We've covered many changes at the intersection of 19th & Catharine over the years, as we've watched two churches get torn down, with homes rising in their place. Our most recent visit to this corner was over a year ago when new owners took over a long vacant building on the northwest corner. This property has been vacant for many years, but got a new facade a couple of years ago. Also, in the back of the property, we seem to recall an ice cream shop once upon a time, but there's been no business operating there for some time.
The owner is the same person that owns 19 Degrees, a small cafe a block away- she also owns a property near 20th & Carpenter that was to be a pho place but is now a vacant lot. In the last week or two, renovations started on this property, with larger window openings on the first floor and new windows seemingly on the way upstairs. We poked our head into 19 Degrees to get the skinny, but no info was forthcoming. Still, the fact that this building is finally getting some love would suggest that the neighborhood is getting a new corner business in the near future.
This is par for the course at this intersection, which has seen unbelievable changes in the last several years. Google Maps images from 2007 show the old Varick AME church on the northeast corner and the more architecturally reserved Bethel Gospel Tabernacle on the southwest corner. Both are now gone, and homes have risen in their place. On the northeast corner, it's ten homes that went up a couple of years ago (after the lot sat vacant for quite awhile), and on the southwest corner it's three homes that were finished just last year.
This intersection is, in many ways, a microcosm of development in this neighborhood. Many churches have been demolished in favor of homes, and most of the vacant lots have been filled by now. While it's certainly not our pleasure to see the architectural diversity reduced in the neighborhood as buildings with considerable history get demolished, this is often how things go in a living, breathing city. Hug your favorite building today, because tomorrow it might disappear.