PGW sign at Broad and Tasker is taken down

The long-standing Philadelphia Gas Works sign at Broad and Tasker Streets was taken down this week as the utility moves forward with plans to sell the buildings that once housed its customer service centers.

Social media users began reporting that the sign, which hung on the facade of 1601 S. Broad St. directly outside the Tasker-Morris subway station, was being taken down Thursday. By Friday morning, it was gone.

PGW is preserving the signage, and plans to use it “at other to be determined locations,” a spokesperson for the utility said. The buildings where its customer care centers were located will be put up for sale later this year.

The building was one of five PGW customer service centers that the utility closed in early 2020 amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The centers — located in Germantown, Frankford, North Philadelphia, West Philadelphia and South Philadelphia — allowed customers to pay bills, apply for gas service, enroll in budget plans, schedule service visits, and transfer gas service, among other functions.

A sixth customer service center, located in Center City, closed in June 2019.

PGW closed the centers “as a result of dwindling customer traffic over the last decade,” PGW’s spokesperson said. Instead of visiting the centers, many customers choose to do business online, pay bills at local retailers enrolled in the utility’s Pay with Cash program, or receive in-person consultations at the city’s Neighborhood Energy Centers.

The PGW sign is the latest local landmark to vanish from South Broad Street in recent months. In November, the Meglio Furs sign at Broad and Wharton Streets was removed to the disappointment of many locals. The fate of that sign remains unclear.

Of PGW’s former service centers, South Philly’s signage was the first to go. Removal of the sign on the West Philly location is scheduled to begin Friday, the utility’s spokesperson said.