In West Philly

From an architectural perspective, it's almost always a shame to see a church get demolished. Since many churches in Philadelphia date back over a century, there are a number that provide a direct connection to a community's history. Additionally, these grand buildings add to the architectural diversity in different neighborhoods,

Around the corner from a possible new student housing development, we noticed a chain link fence at the corner of 37th & Mount Vernon. Our first instinct was that this was yet another construction site springing up in Mantua, likely some additional student housing development. Upon closer examination though, we

The last decade or so has been a bit of an uneven ride for the commercial stretch of 40th Street between Ludlow and Chestnut. Most prominent here is the Hub, a ten-story funky-looking building constructed in 2006 that's home to Distrito and the Jean Madeline/Aveda Institute. Across the street, at the southwest corner

The 3600 block of Haverford Avenue has been in the news over the last few years, as the City attempted to condemn all the properties on the block in an effort to combine four city blocks and construct a supermarket in Mantua. Artist James Dupree owns a studio on this

If you went to Drexel, it's possible you once lived or went to a party on the 3200 block of Winter Street. If you didn't, we'll forgive you if you've never set foot on this little block, whose eastern end is mere steps from those pesky railyards that separate this section

We were meandering around West Philly last week and happened upon a new building under construction on a block of 46th Street we'd visited once before. You might remember, almost exactly a year ago we told you about 223 S. 46th St., a new construction single-family home that was doing

With a Choice Neighborhoods grant from the feds, the Mantua neighborhood launched a community planning effort in 2012 and eventually released the Mantua Transformation Plan to convey their hopes and dreams to the City, local CDCs, and developers. At around the same time, the Mount Vernon Manor CDC received funding

It recently came to our attention the the Saint James Pentecostal Church at 4101 Ludlow St. is listed for sale. The property was first listed a couple months back at a $1.9M sale price, with the price going down to $1.3M a couple weeks ago then bouncing back up to

Don't look now, but the 4200 block of Chestnut Street is getting some new student housing. Okay, go ahead and look, it's happening no matter what you do.New hole in the ground4217 Chestnut St. was home for a number of years to Jack Kramers Catering, but the two-story building that

A few weeks ago, we noticed two residential projects that were coming up on the ZBA calendar. Both are located on Spruce Street past 50th, and both lots are sitting vacant. The first project we investigated is located at 5037 Spruce St., which actually hasn't been vacant for all that