Earlier this winter we wrote about the possible development of a Francisville lot in the middle of Winding Roses Park, an underutilized neighborhood park located at Uber and Brown, a block away from the Francisville Rec Center. This space had been a quasi-public green space for years, with City agencies owning four of the five lots that make up the park.

Back in January

Regrettably, 1911 Brown St., a lot in the middle of the park, is privately owned by a developer named William Guzman. Over the winter, Guzman moved to build a single-family home on his lot. Our previous story about the lot quoted a Daily News article that said that Guzman was willing to swap his lot for another in the area, but miscommunication and perhaps insufficient effort on the parts of several parties meant that this was not to be. So if you happen to pass by what used to be Winding Roses Park in the near future, you’ll see a giant pimple in the form of a home in the middle of its five-lot stretch.

The park today

From the east

And there’s plenty of other development on this block alone. To the east, at 19th & Brown, we spotted signs for four new triplexes to be developed by the Loonstyn’s, the same group now developing 35-units at 19th & Poplar. In our original post about this lot, we suggested the owner could swap this lot out for a larger vacant lot owned by the Philadelphia Housing Authority with the same zoning located at 1919 Brown Street. Well, just next door, we spotted a new foundation for a single-family home.

New foundation at 1921 Brown St.

As for the future of what’s left of Winding Roses Park, we can’t say. Will the remainder of the lots remain as open green space? Or will the City agencies that own them seek to have them redeveloped, like much of the other vacant land on this block? We’ll keep an eye on this, and will update you if we hear any news.

–Lou Mancinelli