Perhaps in your travels around town, you’ve stumbled upon a handsome but weary looking building on the northwest corner of 26th & Wharton. Wharton Hall, as the building was originally called when it was constructed in the late 1800s, has an interesting history and a potentially exciting future.

Wharton Hall in 1959

According to Hidden City, the building was originally used as a meeting hall and an occasional boxing venue, and was converted into a Catholic School in the 1920s. The school moved down the street in the late 1950s, and a photo shop took over the building for the next several decades. It’s sat vacant, to our knowledge, for over a decade, and while its facade has deteriorated, the bones still look pretty good. A reader tipped us off recently, though, that the beat-up building is finally getting the love it’s been craving for years.

From the west

South side of the building

Corner view. Check out the contrast of the repainted cornices

Oooh

Thankfully, most of the exterior details appear to be getting restored while the interior is getting gutted and rebuilt. According to a zoning application, there will be four apartments in this building and a restaurant on the first floor. We haven’t heard any news on plans for a restaurant tenant, but will certainly share them if we hear anything. A cool restaurant in an awesome building would be just what the doctor ordered for this area, which is on the edge of Point Breeze development but still contains a ton of blight and vacancy.

Can’t wait to see the finished product.