In South Kensington

At 1722-40 N. Hancock St. you can find a handsome row of old industrial buildings that have sat mostly undisturbed for about a century. But you'd better go check them out soon, because the wrecking ball is coming.1722 N. Hancock St.These buildings were constructed over a period of time at

A pair of properties on Girard Avenue have been sitting vacant and blighted for many years, and we're frankly surprised we never covered them before today. They've come onto our radar now because they're getting renovated, but before we get into that, let's look at some recent history.Current viewIf you

If you would have stood at the corner of Mascher & Oxford just a few years ago, you would have been standing in front of a giant vacant lot, with views of a battered lamp factory as you looked to the east. Standing in the same place today provides a

If developers and the community can get onto the same page, South Kensington could soon see another big project arrive on the scene. Currently, 1712-28 N. 2nd St. is home to a large one-story industrial building and a similarly sized vacant lot that's about 25% filled with junky cars. If

Over the summer, we heard from a reader in South Kensington that developers had purchased a former church on the 1200 block of N. Hancock Street. When we trekked over there, we found a nice enough looking building at 1217 N. Hancock St. that seemed like it would lend itself

As the stretch of Front Street between Girard and Kensington Avenues has seen a development boom over the last several years, numerous vacant lots and buildings still remain on this 1.5 mile stretch. The former Ninth National Bank at 1952-58 N. Front St. might be the most prominent vacant building

Though East Girard has gotten much of the press over the last few years, West Girard has experienced serious growth as well, most notably with the opening of the supermarket a five years back at 2nd Street. Aside from that large project that included the market, we've seen many existing

With the hulking former umbrella factory sitting blighted and vacant for many years at the corner of 5th & Master, the vacant lots at 1431-33 N. 5th St. probably weren't of much interest to developers. And we can appreciate why people would have balked at the idea of investing money

The Mid-Century Furniture Warehouse is located at the corner of 2nd & Cecil B. Moore and holds biweekly furniture sales, offering a collection of "professionally restored American Mid-Century, and Scandinavian furniture" in a spacious and unheated warehouse. We've been meaning to check it out for quite some time and finally made

We were winding our way through South Kensington yesterday, fighting the early setting sun, and happened upon a pair of new homes on the 1400 block of N. Lawrence Street. Previously, 1428 and 1430 N. Lawrence St. were sitting vacant, even though most of the rest of this block is