In Brewerytown

It was nearly seven years ago that we first brought the W.G. Schweiker building at 2621 W. Jefferson St. to your attention, noting at the time that it was listed for sale for $80K (too high a price, at the time!). The building caught our eye because it had spectacular

Baby boomers ran from cities in America, but millennials have embraced the urban living experience, if we may generalize. Ask a random baby boomer (and not an empty-nester that's come back to town in recent years) why they choose the suburban lifestyle, and they may tell you that the city is

Just north of Girard Avenue, several blocks of Ridge Avenue have been sitting vacant for as many years as we can remember. This is quite a change from the scene on these blocks in the middle of the 20th century, when this section of Ridge was an African American entertainment

We were in Brewerytown earlier today, and a zoning notice at 1222 N. 29th St. caught our eye in passing. In spying the zoning notice, we had an excuse to stare at this wonderful edifice for a moment, admiring its gabled roof, intact cornice, and the brickwork on the facade. Curious

Brewerytown's most prolific developer is set to take on the neighborhood's largest white elephant. A little less than two years ago, we told you that a developer had purchased the old Red Bell Brewery at 1500 N. 31st St. and we believed that redevelopment was on the horizon. Then we waited around

Turn back the clock many decades, and Columbia Avenue (now Cecil B. Moore Avenue) was the major commercial corridor in North Philadelphia. A massive riot in 1964 decimated the corridor though, and the damage was so extensive that it still hasn't really recovered. Only in recent years have we seen consistent

As a creative exercise, let's pretend that you're looking to buy a new home. In this, the age of unlimited information, you have many ways to attack this problem. You can search online, looking for new listings every morning and night. But that sounds exhausting. You can find yourself a

Forgive the obviousness of the following statement, but the vast majority of Philadelphia's housing stock was built in a radically different era than the one we find ourselves living in today. Even for simple row homes, architect often designed elaborate facades, and the individuals building those homes were willing to

A little less than a year ago, we visited the 2500 block of W. Oxford St. and discovered a block on the edge of Brewerytown that was full of potential. If we're being less nice, we could alternately say the block looked like crap. The north side of the block

Just last week, we were discussing a six home project on the 1300 block of N. 27th Street, excited that these homes were filling in a lot that had been sitting vacant for a long while. We didn't know it at the time, but it turns out there are a