Broad Street is the major north-south street in Philadelphia. It runs from the northern border with Montgomery County to the Navy Yard in south Philadelphia, a distance of twelve miles. On a cold day, it feels like the wind starts at the Arctic Circle and pours straight down Broad Street to your bones. At various times, Broad Street was the home of the ruling class, the industrialists, musicians, artists, and the cultural center of the city. For many years, the Broad Street Station, directly across from City Hall, was one of the largest train stations in the country, built and operated by the Pennsylvania Railroad until its demise in 1953.
Broad Street south of City Hall was the location of most of the large banks that called Philadelphia home. Sadly, Philadelphia is no longer the home of any major banks, all of them being gobbled up by larger national banks, starting in the 1980s.
One of the banks which had their headquarters in the 1970s and 1980s along Broad Street was The Fidelity Bank. Constructed in the 1920s, the Fidelity Bank Building was thirty stories high and housed various tenants, including the bank. The banking floor is a delight for the eyes, using sand-colored marble, chandeliers, and a vaulted ceiling to dramatic effect. The offices on the upper floors lie around the exterior of the building, and hallways are clad in dark marble, giving them a claustrophobic effect. Recent renovations have opened up the hallways to the outside bringing needed light to the common areas.
In Devil's Work, Philadelphia detective Mike Maxwell occupied a small office on the seventeenth floor of the Fidelity Building, taking over the lease from the man who represented Maxwell in a criminal case. Unfortunately, the man wasn’t who he said he was, and he went to jail for impersonating a lawyer. A prospective client would enter the office from the dark hallway to a reception area, which was empty, and a further door marked "Private" to find Maxwell’s office. The desk, chairs, and sofa were leftovers from the previous occupant. Maxwell left the man’s diplomas from various local colleges on the walls, mostly as conversation pieces.
Maxwell could open the window and look down on the corner of Broad and Walnut Streets and across Broad Street, with the Union League to the right and the Academy of Music to the left. Not bad for $300 a month rent. If the heating and air conditioning worked properly, it would go for $600 a month. Contrary to what you might read, there is no parking garage in the basement of the Fidelity Building. That space is reserved for the vaults, storage, and maintenance areas and small windowless offices for tenants who can’t afford the rent of the higher floors. Along the way, Maxwell’s office is moved there on a temporary basis, which he still occupies.


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