At its meeting on February 13, the Philadelphia Historical Commission added two properties to the Philadelphia Register of Historic Places, declined one nomination, and continued two other nominations to future meetings.
The Circle Theater at 4648-62 Frankford Avenue. | Photo courtesy of the Philadelphia Historical Commission. Architect’s rendering courtesy of the Athenaeum of Philadelphia.
The Circle Theater at 4648-62 Frankford Avenue was built in 1929 for the Stanley Company of America and represents a trend in neighborhood movie theaters in the early decades of the 20th century. The architects, the Hoffman-Henon Company, designed over 100 such theaters, with more than 40 in Philadelphia, including the Boyd and the Mastbaum. The firm was also known for designing Catholic buildings such as the West Philadelphia Girls Catholic High School at 4501 Chestnut Street and St. Carthage Church at 6213 Cedar Avenue.
The main house of Sugar Loaf Orchard at 29 and 31 W. Bells Mill Road. | Photo courtesy of Kevin McMahon
Five buildings at 29 and 31 W. Bells Mill Road, collectively named Sugar Loaf Orchard, were added to the local register. The parcels include a 1917 cottage, a 1919 main house, a 1924 tool house, a garage, and a barn, all designed in the Colonial Revival style, typical of early 20th century country-style domestic architecture. They were built by the Philadelphia architectural firm Martin & Kirkpatrick, which designed a number of similar houses, as well as the Girard College Chapel.
419 W. Clapier Street in Germantown. | Photos: Michael Bixler
The Historical Commission rejected the nomination for four buildings at 419 W. Clapier Street in Germantown. The parcel includes a gardener’s cottage, chauffeur’s cottage, barn and greenhouse dating to the late 19th-and early 20th centuries that were originally service buildings for the adjacent large house at 5000 McKean Avenue, formerly the home of noted engineer James Mapes Dodge. Last October and November, both the Historical Commission and its Committee on Historic Designation ruled that the nomination did not sufficiently prove the property satisfied any criterion for designation. This second nomination was submitted on November 23, 2025. However, the owner submitted a demolition permit application to the Department of Licenses and Inspections on November 19. In the nine day period between the Historical Commission’s rejection on November 14 and its receipt of a new nomination, the property was not under the Commission’s protection. With a valid demolition permit on the property, the Historical Commission voted against designation.
Another nomination was continued amid procedural concerns. The property at 7001-09 Greenhill Road in Overbrook was built between 1916 and 1919 by the architectural firm of Mellor, Meigs & Howe in the Colonial Revival style. The stone house is attached via a twin garage to the property at 6953 Greenhill Road, which is a mirror twin of the house and the subject of its own nomination. The two properties were a result of the early 20th century subdivision and development of Green Hill Farm by the Wistar Morris Estate in West Philadelphia.
The stone home and garage at 6953 Greenhill Road. | Photo courtesy of the Keeping Society of Philadelphia
The property at 6953 Greenhill Road was purchased in February 2025 by Chabad of Penn Wynne, Inc., which has been granted a continuance of the nomination to the July meeting of the Committee on Historic Designation. Historical Commission staff raised concerns that, given the identical nature of the two properties, a designation today of one of them could be a de facto designation of the other before the owner had an opportunity to contest it. Despite the urging of the owner of 7001-09 Greenhill Road and the nominator, the community group Greenhill Farms Preservation Club to rule on the nomination, the Historical Commission continued it to the July meeting of the Committee on Historic Designation.
A one-month continuance was given to the nomination for the interior main banking room in the Fidelity-Philadelphia Trust Company building at 123 South Broad Street, Unit 1. Other nominations that have been continued include the National Marine Engineers Beneficial Association at 428-34 N. 4th Street to the April meeting, and Piers 38 and 40 at 775 S. Christopher Columbus Boulevard, nominated in October 2021, but currently without a specific continuance date.
