The 3rd place on Philly YIMBY’s December 2021 Development Countdown goes to 1826 Chestnut Street in Rittenhouse Square, Center City. News of the apparently conceptual proposal come from SkyscraperPage user Fairmount Fellow, who spotted proposal images in a presentation they were privy to. No permits have yet been filed, yet images show a floor count of around 42 stories, and its location next to the recently proposed skyscraper at 113-121 South 19th Street suggests a height of around 550 feet. The images include a partial logo of Goodman Properties, which has a page for the building on its website. It is unclear whether Goodman intends to develop the building as pictured or if it is a conceptual presentation intended to attract investors or development partners.
1826 Chestnut Street. Credit: 1826 Chestnut Street via FairmountFellow at SkyscraperPage
The apparently preserved historic base at 1826 Chestnut Street. Looking southeast. Credit: Goodman Properties
The Goodman Properties webpage regarding the site is sparse, calling the development “CVS on 19th and Chestnut,” in allusion to its location at the southeast corner of South 19th Street and Chestnut Street, a block and a half north of Rittenhouse Square Park. The CVS pharmacy, which has been a tenant for over a decade, sits within an attractive, low-rise prewar building that greets the intersection with a rounded corner and a marquee. Goodman Properties’ renderings appear to incorporate the structure into the future building base.
In 1921, the building opened as The Aldine, a movie theater with sumptuous interiors once described as Center City’s “most brilliantly lit movie house.” The theater was notable not only for its selection of motion pictures, such as Al Jonson’s groundbreaking yet controversial “The Jazz Singer,” but also for its refusal to accept African-American patrons, a common and unfortunate practice in many upscale establishments in Center City at the time. In the mid-1920s, Raymond Pace Alexander, the first African-American graduate of the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, filed two discrimination lawsuits, the second of which promoted the theater management to drop its discriminatory policy and issue a public apology.
The Aldine Theatre a 1826 Chestnut Street. December 8, 1921. Looking southeast. Credit: PhillyHistory.org
Historian Kenneth Mack noted that “The Aldine’s choice to exclude Black theatergoers sparked perhaps the most sustained set of conflicts over public accommodations in the city,” which continued with similar lawsuits at other establishments, both by Alexander and others, boycotts, and other actions that paved the way for the passage of the Pennsylvania Equal Rights Law in 1935 and a further route in the civil rights movement.
As expected, our recent site visit revealed no signs of construction progress at the prewar building. We hope to see further development updates for this promising project in the coming year.
1826 Chestnut Street. Photo by Jamie Meller. December 2021
1826 Chestnut Street. Photo by Jamie Meller. December 2021
1826 Chestnut Street. Photo by Jamie Meller. December 2021
1826 Chestnut Street. Photo by Jamie Meller. December 2021
1826 Chestnut Street. Photo by Jamie Meller. December 2021
1826 Chestnut Street. Photo by Jamie Meller. December 2021
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One question- is this proposed project a by right project? If so, then it will sail smoothly over CDR and towards receiving permits.
As of August 2021, this property was listed as “pending” on the Philadelphia Register of Historic Places; the re-nomination was made in July 2020. In between periodic closings, most living souls will remember the theater as the Viking (1954), Cinima 19 (1967) or Sam’s Place (1980).
VO and JM, thank you for a great update to a great proposal. In September 2021, at a Center City Residents Association meeting, there were concerns that Goodman Properties’ 1826 Chestnut Street (19th and Chestnut, SE corner) 40-story tower may lead to congestion, especially with Pearl’s 115 S. 19th Street (19th and Sansom, NE corner) proposed tower, since both buildings are on the 100 block of South 19th St. To reduce potential congestion, the two developers are in negotiation to share delivery space on Sansom Street. If both projects come to fruition, this is literally a ‘win-win’.
will there still be a CVS at 1826 Chestnut if that tower is built
We don’t know that yet.