We’ve covered a fair number of former churches being reused for new purposes over the years. In Point Breeze, Manayunk, East Falls, Roxborough and other neighborhoods, we’ve seen plenty of religious and auxiliary structures converted into housing and other quotidian purposes as financial capacities and membership numbers have waned at different congregations.

On the whole, Philadelphians aren’t churchgoing folks to the same extent as they were a hundred years ago or more. We just don’t need as many churches as we once did, and that’s saying nothing of the expense of keeping up these larger buildings that tend to have ornate details inside and out. As more churches are converted to apartments, our built environment remains that much more interesting, especially considering that the alternative is wholesale demolition.

Sure, many of the old churches in Philadelphia are striking architecturally, and their demolition would truly be a sin (no pun intended). But every church isn’t the Hagia Sophia. There are some much simpler churches in this town, whose reuse is less about architectural preservation and more about the utilitarian idea of using a building that’s already there to accommodate a new use. And that’s exactly what we’re seeing at 5145 Delancey St., the longtime home of the Third NEI Baptist Missionary.

The building changed hands earlier this spring and the new owners quickly sought permission to convert the old church into a 6-unit apartment building. From plans from Level Nine Architects we can see the first and second floors will each have two 2 bedroom apartments, while the smaller third floor with have two 1 bedroom units. The relatively small floor plates, abundance of windows on three sides, and relatively simple building layout allows for fairly conventional apartments with decent access to light and air, which has been a challenge at times for other adaptive re-uses of religious sites.

Unfortunately this relatively simple adaptive re-use project runs afoul of the city’s zoning code. Despite the building’s decades-long history of institutional use, zoning for this lot only allows single family attached housing. A similar project would’ve been allowed by-right on some of the nearby blocks with more permissive zoning, but here a variance was required to add some density to this largely residential street.

Unlike other higher-profile redevelopment proposals for churches in Philadelphia, the conversion of this (admittedly rather prosaic) former religious building seems to have neither stirred up strong nostalgic emotions or promoted resistance, with the local RCO supporting the project. At the end of the day it does seem a bit silly that adding a few apartments in an existing building so close to the 52nd Street commercial corridor requires discretionary approval, so we’re certainly grateful the ZBA swiftly approved this project.