The Diamond Street Historic District, running on Diamond Street from Broad to Van Pelt, was established in 1986 and is one of the very first historic districts established in Philadelphia. As the application to the Historical Commission says, this corridor “boasts a grand collection of large row houses interspersed with several elaborate churches, all built between 1875 and 1897,” including “fine examples of the work of specific architects, examples of post Civil War Victorian styles, and the popular vernacular tradition.” To the lay person – the homes on this stretch of Diamond Street were awesome when they were built, and those that remain are still pretty awesome.

Like many areas in North Philadelphia, this stretch of Diamond Street experienced significant divestment in the second half of the 20th century – and by the late 1990s, and many buildings in the historic district were vacant and blighted. A number of those vacant buildings were torn down by the City of Philadelphia, leaving a number of gaps in the historic fabric of the corridor. In the last decade or so, Diamond Street has seen a number of infill projects start to fill those vacancies, all of which required sign-off from the Historical Commission.

Those projects have generally aimed to echo the architectural character of the surrounding historic buildings, as you can see in the image above. The new buildings are the same height as the existing buildings, with the door heights, window heights, and architectural ornamentations all lining up very nicely. Sure, if you look closely you can tell what’s new and what’s old, but someone passing by would probably never notice the difference.

In 2025, we expect to see something similar pop up on the 1900 block, where Callahan Ward is planning three triplexes on three non-contiguous properties. Thanks to their application to the Historical Commission, we have great information on the plans, along with renderings from ISA.

The three properties in question, 1902, 1927, and 1942 Diamond St., are all currently vacant. While 1902 Diamond St. has existing buildings on either side, the other two addresses have vacant lots on both sides.

While the project we shared from the 1600 block sought to imitate the existing buildings on the block to near perfection, the plans for the lots on the 1900 block take a bit of a different approach. While the building heights and the door heights line up with their neighbors, the window (and ceiling) heights are not exactly the same. Also, the window shapes of the new homes will be different, compared to the existing buildings.

While we are impressed that the project on the 1600 block was so successful in replicating the historic look of the buildings, we are perhaps more excited about the proposal from Callahan Ward. The new triplexes will have plenty of architectural detail and will definitely fit in with the context of the surrounding buildings, but we appreciate that the new buildings will be obviously new and won’t be confused with any of the actual historic buildings. It’s a tough needle to thread, but we think the developers are getting it right.

The Historical Commission staff agrees, at least 2/3 of the way. The staff recommended approval for 1902 and 1942 Diamond St., but 1927 Diamond St. got a denial recommendation. The proposals for 1902 and 1942 are quite similar to the buildings that once stood at those addresses. But the building that once stood at 1927 Diamond, designed by Willis G. Hale, was quite different, resembling the still standing building at 1923. The HC staff suggested a change to the plans for 1927, to more closely mimic the massing and and detailing of its remaining neighbor.

So figure that we’ll see some design changes there, and then the whole shebang should get approved some time early next year. Once that happens, we’ll have three fewer vacancies on this corridor, rebuilding some of the lost vibrancy for this historic district. We’ll hope that these triplexes might lead to additional construction on Diamond Street, as it continues its decades-long climb back from its nadir in the 1990s. Certainly, there are still plenty of vacant lots remaining, representing plenty of opportunities.