We were traveling across South Philadelphia the other day and spotted some construction projects on the 500 and 600 blocks of McKean Street, an unsurprising sight given some other development we've seen in this neck of the woods in recent years. On the 500 block, two lots at 537 and 539 McKean St. had been sitting vacant for many years and are now seeing a pair of homes rise. These homes will have some nice balconies on the upper floors, giving them a different look than the standard new construction home you'll see around town.
On the very next block, two more homes are under construction. At 606 McKean St., the same developers working on the homes on the 500 block are building another home. This is pretty clear based on the architectural similarities of the three homes. At 602 McKean St., V2 Properties is staking claim to yet another project in this area, where they've already built a ton of homes. It's clear that the home is being built by V2 both because that's what it says on public record and a sign in the window of the new home says as much.
As we said, there has been a bunch of other development in this pocket, generally on smaller blocks like Mercy and Emily Street. We've had some trouble in the past properly identifying this part of town, perhaps because some of it sits within a bit of an RCO vacuum. The new homes on the 600 block are inside the East Passyunk Crossing Civic Association, because the organization pushed its boundaries from 8th to 6th Street a couple years ago. Technically, the homes on the 500 block fall under the jurisdiction of the Seven Street Community Civic Organization RCO, but we don't know much about that group nor would we know what to call the neighborhood inside their boundaries. Perhaps in this case it's best to look to Zillow, which has decided to label as 'Greenwich' the area between Mifflin and Snyder, 4th and 9th Streets. Then again, people tend to get pretty miffed when real estate people start renaming their neighborhoods.
What would you call the neighborhood between Mifflin and Snyder, 4th and 6th Streets? West Moyamensing? Upper Whitman? Lower Dickinson Narrows? East Point Breeze? Or does it already have a name that has simply escaped our attention? Please somebody, educate us!