In East Kensington

The ZBA approved a major residential plan last week at 1920 E. Orleans St., the former Willard Elementary School. We've covered a few projects on this side of Lehigh Avenue in recently years, but those have all been south of Frankford Avenue in Port Richmond. This project will be happening

The 2000 block of Trenton Avenue contains a bit of an odd mix, with one side of the block lined with houses built in the last half dozen years, and the other side (mostly) home to relics to the neighborhood's industrial past. Here's what we mean:One side of the streetAcross

At first glance, and honestly at second glance too, the 2100 block of E. Dakota St. doesn't exactly seem like a wonderful place to build new homes. The narrow street feels like an alleyway, with mostly backyards from buildings on Arizona and Dauphin Streets. But if you consider the pace

Last fall, we told you about two new homes from Callahan Ward on the 1900 block of E. Cumberland Street, about a block off of Kensington Avenue. Since it was a by-right project, the developers didn't have any renderings for the homes, so you needed to use some imagination to

We're seeing a common redevelopment theme these days in East Kensington, though it's much more obvious on some blocks than on others. Last week we found ourselves on the 2000 block of E. Hazzard St., a block that's in the midst of some fairly significant changes. Just a few years

There's another small project coming to East Kensington, but we're not exactly sure what it'll look like. Today we spied a zoning notice at 2023 E. Letterly St., a vacant lot on a block that sits between Coral and Emerald Streets. Homes only line one side of the block, with

For quite a number of years, Woods Brothers Building Materials occupied a giant property at 2621 Frankford Ave., just a little below Lehigh Avenue. And we're not exaggerating when we say it's a giant property, it measures over 87,000 sqft. But very little of the property was covered by buildings,

When we last visited the 2000 block of E. Fletcher St. back in 2012, we were telling you about plans for a new six-unit building which has, in the elapsed time, been built and is now occupied. We also brought a vacant building to your attention next door at 2028

As the residential landscape of East Kensington changes, so too will the commercial landscape. Already, we're seeing new businesses open on Frankford Avenue in the neighborhood, like a comic shop and a tattoo place that have appeared in recent months on the 2500 block. On Front Street we're seeing positive

Recently, on a jaunt to East Kensington, we spotted three new homes under construction on the 1900 block of E. Arizona Street. There's a rough-looking one-story building at the end of this block, where it hits Emerald Street, with a homemade street sign that declares this Beer Belly Boulevard. Sounds