Back in Philadelphia’s early manufacturing heyday, numerous blocks in Kensington were developed with a hodgepodge of factories, warehouses, civic buildings, and housing all packed together. For instance: while today the 1900 block of E. Sergeant Street is mostly rowhomes and the Henry A. Brown Elementary School, the block once housed a woolen mill, a smelting works, and even a slaughterhouse.

Despite the long history of intensive uses throughout the neighborhood, most of the parcels on the surrounding blocks are only zoned for single family homes. Even if a property was once home to a smelting works, a small apartment building on this block now requires a zoning variance from the ZBA.

Earlier this week, developers presented plans to the East Kensington Neighborhood Association for a six unit building at 1939-43 E Sergeant St., which is zoned single-family despite its historic industrial use. There’s currently a two-story building here with a garage, but that would be demoed in anticipation of this project. A side entrance to the building will be accessed via a private side walkway, behind a gated door. While narrow, a side setback should help ensure all of the units have a decent amount of light and air. Also nice, the apartments on the top floors will have private balconies.

As we can see from the renderings from Fusa Designs, the use of brick, paneling, balconies, and bay windows will closely match the aesthetic of the neighboring building. This property, 2534 Emerald St., was renovated by the same development team, who added two floors to an old garage.

The project at the corner was built by-right, with the developers including a small commercial space along Emerald Street, currently occupied by City Cycling. From the zoning records we can see some sort of rehab project was also proposed for the existing warehouse building at 1939 E Sergeant St., but the project was withdrawn before the ZBA could make a final decision. Given the situation, we have to wonder whether the legacy building could’ve been preserved if the property was zoned differently.

Given how well it fits into the dimensional context of the block, especially with a similar building already built next door, we’re optimistic the ZBA will approve this project next month. Especially enticing, the six 2-bedroom apartments could be a real boon to young families hoping to send their kids to the elementary school across the street. While we wish that this property was zoned differently and this project didn’t need to go through the zoning process, we’re excited for it to enter the pipeline and look forward to seeing it break ground, hopefully later this year.