Interior pieces of Public Ledger building auctioned off for $35K

Original paneling and columns from the interior of Horace Trumbauer’s Public Ledger building hit the auction block this weekend.

All together, the eight columns (which had been divided in half and reached 18 feet high) and the 158 feet of paneling were sold for $35,000, according to a report from the Philadelphia Inquirer. The seller had previously purchased the pieces from Wawa or the owner of the building, the Inquirer wrote.

The pieces were taken out of the building last year to make way for a new Wawa, which opened at the corner of 6th and Chestnut in December. The Wawa takes up 11,500-square-feet of space in the historic building, designed by the prolific Gilded Age architect in 1923. The rest of the building is occupied by offices, and a western section of the building was just sold to a New York property group last year.

During the interior renovations last year, Wawa stripped out some of the original parts of the building—like the columns and paneling—to make way for a new look. Now the space features white painted brick columns, archways, and nods to both industrial and art deco styles.

The building is on the Philadelphia Register of Historic Places, which ensures that it can’t be demolished, but does not protect the interior from alteration.