A tall elegant chimney on this Victorian twin at 424 S. 42nd St. collapsed into a heap of bricks on Saturday, at about 11 a.m. Neighbors said the chimney had been leaning for a while.
The three-story 7-bedroom single-family house was sold in February for $410,000 to a property developer.
Here’s an earlier photo of the house pulled out from Google Street View:
May 15th, 2016 at 7:51 pm
I hope nobody was hurt!
May 16th, 2016 at 3:25 am
No one was hurt. The tenants who were living on the third floor were warned, but luckily moved out at the end of April. The one tenant was living right below the chimney.
However, the new owners were warned and they did nothing. The back chimney of the home is also in danger of falling. The house is deed restricted to being owner-occupied/no more than 2 non-family members permitted. However, it was sold illegally (the buyer knew of the deed restriction and ignored it). Deed restrictions in West Philly are now being regularly abused by people buying up property in the neighborhood. 424 S. 42nd, where the chimney collapsed, was bought by a foreign investor who bought it through a Drexel student (Jinbo Mao) who has recently bought two-three other houses in the neighborhood. Through the real estate agent/property manager (Grace Tian), this owner is trying to illegally convert it into cheap apartments. The unlicensed construction work at the house is what caused the leaning chimney to collapse. No safety measures were out into place. Young children play on that block and a school is across the street. It is actually good the chimney collapsed now, because soon unsuspecting students would have been packed into the house illegally and the chimney could have fallen through their roof. No one should buy or rent from Grace Tian or Jinbo Mo. They are operating illegally and doing unlicensed and unsafe construction. The owner does not live in the country and is not concerned about the condition of the homes, just charging high rent to students.
May 16th, 2016 at 11:51 am
It’s a shame that happened. I’m a huge fan of that block and it’s tragic. Our community is lucky that nobody was hurt.
May 16th, 2016 at 7:54 pm
Call 311 or L&I west at 215 685-7680 when you see what you think is un-permitted work taking place. Sometimes the system actually works; not often, but sometimes.
May 17th, 2016 at 3:35 pm
Block captain, how come you knew so much in-side information?
May 17th, 2016 at 3:51 pm
Shame on the owner for not taking care of this issue right away. I’m glad no one was hurt. In Jinbo Mao’s country, foreigners are most likely not allowed to purchase property. Maybe America needs to think about enforcing similar rules.
May 17th, 2016 at 4:58 pm
to block captain—————
calling 311 or L&I hardly seems like inside info. I wish it were common knowledge that someone can’t just do construction w/o permits. There are LOTS of problem with the system, but at its core its there to protect the public.
Is this new news to you? I hope not.
But I’m just a long term home owner who has an interest in the built environment we live in.
May 17th, 2016 at 6:37 pm
Streetcar, I think you meant to respond to 424S.42ndSt. I (blockcaptain) indeed did call 311 and L&I have been contacted (over a month ago). They have responded and seem to be monitoring the situation, but the problem still persists.
May 17th, 2016 at 8:23 pm
Stop distorting the truth!
May 17th, 2016 at 8:25 pm
Fully agreed! No more BS!
May 17th, 2016 at 9:05 pm
to Jinbo and Grace
Don’t like what has been said? OK, give us your side, your “truth”.
May 17th, 2016 at 11:44 pm
I second that. Where you come from is irrelevant, so ignore that comment. But what is this “truth” that is being distorted, and what about what people are saying is “BS”?
Is this building about to become more “Drexel approved housing”?