You’d be forgiven for never having heard of Braddock Street, as it exists for exactly one block on the edge of East Kensington and then comes and goes in Harrowgate before disappearing forever at Glenwood Avenue. Today we look at the one block in East Kensington, which we have incidentally covered relatively recently. You may recall, Streamline is currently building 40 units at 2601 Emerald St., on a parcel that was used by various industrial businesses over the years. That property runs from Emerald to Braddock Street, and the first Braddock Street buildings constitute the first phase. Here’s a view of those buildings from up the block:

That’s six triplexes and a duplex, in case you’re wondering, and like we told you before, the units are listed for sale for just under $300K. But there’s more construction happening down the street, closer to Lehigh Avenue. First, let’s consider 2669 Braddock St., a double-wide parcel that was sitting vacant for a long time. With Streamline already working on a large project down the street, it must have seemed like an easy move to buy this parcel as well, and now they’re building two homes here. The homes are already listed for sale, for $440K. A reminder, these homes are just a few steps off of Lehigh, but we imagine they’ll find buyers at somewhere near their asking price.

Across the street from the two new homes is a row of two-story twins, with significant setbacks from the sidewalk. Developers bought 2660 Braddock St. in 2017, and are moving through the renovation process. This renovation also entails adding a third story to the existing home, and thankfully increasing the number of windows on the 2nd floor.

Usually when we think of twin homes in Philadelphia, gorgeous West Philly Victorian architecture comes to mind. Clearly, these homes don’t hold a candle to those. Still, people have to live somewhere, and not every home in town is going to be a work of art. As this area came up as a working class neighborhood, it makes sense that the homes don’t have the same flair as in West Philadelphia, which first developed as a suburb to provide respite from the city for its monied residents. In contrast to those West Philly palaces, figure that this block of Braddock Street won’t receive any historic designation consideration any time soon.