Though we've visited South Kensington on countless occasions, we don't think we ever found ourselves on the 1200 block of N. Hancock Street. So when a reader reached out, mentioning that a church at 1217-23 N. Hancock St. had recently changed hands, we couldn't even picture the building. When we actually made our way to the property, we couldn't see it very well because of the foliage out front.
Thanks to an old Loopnet listing, we can show you what this place looks like when the trees are not in bloom.
The Loopnet listing indicates that the structure was originally built in 1855, though the Preservation Alliance seems to think it was constructed in 1889. Whichever source you want to trust, it's clear that the building was originally the Hancock Street Methodist Episcopal Church and it is quite old. According to the reader that brought the property to our attention in the first place, the building has been sitting empty for about three years. This makes sense, as it's been on and off the market a few times over those years. Most recently, it was listed for sale at the end of April and sold in a cash deal for $515K at the end of May. Public record hasn't caught up with the sale, so we couldn't tell you who bought the property.
As for what's next, it's anybody's guess. The church has roughly 11K sqft of interior space and would seem to lend itself to a residential conversion. On the other hand, it would probably be much more lucrative to demolish the building and construct town homes, with the 80'x80' parcel lending itself to several layout possibilities. It doesn't seem that any permits have been pulled just yet, and until that occurs we can only speculate about what will ultimately happen here.