PHA schedules Queen Lane Apartments implosion

The Queen Lane Apartments, a 16-story public housing high-rise in Germantown, is scheduled to be demolished on Sunday, Sept. 14.

The highly anticipated date was revealed during a Thursday night community meeting led by the Philadelphia Housing Authority, which owns the building.

IMPLOSION SCHEDULE, RESTRICTIONS

Officials said the implosion is expected to start at 7:15 a.m. The ensuing dust will be under control by late morning, less than an hour afterwards in some spots, they said.

On the day of the demolition, all residents who live within a roughly two-block radius of the tower will be evacuated. They will have to be ready to leave by 4:30 a.m.

Neighbors who live immediately beyond that vicinity will have to stay inside their homes until the dust is cleared.

No one will be able to park in an area roughly bounded by Wayne Avenue, Coulter Street, McKean Avenue and Hansberry Street.

Vehicles parked inside that zone will be towed to a yet-to-be-determined lot by police.

COMING UP

Starting Saturday, PHA will send an implosion information team out to canvass the neighborhood and inform neighbors of the demolition and answer any questions they might have.

The door-to-door effort will take place every Saturday between now and the implosion.

Residents who have questions at any time can call the PHA implosion hotline at (215) 684.3001.

THE BACK STORY

After a years-long process, the tower will finally be replaced by 55 new rental units.

The apartments will ring a roughly two-acre green space, once a Potter's Field, an 18th century burial ground for "all strangers, Negroes, and Mulattoes [who] die in any part of Germantown forever."