People living in Northwest Philadelphia probably think of Cresheim Creek as the wooded waterway serving as a border between the verdant neighborhoods of Mount Airy and Chestnut Hill. Today the area around the creek is a bucolic green space, with a walking trail that leads to the Wissahickon. A century ago however, the presence of a Pennsylvania Railroad spur alongside the creek near Germantown Avenue made some of the adjacent land attractive for industrial uses.

Taking advantage of the rail frontage along the Pennsylvania Railroad’s Whitemarsh Branch, St. Martin’s Coal Company built offices and storage facilities at 7600 Germantown Ave. in 1916 to serve the retail energy needs of the growing nearby neighborhoods. While technically on the Mount Airy side of the creek, the company was named after the southwest section of Chestnut Hill. Even a hundred years ago, folks were playing fast and loose with neighborhood names and boundaries when they thought doing so would provide them with a little extra prestige!

With the gradual abandonment of rail service along the line after WWII and the decline of coal heating, the property transitioned to a contractor’s office by the 1970s. The Colonial Revival St. Martin’s Coal Company office was historically designated by the Philadelphia Historical Commission in 2021, though the rest of the roughly 1 acre property is sitting mostly vacant. Now, developers are not only looking to repurpose the former coal company’s office into a prepared food shop, but they’re also hoping to fill in the rest of the site with a project that will entail the construction of eight homes.

The developers went to the Historical Commission over the summer and got approval, seeing as no part of the historic building would be demolished or moved as part of the new construction. But that was only the first step. Next, the property owners need variances from the ZBA. From the plans provided by C2 Architecture, we can see the new structures will be set back from Germantown Ave., due to the long, skinny nature of the property.

With construction on the 114 unit mixed-use building progressing nicely across the street and the neighboring commercial building on Germantown Avenue listed for sale, this area is primed for a transformation in the coming years. We can certainly understand the appeal of this pocket of Northwest Philly with easy access to Chestnut Hill and Mount Airy, with its combination of mature trees, attractive architecture, and a vibrant commercial corridor. We only wish that more density was allowed here as a matter of right, but we could say the same about most parts of the city.

With so little new construction around these parts, we imagine these townhouses will get snapped up pretty quickly, if the project gets approval from the ZBA. Assuming it does, here’s to hoping that the adjacent abandoned railroad right of way can be repurposed as well.