the city's plan to close 23 school districts. Since then, the building was fallen into extreme disrepair. The building is so heavily vandalized that it is almost unrecognizable.