Permits Issued for 2251 North Franklin Street in North Philadelphia East

Permits have been issued for the construction of a three-story, three-unit rowhouse at 2251 North Franklin Street in North Philadelphia East. The building will rise from a vacant lot situated on the east side of the block between West Susquehanna Avenue and West Dauphin Street. Designed by Anthony Maso Architecture & Design, the structure will span 3,297 square feet and feature a basement and a roof deck. Permits list Olympia Construction as the contractor.

Construction costs are specified at $387,000, lending a total of around $117 per interior square foot. Permits allocate $347,000 toward general construction and $40,000 for excavation work.

2251 North Franklin Street. Site plan. Credit: Anthony Maso Architecture & Design via the Department of Planning and Development of the City of Philadelphia

The project’s location, sited between North 7th and North 8th streets, half a block to the southwest of Germantown Avenue, may also be said to be located in North Central Philadelphia, Hartranft, or the greater area of Temple University, which sits within a ten-minute walk (or a three-minute bicycle ride) to the southwest. As such, the residences, like most built within the vicinity of the university over the past twenty or so years, will be particularly well-suited for the university’s massive student body and faculty.

The university-driven construction boom is also proving to be a boon for the local blue-collar community, where a prolonged period of depopulation and demolition devastated the neighborhood during the postwar period. Like many of its nearby counterparts, the 2200 block of Franklin Street lost nearly the entirety of its original rowhouse stock, turning the block into a stretch of vacant lots interspersed with the occasional extant prewar rowhouse.

2251 North Franklin Street. Building section. Credit: Anthony Maso Architecture & Design via the Department of Planning and Development of the City of Philadelphia

In 2021, YIMBY ran the Grandeur and Desolation feature, which documented the intriguing, paradoxically serene urbanscape of a once-dense yet now largely demolished neighborhood, where grand churches and other public buildings tower over acres of vacant lots. The feature also focused on new construction that is gradually reviving the neighborhood, often one rowhouse at a time. The proposal at 2251 North Franklin Street is one such project, one among many similar structures that have arrived on the long-forlorn block over the course of the past few years.

The surrounding area has already significantly increased its built stock and population density even since the short time that has passed since the publication of our feature. Large buildings have also been built in the vicinity in recent years, such as The Washington, a four-story, 72-unit rental apartment building recently completed on a wedge-shaped loft at 2233 North 7th Street, one short block to the east of 2251 North Franklin Street. However, more work still needs to be done in the neighborhood, both in the form of further private development and new public facilities, which include streetscape and public service improvements that will serve both the established local community and incoming new residents.

The Susquehanna-Dauphin station of the Market-Frankford Line sits within a 15-minute walk to the west of 2251 North Franklin Street, offering a short commute to Center City and University City.

2251 North Franklin Street. Zoning table. Credit: Anthony Maso Architecture & Design via the Department of Planning and Development of the City of Philadelphia

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