While we were out taking photos among a long-awaited windy autumn day last week, we noticed L&I catching up on some blight around 42nd and Market in West Powelton. A neighboring resident said the location has been vacant more than a decade.

Vacant

A notice declaring the owner of the single-family row home at 4219 Market St. secure the two windows on its second of two-stories, and to frame and glaze the front door was posted September 25th. The remainder of the block, west from 42nd Street is a string of two-story row homes. A firehouse finishes out the far west end of the block.

Owners John and Jennifer Neclario purchased the property for $7K in 1996, according to the OPA. They’ve stayed up to date with their taxes and have used the property as a way, it seems, to produce income in the form of two Clear Channel billboards atop the roof. What lovely irony that one is for webuyuglyhouses.com.

Billboards

The site is across the street from the recently constructed still unoccupied building we wrote about in May that is supposed to be the new home for Social Security administration.

Not yet occupied

With the recent announcement of the Science Center expansion at 38th and Market, and Penn’s plans for a nearby 37th Street pedestrian mall, as well as the Philadelphia Police’s planned move to the old Liberty Mutual building at 46th and Market, and a CHOP project at 48th, Market Street in West Philly, a heretofore bleak thoroughfare west of 40th Street, is experiencing something of a renewed interest. Hopefully, this will spread to this unfortunate building, thanks to a little push from L&I.

–Lou Mancinelli