A “vacant” lot at 2511 E. Firth St. is filling in, and three new homes are shaping up. This property was owned by the owner of the adjacent home, who bought it from the City about twenty years ago, for use as a side lot. As $1 side lots go, this is one of the better deals we’ve seen, as the property is quite large, measuring about 36′ wide by 69′ deep. It appears that the lot sat unused and overgrown for a few years and then the owner carved a small space out of the lot for use as a parking space.
Greensgrow operates out of a full city block across the street, but doesn’t own that property, renting from NKCDC. The do, however, own 2513 E. Firth St., which sits next door to the property in question and houses Philadelphia Bee Company and likely some additional storage for Greensgrow. This company produces honey (‘natch) and also specializes in bee education and stinging bug removal. It appears that they were using a portion of 2511 E. Firth St. before developers bought it, but now the bee operation is limited to the property next door.
As we said, three homes are now under construction at 2511 E. Firth St., on a property that’s only 36′ wide. That means that these homes are quite skinny, which is a feature we’ve seen plenty in East Kensington. There are so many tiny lots in this part of town, so it’s natural that developers are building homes that conform with the existing lot widths. We’re pretty sure though, that this is the first example of a project where the developers got a variance to subdivide an existing property to purposefully build ultra-slim homes.
One other unique feature of these lots is the existence of a steel structure in the rear which looks like the remains of a building that once fronted Almond Street. It looks like the new homes go right up to the steel structure, which means that they will have some rather unique backyards when they’re finished. That being said, the apiary next door might mean that whoever ends up living in these homes won’t be spending all that much time out back, at least during the warm weather months. So they might not get much use, but those yards will be among the most unusual in town.