For reasons we don’t really understand, a few streets in the Passyunk Square neighborhood break their east to west path and suddenly turn at an angle and become perpendicular to the diagonal E. Passyunk Ave. While this makes for some stressful driving and confusing walking, it also creates some oddly shaped lots, the likes of which you don’t necessarily see all over town.

The lot in question is immediately to the left of the red pushpin

Oddly shaped 1133 Dickinson has been a blighted property for years in the neighborhood, with one part of the facade of building covered with plywood and other parts simply crumbling. It looks like work may have been done on the property some years ago, but it’s been sitting like this for quite awhile since.

Image doesn't even really capture how gross this thing was. Image from Google.

But now for the good news: a reader tipped us off that the building has been taken down, leaving a giant, funny-shaped hole in the ground!

There we go. And it looks like the building next door was stuccoed, too!

View from the intersection.

While we don’t usually celebrate holes in the ground with no timeline for construction, this is an exception. For now. Vacant lots (at least for a time) promise hope for future development. Crumbling, dilapidated, abandoned buildings can bring down an entire block’s morale, especially when the houses surrounding the blight are well looked after. We’re hopeful that the lot’s owners, Dickinson LLC, based out of New Jersey, are able to build a unique home on this unique lot very soon- we imagine the neighbors will be extremely grateful.