Doesn't it bug you when you come home after a long day at work and find a take-out menu from a pizza place you've never heard of jammed into your mailbox? Alas. Maybe a decade ago, we came home to find a menu from a pizza place hilariously named "The Pizza Place" and the menu included some pretty compelling coupons, so we gave the them a shot. And wouldn't you know it, the pizza was actually pretty good. And with the coupon it was incredibly inexpensive to boot. We got delivery from this place a bunch of times over the years, but never actually visited the store at the northwest corner of 7th & Morris. It ain't the prettiest intersection in town.
So we were rather surprised to hear from a reader earlier this week with news that the surface parking lot pictured above was no more. A large hole has appeared in its place.
The parking lot consisted of 637-41 Morris St., three lots owned by two different parties. Though it's not reflected in public record, we have to imagine one developer now owns all three lots, and they're just getting started on the construction of three new homes. We have to imagine they'll ultimately be offered for sale. Looking just to the north, we were hopeful that the remaining vacant lots at the corner of 7th & Mountain has also changed hands, but that doesn't seem to be the case. At least not yet.
As we said, this hasn't been the most attractive corner in South Philly to date, but the addition of three new homes at the expense of the surface parking lot will make for an improvement. This is a bit of a funny location, a few blocks west of Dickinson Square Park and several blocks away from Passyunk Avenue. Nevertheless, the Dickinson Narrows area has seen steady improvement in recent years, and this could be a sign of more development to come.