We spotted a building draped in a blue tarp yesterday while enjoying the unseasonable warmth, and figured there might be a story to tell about said draped building. We’d never noticed the tarp before (though we’re not in Fishtown nearly as much as we should be), so we’re guessing that it’s a relatively new addition to 1526 Frankford Ave.

Yesterday

Looking at public record, the property was purchased by the cleverly named 1526-36 Frankford Avenue Lp back in 2011 for $330K. While that price seemed a little high to us, we quickly realized the enormity of this property, and that the new owners also purchased a large Front Street property as part of the package. Take a look at this image, which shows the entire parcel that was included in the purchase.

Yeesh, that's a lot of land.

According to some older listings for the property, the warehouses pictured above were vacant and in various states of disrepair. At least one of them was partially demolished, and it sounded as if some independent collapsing had occurred as well. Nevertheless, it can only be considered good news that these structures have new owners who will likely renovate them for reuse or tear them down and start fresh.

One interesting tidbit to add- looking at the Google Streetview from 2009, when the facade of the building pictured above was still there, we noticed a connection to another property that we’ve written about in the past.

Samuel Machinery Co.

You can’t really make it out in the photo above (just trust us), but the sign on the warehouse is for the Samuel Machinery Co., a vacant and blighted building on 3rd Street in Old City. We couldn’t tell you whether the Frankford Ave. location was for storage of items built on 3rd St. or vice versa, but it’s an interesting connection that we never suspected as we passed by yesterday. And with a recently reactivated alteration permit for the Old City building, perhaps both former Samuel Machinery locations will see new life in the very near future.

The Old City building looks better than the warehouse in Fishtown, architecturally speaking, even in this condition