A recent site visit by Philadelphia YIMBY has observed no signs of construction work at the site of a roughly 42-story-story tower proposed at 1826 Chestnut Street in Rittenhouse Square, Center City. Ostensibly developed by Goodman Properties. The development’s location next to the proposed high-rise at 113-121 South 19th Street suggests a height of around 550 feet.
1826 Chestnut Street. Photo by Jamie Meller. April 2023
1826 Chestnut Street. Photo by Jamie Meller. April 2023
1826 Chestnut Street. Photo by Jamie Meller. April 2023
1826 Chestnut Street. Credit: 1826 Chestnut Street via FairmountFellow at SkyscraperPage
The existing building at the site is notable for its storied history. In 1921, the property 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.
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.
The Aldine Theatre a 1826 Chestnut Street. December 8, 1921. Looking southeast. Credit: PhillyHistory.org
The Aldine Theatre a 1826 Chestnut Street. December 8, 1921. Looking southeast. Credit: PhillyHistory.org
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In a presentation to the Center City Residents Association last month, the developer essentially stated that construction is NOT imminent — that they’ll build when conditions for lining up financing improve.
Are 4 Towers planned for the 1800 block of Chestnut? There’s s The Freeman Auction Tower, The 1826 Chestnut abov
CVS, there’s the 113- 121 S. 19th St. to Sansom St., and a skinny other one you said between the Boyds Store &
CVS.?