Fill These Fronts: 12th and South, 13th and South

1200 South Street

            Fuck this shit. I know this part of South Street might not exactly be Retail Heaven, but it sure has come a long way in the last 10 years or so. Therefore, there's no reason why there should be years-long empty storefronts at two prominent corners with assloads of foot traffic and thousands of permanent residents nearby. I'm talking about 1200 and 1300 South Street, the old Gennaro's Pizza and the old Tattoo shop.           
              First, 1200 South Street, the 850-875 square foot space at the southeast corner of 12th and South. For decades in the early 20th Century, this location was Leroy's Drug Store.

Here in this incorrectly labeled picture from 1953. It had already been here well over 20 years at this point, that is like its 3rd sign. PhillyHistory.org

                   At the start of the 1980s, it was a doctor's office, and then, when its current owner's father took possession of the place, became a restaurant. In 1990, Gennaro's Pizza began their 21-year reign at the space until moving to 1315 Bainbridge Street in 2011. Ever since, this space had been a big embarrassing hole of empty.
                  A couple of years ago, there was some uproar about how the landlord attempted to get some interest in this space. They superimposed a sign on top of the old Gennaro sign depicting the silhouette of a woman with the words "High Traffic Corner". Nearby homeowners got pretty upset about it and eventually complained enough for the problem to be picked up by both Philly Mag and Curbed Philly. I could see their concern-- we're trying to class up this neighborhood a bit, and the implications of the image in that sign, whether intentional or not, wasn't gonna do that.

Pic from the Curbed Philly story about it.

                   Eventually, the landlord placed some black bars over the tits and ass of the silhouette woman, but later took down the sign altogether. Now, I know that folks don't like the building owners, the Yelson Group, very much, but I have to be fair and say that they do maintain some good spaces (Vetri), despite their, shall we say, mixed reviews. The reason I'll give them at least a little bit of credit that is the fact they pay their taxes, put their real names on their properties, and don't hide amongst their lessees.
                 What am I talking about? I happen to know that Washington Square West, like many other neighborhoods in the city, is rife with slumlords. A lot of them are old heads that were the first pioneers into the neighborhood and bought up properties for next to nothing. Many of them converted buildings into apartments 30 years ago and haven't touched them since, paying crooked do-nothing management companies to run them with expired rental licenses and L & I violations up the wazoo. They own the buildings using goofy LLC names with addresses that lead to nowhere.
                  Many still live in the neighborhood while some have had the audacity to build themselves custom multi-million-dollar houses in Jersey and Florida while still showing up to Wash West Civic meetings to yell at everyone about how they're a long time resident of the neighborhood so you'd better fucking listen to anything they have to say. The Yelsons don't come close to this level of shitbagiousness, so as much as people may give them flack, there are much worse building owners in the same hood doing much worse things.
                Anyway, you want to rent 1200 South Street? Well, you can't (at least right now). Despite all those signs you see in the picture above, the listing for this spot was just pulled. When I first found this out, I got excited, thinking maybe someone leased the space. Jonathan Tori of Addison Real Estate, the company on the "LEASE" signs informed me that it has been "taken off the market". Here's their video of the space, complete with somber music:         

               Now that you've seen it, I urge you to consider renting this property, somehow.. (contacting the Yelson Group would probably be the first step). This is an 850-875 square foot floor space complete with basement storage, a bunch of usable kitchen equipment, and an employee shitter. The corner gets moderately brisk foot traffic during the day and shitloads of it at night. Thousands of people live in the surrounding blocks nearby, many of them with tons of disposable income to throw around. This spot would do well as a coffee shop, restaurant, take-out, or even a chain store.
              Ok, so the space needs some work. Good! Tear the shit out of it and make it your own! The last tenant stayed for 21 goddamn years! Its latest price was $2500/month, much reduced from its original 2011 price. How bad could it be? Not interested? I got another for ya...

1300 South Street




              This 2,000 square foot retail space has been empty for about 8 years, which is pitiful considering the fact that it was filled pretty much continuously between 1916 and 2006. Its first tenant was the Acme Tea Company, where it was just one of the many many locations this chain had in the city in the early 20th Century.

There it is on the left in 1930. PhillyHistory.org

                Later on, it became Dr. Isadore LeBlang's optometrist office and by 1935 was combined with 1302 to become a bar and restaurant. After a long string of barstaurants, at the end of the 1960s it became Masjid Muhammed of Philadelphia, a mosque. They moved out by the late 1980s and the space went back to being a doctor's office for a short period of time. In 1988, the location became South Street Tattoo and stuck around until 2000, only to be replaced by another tattoo shop, Fat's Tat's, until 2006, when the current owners of the building bought the place.
                The new owners spruced up the building, renovating the upper floors and expanding the windows in the retail space.

How it looked in July 2007, when they were working on it. Love that Google Streetview Time Travel.

               The retail space went up for lease in July 2009 and has been sitting empty since. Unfortunately, it didn't take very long before the place's exterior got all vandalized. Perhaps the place would be easier to lease if it wasn't all fucked-up looking.

Erased graffiti that isn't erased, broken window, insulation popping out. Its even worse than my shitty picture-taking shows.

                 The interior doesn't look so great either. It seems like whoever was working on sprucing-up this space stopped halfway through. How the fuck do they expect to lease this shit for $4,995/month while presenting it in this condition? According to the signs in the windows, the space is offered through Kurfiss-Sotheby. Here's the listing, though there's no photo included. The space comes with a brand new accessible bathroom and brand new dual-zoned heating/AC. All it needs is a hero to come along and make it nice again.
                The reason I bring up these two empty storefronts despite there being plenty others on their blocks is because there are big changes coming all around. The empty lot across from 1300 South is getting a new development with even more new retail.

Image from the Passyunk Post

                   We can't have empty shit on two prominent corners with this kind of stuff about to be built. Its bad enough that Harry's Occult, next door to his new shit, is empty now. On top of that, Dranoff's Southstar Lofts down the block has managed to pick up a new Sbraga, Big Gay Ice Cream, and an un-named gourmet pizza place in like 5 minutes. Therefore, there are definitely some big players that are into this area. Its not like no one's interested.
                  The potential is there. The people are there. This part of South Street's day has come. FILL THESE FRONTS!!

...and don't get me started on this motherfucker.

Old-Ass Building of the Week: Chambers-Wylie Church/Broad Street Ministry

315 South Broad Street
         

Pic by Brad Maule

          This is one hell of a church, both for what it did in the past and for what it does today. Read all about it at the Hidden City Daily! Also, we've added a second tour date (July 12th) for my Forgotten Broad Street Tour!! Sign up now!!

99 Years Ago in Philadelphia: Middle of June, 1915

Hero Gives His Life to Save Children, Can't Stop Joking About It

           Early on a Wednesday morning, 42-year-old William H. McClellan was about to start hauling a bunch of shit for Peter Coyle's operation at 16th and Sansom Streets when he heard the ruckus from two runaway horses-- panicked and careening down 16th Street. McClellan then noticed that a large group of little kids were crossing 16th at Locust on their way to the Hollingsworth School at 15th and Locust. McClellan then jumped from his wagon and grabbed the bits of the horses, only to get trampled by them.
           Despite them stepping on his chest and FACE, he got back up, ran after the horses, grabbed their bits, and stopped them in their tracks. When police arrived, McClellan was laughing his ass off about the whole situation, wiping blood from his eyes and asking if anyone was hurt. They carried him into a patrol car and brought him to Hahnemann Hospital. He continued to joke with the officers about losing an eye in the ordeal shortly before dying on his hospital bed.

The Hollingsworth School, where the children were headed.

"Cleaner" Disposes of Body, Gets Caught By Bragging About It

               Off-duty cop W.C. Miller was just trying to get drunk at his favorite bar when he started getting annoyed at the boasting of one John Allen, who kept going on and on about how he could get rid of any dead body without anyone finding out. Miller then realized that a 28-year-old woman named Frances Carter had been missing for 6 months and was last seen in that neighborhood.
              Miller struck up a conversation with Allen's drunk ass and figured out that he had disposed of Frances Carter's body. Allen was arrested the next day. He did not admit to disposing of Frances Carter, but did admit that he and his wife shared a house with Walter and Nellie Wilson, the couple that Frances Carter had been seen with prior to her disappearance. Police went to that house, but got the address wrong. They were supposed to go to 1917 Webster Street, but ended up busting down the door at 1927 Webster Street and giving up after a search. 
             Just as police were leaving, neighbors came out of their homes and told the cops that they had seen a ghost walking down the 1900 block of Webster Street late at night for the previous 6 months. Apparently, this was something you could tell police back then and they'd be like, "Shit, let's keep looking!". There were also reports of a bad smell coming from 1917 Webster Street. "Murder Squad" Detectives William Mahoney and William Geonotti entered the home with "Special Policemen" Gibson and Dornick and started digging up the basement by candlelight. After 10 hours of exhaustive digging, the mangled, decomposed body of Frances Carter was found, along with the remains of a newborn infant.
           Frances Carter had been bludgeoned to death and buried half alive. Her body was so fucked up-looking that one of the coroners handling her body fainted twice. Another was sent home after puking his brains out. Walter Wilson was found hiding in a storeroom of a general store in New Rochelle, New York and arrested. The occupant of 1917 Webster Street, Levi Peters, explained that he was leased the house in January 1915, right after Carter's disappearance, by John Allen on Wilson's behalf. Allen had explained to him that Wilson and his wife needed to get out of town right away.
        The whole 1900 block of Webster Street was demolished in the 1980s, and was just re-born with a row of G-Ho specials in 2009-10. If you're going to bury a body there, don't go bragging about it. Also, the ghost of that body will tip people off.

Since the house where the body was found is long gone, here's John Allen's house at 1226 Reed Street from Google Streetview. Check that basement.

Bear Sighted In Tacony

               With all these bear sightings in the news lately, you should know that this is nothing unusual. On this week in 1915, a big, lumbering bear was seen on Longshore Street (now Longshore Avenue) in Tacony, which was then mostly a dirt path into a swamp... only the houses near Disston Park were built at that point. It wasn't just any old black bear that gets seen often around these parts-- it was a fucking brown bear!!
              Local residents found the closest cop they could find, an Officer Flick. Flick readied his weapon while the locals gathered up their own guns from their homes. Flick was the first to approach the bear, and nearly pissed his pants upon finding that the bear had men's shoes on. The night before, a Joe Small, an actor and stuntman, had gotten shitfaced drunk in Tacony and attempted to walk all the way to his home miles away, which meant crossing creeks, swamps, and bogs to Tacony's north and west.
              Small had been traveling all night and had passed out in the mud numerous times along the way. Officer Flick got a broom and brushed all the mud and clay off of Small, then brought him down to the station, where he was hosed off. When brought before Magistrate Borie, the judge couldn't stop laughing about the incident and let him go.

 Cherry Hill Is Closing!!

                Not Cherry Hill Mall, silly, Eastern State Penitentiary! Back then, the ESP still carried the old name of its pre-city grid encroachment location in the minds of local residents. Though still officially called Eastern State Penitentiary, it was colloquially known as "Cherry Hill". This week in 1915, Governor Brumbaugh signed the "Hess Bill", which consolidated Eastern and Western State Penitentiaries in a new prison in a centralized location in Centre County, which was already under construction.The then 86-year-old ESP would be shut down
               Those who worked for the local prison were PISSED. They didn't want to move to boring-ass Bellefonte, PA in order to keep their jobs! Also, it was claimed that the cost and effort to move the 1600 convicts from Eastern and the 800 from Western to this new place was going to be enormous. They pushed to get the convicts at Moyamensing Prison transferred to the old ESP to keep the place going.

Eastern State in 1913.

                 Well, you know how stubborn Philadelphians can be... Rockview, as it came to be called, ended up just taking on minimum security overflow from Western State Penitentiary. Eastern ended up staying open until 197fucking1! Rockview is still in use as a men's medium security joint. I'm sure it'll be on Lock-Up soon enough. Just keep checking MSNBC on a Saturday and you'll catch it.
          

Fill This Front: 9th and Locust

229 and 231 South 9th Street

            Man, oh man. Talk about a couple of buildings that have been pissing me off the thousands of times I've walked by them in the last decade. These two beautiful but dilapidated-ass buildings have been rocking empty storefronts for at least 20 years, but probably much longer. What's more, the singular owner of these two buildings is shrouded in mystery. These two storefronts could easily support any number of retail options. Until the wave of hospital-related construction came though here, one of them was in continuous use.
       These two buildings were constructed in the early 1920s, most likely to replace the old houses that stood here that were probably destroyed for subway construction. The store at 229 South Ninth was pretty well-known in the mid-20th Century as the Shell Art Novelty Company, where WWII vet Edward Dunav created and sold jewelry and other crafts made from sea shells for over 20 years. He would buy them from Australia, Japan, Zanzibar, and Trinidad. Then he would craft them into tourist gifts and sell them to hotels and resorts in Atlantic City, Wildwood, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, and the Bahamas. He also sold super-rare types of shells for collectors at the 229 South 9th Street shop.

229 South 9th today. Looks like they get a lot of junk mail.

            231 South 9th, the one at the corner, was a tailor shop until 1952 and then stayed empty until a Dr. William Eisenberg, an optometrist, bought the building with the intention of creating a practice on the first floor and apartments above. Unfortunately, some classic Philadelphia Bureaucratic Bullshit got in the way. In 1973, a new zoning code was adopted for the city and the building, which was previously zoned completely commercial, was re-zoned RC-4, which only allowed commercial on the first floor if the building was above 6 stories or had more than 25 residential units. Eisenberg had to appeal to the Zoning Board and ended up getting granted a variance in April of 1976.
         Around the same time, a tidal wave of redevelopment was happening in this part of the city. Building after building was destroyed and the one historic home in the area was moved to southwest corner of 8th and Locust. Empty dirt lots reigned supreme.

I've used this picture about 1000 times, but it illustrates so much! 1977 from the 800 block of Locust, looking North. The backs of the two buildings I'm talking about would be just off camera on the left

               Its hard to say what was going on with the buildings at this time but I can say that 231 and 229 were both purchased by the same owner, a mysterious non-profit called "Abbot, Inc" in 1992 and 1994, respectively. Ever since, they've been sitting there, looking shittier and shittier. Whoever this owner is, they also own all the other old houses on the block, including one that they just purchased for $825K in December 2013. 231 South 9th has accrued a buttload of L & I (excuse me, L + I) violations over the years.

There's a metal fence there now because this was a bum alcove for a couple of decades.

                 Is it possible that this mysterious Abbot Inc has been slowly attempting to acquire all the properties on this block in an attempt to build something new here? It would surely explain why they let these properties go to shit. The same group also owns 217 and 219 South 9th, two thirds of the empty lot just to the north.
              Well if that's the case, Abbot Inc or whatever you want to be called, GET IT THE FUCK DONE or clean up those two storefronts and put them up for lease. Maybe that'll get you some of the dough you need to get the rest of those lots and build whatever it is you've been sitting on these properties waiting to build. It better be worth the wait, you bastards. Otherwise, FILL THESE FRONTS!!!

Bloody hell

Butt-Fugly Building: 1521 Locust

1521 Locust Street

           T-- B-- Wha?!?!? What the fuck is this shit? I've probably walked by this building about 10,000 times in the last 11 years and somehow I never noticed it. I mean, really... this building is about as ugly and boring as ugly and boring gets. What a pile of crap. A big dirty concrete column with shit cladding and tiny windows. Somebody really fucked up with this one.
            This building is a relic from the 1970s revitalization of the 15th/Locust area, and seems to be the first (or at least oldest surviving) piece of construction from that attempt. Back then, the 1950s and 1960s construction of Penn Center was spreading its success further south, into old an old office neighborhood that hadn't seen its heyday since the 1930s. Real estate speculators started to get a hard-on for the neighborhood, recognizing its potential to be something great.
              In 1971, 1521-23 Locust was holding a 1922-built 8-story building that was falling apart. A partnership of realtors calling themselves "Executive Associates" lead by a Henry B. Cohen took control of the space and proposed a small new 10-story office building with the help of the Philadelphia Authority for Industrial Development. They then commissioned an architect named Anthony Orifice to design them the best possible piece of design you can produce in the period, which meant a bunch of concrete and tiny windows that are right next to each other. Essentially, Anthony Orifice pulled this pile of shit straight out of HIS orifice. Its not like they didn't know what they would get-- the most major piece of architecture ever designed by this dude was West Park Hospital up at 3905 Ford Road, now Wordsworth Academy and Jefferson Transitional Rehab.

Pulled from the same Orifice. I'm such a nice guy that I'll show you a pic of the building when it was brand new. Its actually not TOO bad. This guy should have stuck to suburbitecture. Image from the PAB.

             The old building at 1521 Locust got demolished later in 1971 and that demolition lead to a bunch of lawsuits, because this is Philadelphia. The building was finished by 1973. A couple of years later Academy House was built nearby, followed by 1500 Locust across the street. The neighborhood managed to change into a vibrant and modern area while still hanging on to its roots (McGlinchey's, for example). The offices have stayed relatively well-occupied since, and the storefront at the bottom has held everything from bars to video stores to the Jewish deli that occupies it today.
             That's great and all, but this piece of shit needs to be replaced with something a little less... well.. 1970s-ish. They could even preserve the building but completely replace the facade. Even better: get the Mural Arts motherfuckers to whip up something to liven-up that shitbird facade. At this point, they could paint some actual shitbirds on it and it would look better. Feh.

Look at that big-ass party wall on the side. Maybe that could be painted with a mural of a good-looking building?

Fill This Front: 1516 Chestnut

The fuck?

              Folks, this is a different kind of Fill This Front. The storefront at 1516 Chestnut does have a tenant lined up-- but has stayed shuttered for over two straight years due to bad luck and some good old fashioned Philadelphia Bureaucratic Bullshit, or PBB. This awesomely-located 2500 square foot (not counting the 975 square foot mezzanine) storefront had little reason to stay empty as it did. Not only that-- the upper floors have been vacant for decades!
              1516 Chestnut is in itself an interesting building. It was built in 1922 under the designs of Frank E. Hahn, meant to be used for both store and office purposes. Its first storefront tenant was Oshkosh Luggage, which held it down until 1930, when Llewellyn's, who billed themselves as "Philadelphia's Standard Drug Store", took over... only to close after 3 years. George B. Bains and Sons Leather Goods took over after that, only to close and be replaced by another drug store in 1939, when the upper floors were being used as the Latvian Consulate. In the 1940s, Stylepark hats inhabited the spot.

Look how clean the building was in 1949. Image from the Free Library of Philadelphia

            After Stylepark, the building was kind of outdated and the entire structure, including the storefront, stood vacant for years. In 1960, the structure got somewhat modernized and a Dunhill of London tobacco store moved into the storefront and lasted until 1967. That's when Ladybug, a women's clothing store, came along and held down the space all the way into the 1980s.

Ladybug in 1970. Image from PhillyHistory.org

             In the modern era, Z Ladies Boutique was the last tenant to have a store in the space. This store was one of those clothing stores that sold, shall we say, INTERESTING apparel. The kind of place where you see the clothes and say to yourself, "Oh, so this is where you buy that stuff".

The interior of the store from the Z Ladies Boutique photobucket.

                   After Z Ladies closed in 2011, the space went up for rent and by the start of 2012 slated to become a location of the Jacksonville, Florida-based chain Firehouse Subs. You'd think after opening 770 locations in 41 states and Puerto Rico, opening up in this little spot in downtown Philadelphia would go just fine... the thing they weren't counting on: PBB, or Philadelphia Bureaucratic Bullshit.
                  It ends up that the signage proposed for the storefront was to be 69.95 square feet, well above the holy zoning code's requirement of 36 square feet.

OMG look at the fucking size of that thing!! This is an outraaaage!!

            It took over a year for them to get a Zoning Adjustment, by which point someone down in Jacksonville must of just said "fuck it" and the project was dead. Not sure why the Firehouse Subs never happened, but I don't think its unreasonable to assume that having to wait over a year for stupid paperwork to go through the city's bloated bureaucratic structure had something to do with it. In the Fall of 2013, a new proposed use came to the storefront: Popeye's!!!

                
                   Don't worry-- this time, the sign is well under 36 square feet. Its the little medallion on the door that needs approvals. After many months, it seems to have gotten that approval because a new permit for the reconstruction of the 1516 storefront is now active. So it seems this front may get filled after all!
                So why bring it up? Well, to show others like me, who get pissed off at long-empty storefronts, why they sometimes can stay empty despite having lots of folks with lots of money interested in making use of the space. However, just in case that Popeye's doesn't happen, let me just make sure to say: FILL THIS FRONT!

...and Fill This Building while you're at it!

    

Old-Ass Building of the Week: Ioska Tribe IORM

2852 Frankford Avenue

Pic by Brad Maule

                  When in Kensington, check out these bitch-bastard-- shitty garage, Native American relic, or fraternal organization lodge? Find out at the Hidden City Daily!