In January, we told you about changes coming to two churches in the Graduate Hospital neighborhood– upcoming demolition for Mt. Olive AME church at 19th and Fitzwater Sts., and adaptive reuse for Greater St. Matthew Baptist Church, at Fitzwater St. and Grays Ferry Ave.

St. Matt's

At the SOSNA zoning meeting earlier this week, the developers for St. Matt’s returned to the community to present their plan to convert the church building and the rectory next door into thirty-eight rental apartment units. In the main building, the proposed thirty apartments will spread out over four stories, with bilevel units on the third and fourth floors. Most of the gorgeous facade will remain intact, with the addition of some balconies surrounding existing windows, and the lowering of some windows to make them usable for second floor units. The developer intends to keep many of the interior architectural details as well, and plans to disturb the delicate plaster walls and mouldings as little as possible. Meanwhile, the conversion of the rectory into eight additional apartments will be a fairly straightforward affair, keeping many of the existing interior walls.

Rectory

The community seemed very split on this development, and we’re not sure whether it received support. Many people were pleased to see this wonderful building preserved and reused, especially in a neighborhood where churches seem to be demolished every few months. On the other hand, near neighbors were concerned about density and parking. And those concerns are certainly reasonable. Thirty-eight units with no parking could certainly make life more difficult for drivers in the neighborhood, especially with very few parking lot options nearby. And at this site, where parking has been an issue with the church in the past, it seems like an especially sensitive subject.

Church, from the south

This debate speaks to an ongoing identity crisis for this neighborhood, which already has enough identity problems in the sense that nobody knows what to call it (Graduate Hospital? G-Ho? Schyulkill? Southwest Center City?). Ah, and in the naming debate we get to the true question at hand: Is this a quiet, residential neighborhood that’s distinctly separate from Center City? Or is it an extension of an ever-expanding Center City?

Even ten years ago, that would have been a fairly easy question to answer. But today, when homes in the neighborhood are selling at Center City prices, and long-dormant commercial corridors begin to stir, the answers become much more difficult to define. Sure, the Center City District doesn’t include this neighborhood within its boundaries, but we can certainly see that changing in the years to come.

If this project were proposed on Locust St. and didn’t include parking, would neighbors object? Or would they support the conversion because they assume that few tenants would have a car, considering the challenges of Center City parking? And make no mistake, we’re not suggesting that Fitzwater and Locust Sts. are the same by any means. We’re merely suggesting that Fitzwater St. has become more like Locust St. in the past decade. And this could continue.

What to do you think? No doubt, Graduate Hospital has certainly become more Center City-ish in recent years. Will that trend continue? Is a thirty-eight unit rental building at this location too much density? Would you support putting a garage door in the facade of the church? Or do you believe that tenants walk to work?

We’ll be fascinated to hear what the ZBA has to say.