In general, the architecture in West Philadelphia puts architecture in the rest of Philadelphia to shame. We're particularly fond of the many Victorian homes with their colorful bays and expansive porches, but sometimes it's the unique stuff that catches our eye. Earlier today, we were zipping around the blocks just below Baltimore Avenue and came upon 901 S. 48th St., a building that we somehow never noticed before. This thing seriously looks like a castle.
In front of the property, there's a sign that describes it as 'The Castle Executive Apartments.' Well, clearly it looks like a castle on the outside, but we can't be sure of what the executive apartments look like. We tried calling Powelton Properties, the company that manages the building, to get some insight, but they didn't have any info on the building's history and could only tell us that there are no current vacancies. The owner of the property bought it back in 2000, and an old listing indicates had eight units at that time with rent numbers topping out at $675/mo for a three-bedroom. Even back then, those were some low rent numbers.
This building looks a lot like the Sedgley at 45th & Pine, a building that got totally renovated a couple years ago. We would imagine they were built at the same time and perhaps designed by the same architect, but we can't get any solid info on that front. We wonder, what inspired the construction of these castle-like structures back then? And why did it only happen in a few locations? And why can't new buildings today look this cool?