For years, we’ve wondered about 622 Federal St., a home that doesn’t look like anything else you might find in this neighborhood or any other in Philadelphia, for that matter.

The house

We’re not saying we love the building’s appearance or hate it, but it’s certainly one of the more unique homes we’ve come across. Looking at the first of the home’s two floors, we see a bricked up window, so it stands to reason that the first floor has been in existence for many years. The stuccoed second floor looks like it could have either been original but regrettably renovated at some point or simply an addition, thrown on top of the attractive brick base at some point in the building’s history.

First floor

Upstairs. Democrats seem to live here.

We did a little digging, and discovered a little information about the building’s last iteration. Looking at sales history, we were able to find a photo of the building from back in 2000. And the photo, it turns out, confirms one of our suspicions.

Low res, but you get the idea

Yes folks, prior to becoming an unusual house, this formerly one-story property was home to a water ice place. The eastern window was already bricked up in 2000, which means that the property surely had some other use (or uses) before it became a water ice spot. Has anyone lived in that area for a couple of decades and can shed some more light on the history of the building? Do people like the way it looks now? Hate it? Wish they could move in tomorrow?

We’re not sure we want to move in, but we’d love to take a tour sometime…