Photo Credit: Chris Kendig Photography

The Opportunity

The Philadelphia Masjid serves a congregation of 500, while also acting as a central hub for many others in the region's Muslim community. The 1.5-acre former Diocesan school complex has been underutilized since the closing of the Sister Clara Muhammad School over ten years ago. The site offers the potential for both renovation and new construction, and the congregation hopes to use its excess space to meet the needs of the neighborhood and lay the foundation for a broad community development initiative. Community partner, People's Emergency Center, recognizes this site as a key opportunity within the Promise Zone and Opportunity Zone, and as a significant gateway to the neighborhood.

Photo Credit: Chris Kending Photography

Current Conditions

The Philadelphia Masjid's site has a campus-style layout with adjoining auditorium/gymnasium and classroom buildings. Currently, the front entrance to the complex is not easy to find. With repairs and renovation, these existing buildings can provide a diverse range of flexible spaces for reuse. The former schoolyard offers a blank canvas for the development of new, community-oriented buildings and outdoor spaces.

Photo Credit: Chris Kending Photography

Brief Site History of The Philadelphia Masjid

The Philadelphia Masjid was founded in the early 1950s as Mosque No. 12, the twelfth Nation of Islam (NOI) mosque opened in the United States and the first opened in Pennsylvania. The community of Mosque No. 12 became nationally known during the late 1950s and early 1960s due to its association with Imam W.D. Mohammed (the son of the Hon. Elijah Muhammad) and human rights activist Malcolm X. Malcolm X and Imam W.D. Mohammad both served as minister of Mosque No. 12 in Philadelphia.

When the Hon. Elijah Muhammad died in 1975, son Warith Deen Mohammad remade the NOI by abandoning some of his father's controversial beliefs, which were not derived from the Qur'an, and embracing Traditional Islam. The Philadelphia Masjid embraced this change while retaining pride in its roots. "This journey is what made us a unique people," said Abdul Rahim Muhammad of Philadelphia's New Africa Center.

Now located at 4700 Wyalusing Avenue in the Mill Creek neighborhood, Mosque No. 12 outgrew two previous sites, a storefront located at 4218 Lancaster Avenue and then a former trade school at 1319 W. Susquehanna Avenue. During this period of growth, satellite mosques were established throughout the city and suburbs - named Mosque No. 12A, Mosque No. 12B, Mosque No. 12C, etc., in homage to the mothership.

The congregation's current home was built as a Roman Catholic school in 1922 by Our Mother of Sorrows Church, a predominantly Irish parish. Designed by the Hoffman-Henon Company, which is best known for its theaters, the building housed Our Mother of Sorrows Elementary School until 1936 and then St. Thomas Moore High School for Boys until 1975. The Philadelphia Masjid purchased the building in 1975, remaking it as a Mosque and University of Islam/Sister Clara Muhammad School (1975-2008).