A couple of readers have reached out in recent weeks, asking what’s going on at 1537 Christian St., a building that’s currently being renovated. Though the exterior of the building looks pretty good, the commercial space on the first floor hasn’t been in use, to our knowledge, since a dry cleaners operated out of there many years ago. Now, the interior of the building has been gutted, and all of the windows removed.

In the past

Yesterday in the rain

Pham Family LLC purchased the property about a year ago for $295K. The listing stated that the building had five apartments and a vacant commercial space that could house such businesses as a “cafeteria, doctor, dentist, accountant, pharmacy, [or] organization.” Not bad. But according to the L&I Map, the new owners won’t be putting in any of those businesses, but will instead be opening a hair salon in the space. In addition, the number of apartments will be reduced from five to two. Looking at the photo above, we see several windows bricked in- hopefully this isn’t a precursor for stuccoing the entire facade.

Meanwhile, down the street, the Christian Street Cafe seems to have closed after just a couple of years.

Closed for now or for good?

Looking closer, a sign on the door indicates that they’re only temporarily closed, and will soon reopen under new management. A huge relief, we’d guess, for kids at Stanton School who surely patronized this business with regularity for before and after-school snacks. Hopefully the new owners will still serve those tasty and affordable sandwiches, but only time will tell.