If you live in the Spring Garden or Francisville neighborhoods, you've surely noticed the former Mortgage Security Trust Company building on the corner of 18th & Fairmount. Heck, we don't live in either neighborhood and it caught our attention over three years ago. Back then, we plead to the cosmos that the owners would renovate the property or sell it to someone who would. The building has amazing bones but for many years it's looked like it was being held together with duct tape.
A couple of readers have reached out, sharing the exciting news that this building is currently getting some renovation action. The owners went to the Historical Commission earlier this year, presenting plans to replace the glass block and stucco filling the old window openings. Passing by earlier today we discovered a building that's experiencing a significant change. Though it's only the 18th Street side that's currently getting work done, we'd have to imagine that the Fairmount Avenue side is next on the docket.
Unfortunately, we have no idea what the owners are planning to do with the property once the exterior renovations are done. Will they continue to run a business out of the first floor? Will they instead try for a residential conversion? Or do they have alternate plans that we can't think of at the moment? As we said years ago, some simple cosmetic work on the building will go a long way, and a higher and better use would be gravy.
Meanwhile, on the 1700 block, construction is moving along on the eighteen-unit mixed-use building we told you about over the summer. You can see the elevator tower is rising above the fence on the site, and some steel is sticking out of the ground as well. And when that building is finally done, it seems that the folks who move in there will have a much nicer view to the west than they would today.