Editor’s Note: A version of this story was published in the Fall 2024 issue of Extant, a publication of the Preservation Alliance for Greater Philadelphia.
Photo: Peter Woodall
Weisbrod & Hess Brewing
Location: 2421 Martha Street
Built: 1899
This summer, the former Weisbrod & Hess Brewery’s boiler and washhouse building opened as Picnic, a casual dining space. Defined Hospitality, owners of Kalaya, Suraya, Pizzeria Beddia, and Condesa, purchased the hulking industrial space with a prominent smokestack in 2021 and it underwent a complete rehabilitation by Stokes Architecture and Katherine Lundberg of Briquette Studio. A large dining area occupies the south side of the building, a kitchen area and wine shop sit on the north side, and a private dining area is on the second level.
With 35-foot ceilings, intricate brickwork, curved windows, and keystones, the building represents the eminence of Weisbrod & Hess at the turn of the 20th century. German-born George Weisbrod and Christian Hess founded their brewery in the 1880s at the height of Philadelphia beer making. In 1899, Germantown-born architect Adam C. Wagner was commissioned to design the boiler and washhouse for the sprawling brewery. Like much of the complex, it features the Rundbogenstil, or round-arch style, a German variation of Romanesque.
When Prohibition began in 1920, Weisbrod & Hess turned to producing soda and resumed beer making after the law’s repeal in 1933. Only five years later, the company went bankrupt and closed. A majority of the complex was demolished over the years, with the structures that remained decaying. They were successfully nominated to the city’s historic register in 2017 by the Keeping Society of Philadelphia. In recent years, other buildings built for Weisbrod & Hess across Martha Street have become home to additional restaurants, turning the former brewing complex into a hub for Philadelphia foodies.
Photo: Peter Woodall
Darna Lofts
Location: 1705 N. 7th Street
Built: 1888
The Moorish Revival building at 7th Street and Cecil B. Moore Avenue is extraordinary and symbolic of the movement of religious and ethnic groups in and out of North Philadelphia over the past 200 years. It was built in 1888 as Adath Jeshurun Synagogue for German Jewish immigrants. Designed by J. Franklin Stuckert, the building’s eclecticism reflects Islamic and Russian Orthodox styles through its onion dome (now lost) and Moorish-style keyhole windows.
In 1911, it was sold to an Orthodox Jewish congregation, Ohel Jacob, then in 1967 to the Shalom Baptist Church, later to a German Lutheran church, and in 1982 to New Greater Straightway Baptist Church.
In 2019, New Greater Straightway sold the property. Since the building was added to the Philadelphia Register of Historic Places in 1986, the new owners were able to take advantage of a new preservation incentive that allows CMX-3 zoning uses and forgoes other requirements, such as minimum parking ratios when renovating a locally designated property.
Surmounting severe structural deficiencies, Finch Development recently transformed the building into 22 affordable family apartments. The project team efficiently used the sanctuary’s height to create bi-level units. Perhaps the most impressive improvement is the removal of shutters covering the circular and keyhole windows and replacement with aluminum thermal break and insulating glass.
Thanks to the multidenominational powers that be, this project again contributes significantly to the upward trajectory of the neighborhood.
