Roughly bordered east-to-west by Eighth and Broad streets and north-to-south by Spring Garden and Vine streets, the area bears many names: Callowhill, the Loft District, Chinatown North, West Poplar. In 2010, it was officially designated the Callowhill Industrial Historic District by the U.S. National Park Service. But to a subset of Philly’s artsy, imaginative types, to those attracted to the grittier side of urban living, it’s long been the Eraserhood—a nod to Eraserhead, the surreal, nightmarish 1977 head-scramble of a film by David Lynch, the acclaimed director of the some of the most influential films and television of the past 30 years: The Elephant Man, Blue Velvet, Twin Peaks. Lynch lived in the neighborhood for a time in the mid-’60s, and the area, which scared the bejeezus out of him, sparked the first flames of his singular, bizarre creative vision.
