Here’s a game we like to play when strolling around town – it’s called “Spot the Firehouse.” Active firehouses are worth zero points and former firehouses are worth all the points. It’s fun because there are so many of them sprinkled around Philadelphia’s neighborhoods, and you can generally spot them pretty quickly if you’re on the lookout. Over the years we’ve covered a number of old firehouses, most enthusiastically when projects are able to adaptively re-use existing buildings, like the recently opened Jaffa Bar in the former building for Engine 15 in South Kensington.

But sometimes old firehouses end up getting demolished. While not all of these old buildings are particularly architecturally noteworthy, they often have some charm, even if they’ve been modified quite a bit over the years. So we were excited to see a recent proposal to convert the former Engine #34 firehouse at 1311 N. 27th St. into a small residential building.

The proposal would add a third story to the building, resulting in five 2-bedroom apartments and an interior parking spot. In the renderings from 24/7 Design Group we can see that the setback of the addition will diminish its visibility from the street, and the use of grey brick will contrast notably with the older red brick of the existing building. If the developers really want to capture our hearts, they could go with a cladding that looks like fish scales, to complement the Hammer & String Mews homes next door.

The fire engines left for a greener and new pastures back in 1976, and this building has housed a roofing business for a number of years since then. Despite the building’s previous municipal and commercial uses, it’s zoned for a single family use, as are nearly all of the parcels on the surrounding blocks. The application of the Brewerytown-Sharswood/Celestial Community Overlay also imposes further restrictions on the building, like a lower height maximum and a prohibition on balconies. But at a recent meeting of the Brewerytown Sharswood Community Civic Association, the objections from neighbors were broader than the technical refusals from which the project needs relief.

In addition to the typical concerns about the lack of sufficient parking, neighbors brought up concerns about the new building’s impact on the Brewerytown Garden, which abuts the former firehouse at the rear. While a commitment to maintain the existing accessible entrance to the garden around the side of the old fire house seemed to alleviate some concerns, others express more hostile feedback about the impact of construction upon the garden. From where we sit, adding apartments in a gentrifying neighborhood while preserving an older building seems like a worthy trade for temporarily disturbing a compost pile, but the two dozen or so folks participating in the meeting largely disagreed, voting to oppose the project by a healthy margin.

The ZBA could certainly decide to grant the requested variances when they hear this case next month, but the project has an uphill battle in the face of strong opposition of the local RCO. If an adaptive re-use of this old fire house can’t get approval at some point down the road, we may see an owner decide that their best bet is to knock down the existing building and start from scratch. Indeed, it would be a real shame if concerns about this community garden ultimately sink this project and Brewerytown loses a unique part of its urban fabric as a result.