Google Street View image of 4046-4048 Chestnut Street rowhomes.
The twin apartment buildings at 4046-4048 Chestnut Street, which date back to the late 19th century, were saved at least temporarily after a municipal court judge issued a ruling yesterday barring demolition until mid-October.
Court of Common Pleas Judge Linda Carpenter’s decision found the demolition permit issued in March to a developer that sought to knock the buildings down and build student housing was invalid. The stay of demolition is until October 15, according to Plan Philly.
The final decision on demolition hinges on two more decisions. The first will be a likely appeal of Carpenter’s ruling that the permit is invalid and second will be a hearing at the Philadelphia Historic Commission to determine whether the buildings should be added to Philadelphia Register of Historic Places, which would make demolition far more difficult.
The buildings were sold on March 1 to a new owner who planned to replace them with new apartment buildings aimed at students. A demolition permit was issued later that month, but an application to declare the building “historic” was made on May 16 in an effort to save the buildings.
The hearing to determine whether the rowhomes can be demolished according to their developers’ plans was held last month and resulted in the decision issued yesterday.
For more in-depth coverage of the case and a copy of Judge Carpenter’s ruling, check out the Plan Philly story.
July 22nd, 2016 at 1:38 pm
Wow. We’re really just throwing around the word “historic” like it doesn’t mean anything.
These houses are hardly any different than the 500,000 other rowhomes in philly.
NIMBY nonsense.
July 23rd, 2016 at 10:25 am
Ok, so while at a glance these houses do look common, they are actually pretty unique and I’ll tell you why. First of all they look a lot like the 3 and 4 story mid 19th century Italianate houses found throughout center city. However these are west of the Schuylkill and the density of this type of development, this far west was unusual in the 1870’s when most of the existing architecture were free standing villas and farm houses.
Second, what makes the houses uniquely West Philadelphian is that despite the density, they are twins, not a contiguous row.
Third, find me something built earlier in this particular neighborhood. This section of the Spruce Hill, close to 40th street has 1920’s apartment buildings and earlier twins built closer to the turn of the 20th century. I’d say a group of intact Italianate twins from the 1870’s, when that particular style was going out fashion in favor of more Second Empire, Picturesque Queen Anne and crazy Victorian eclectic in the style of Frank Furness. I actually thought these were much earlier as they’re more representative of the 1850’s and 60’s.
July 24th, 2016 at 7:19 pm
Excellent move! Hopefully this will set a precedent for situations where communities face becoming future student ghettos.
July 25th, 2016 at 1:26 pm
LOL at student ghettos