In South West Philadelphia

It wasn't even two weeks ago that we told you about a gorgeous but deteriorating church at the corner of 52nd & Chester, opining that the new owners of the property would likely tear it down. We visited this building thanks to a reader tip, so we zipped out to

It was roughly half a decade ago that we directed your attention to the Word Tabernacle Baptist Church, a congregation that was worshiping out of a gorgeous building at 52nd & Chester, in Kingsessing. In the story, we expressed some degree of surprise that the congregation was able to use the

Anyone traveling towards the Gaslands above and below the Passyunk Avenue bridge may notice a small set of rowhouses set between a whole slew of industrial sites. This forgotten neighborhood has stood isolated from the rest of the residential parts of the city for its entire 150+ year existence and

Within the last six months, we've covered three projects that indicate growing developer interest in student housing projects further south and further west than we've traditionally seen in Southwest Philadelphia. The first example was at 1047 S. 51st St., where developers proposed a 12-unit building on a vacant lot just south

We were rather surprised, last month, when we learned about a plan for twelve units on 51st Street in Southwest Philadelphia, south of the Media/Elwyn tracks. At the time, we noted that it might be a tough sell to get students to live in a building in this location, as nobody

Last week, we told you about a student housing project that should soon get started on the 1000 block of S. 51st St., and we made a big deal out of the fact that developers believed that tenants would be willing to cross the Media/Elwyn rail tracks to get home at

We've provided a staggering amount of coverage of student housing's northern push in West Philadelphia, telling you about countless new projects extending to Haverford Avenue and beyond. With some of the prospects drying up to the north, it seems developers have taken a new shine to opportunities to the west

Intuitively, you might expect that the block of 50th Street south of Baltimore Avenue would be a solid block, with a mix of housing and retail runoff from the commercial corridor. And you'd be correct! What's somewhat surprising though, is that this situation is a relatively recent development. If we

Student housing development has exploded in the West Philadelphia neighborhoods surrounding Penn and Drexel over the last several years, and it doesn't seem to be stopping any time soon. Already, the southern blocks of Mantua are littered with new apartment buildings, and we've covered a couple new projects coming to

The buildings at 4700 Kingsessing Ave. were constructed over a century ago, designed by Frank Furness and originally housing the Church of Atonement. By the time 2013 rolled around, the property was in shambles, with neighbor concerns about structural issues resulting in an L&I violation that put the future of