At the corner of 40th and Pine Sts., right in the thick of undergraduate Upenn off-campus housing, lies a large, hideously ugly vacant building. Owned by the University since 2003, the building was originally constructed as an Italianate style mansion in 1856 and was designed by architect Samuel Sloan.
Image from Phillyhistory.org
A travesty.
The former mansion was turned into a nursing home in the 1960’s and it was during those years that the cinderblock additions were constructed, turning a beautiful building into the monstrosity it is today. By the late 1990’s, the nursing home had turned into more of a halfway house, occupied by mentally ill patients who wandered around the area at all hours of the day and night. After the home closed down, the University plunked down almost $1.7M for the half-acre parcel. The University seemingly expected that it would be able to tear down the building and develop the land, but were probably surprised to learn that the building was certified historic in 1973 and could not be demolished. Yikes. A few years ago, Penn attempted to partner with local developers to rehab the mansion and build a 10-story extended stay hotel on the site, but two years of neighborhood opposition forced the project to move to 41st and Walnut Sts., where it is currently under construction.
View from Pine St. Just terrible.
While there were unfulfilled plans for the site just a few years ago, it seems curious that a building at such a wonderful corner has not yet been redeveloped. True, the historical certification will make an expensive rehab job even more costly, but ignoring the building for a moment, there is a healthy amount of additional land on the parcel for new construction. From what we can gather, there’s a tremendous development opportunity here, and it doesn’t have to be ten stories tall to be successful. We have some calls out to people at Penn, and if we learn anything we’ll be certain to update. Whether they ultimately decide to build student housing, a frat house, or turn it into a sports bar doesn’t really matter to us. We just hope they remove those nauseating cinderblock additions as soon as possible. Ugh.