As one passes through Germantown, the vibes shift is palpable. Just a little further toward Philadelphia’s core is the familiar landscape of seemingly endless rowhouses. To the northwest are the more suburban environs of Mt. Airy and Chestnut Hill. In between, the Colonial era buildings and streetscapes of Germantown Avenue and towering former department stores on Chelten Avenue suggest a place unto itself, as if the traveler has suddenly transported to some other city in some other place.

Of course, that’s precisely what Germantown once was, and in many ways still continues to try to be, even long after the city of Philadelphia subsumed it during a massive expansion to its current borders in 1854. Perhaps no structure is as emblematic of this history than Germantown Town Hall, the century-old, Classical Revival landmark at 5928 Germantown Avenue.

Aggressively unused since the City of Philadelphia vacated the property in the late 1990s, the three-story, clock-tower-capped structure now appears slated for a new lease on life. During a community meeting held nearby on February 26, Anthony Fullard, president of the West Powelton Development Company, presented a team and plans to execute a $13 million renovation of the building. The bottomline: a full-scale interior and exterior restoration of the 25,000-square-foot structure for use as a charter school, food service, and community space, with completion and grand opening date of fall 2028.

“The building is beautiful. It looks like it was just frozen in time,” Fullard told an audience of several dozen community members. “We’re not trying to change any of that. Our focus is to bring this building back online for the community and for the utilization of tenants.”

Indeed, at face value, Fullard’s plans appear to be a preservationist’s dream come true. He was joined at the meeting by Sam Olshin, an architect with local firm AOS Architects, who was behind the transformative Metropolitan Opera House’s restoration. Olshin noted he will be working on the renovation of Germantown Town Hall with Domus Inc, the general contractor that restored both The Met and nearby Divine Lorraine Hotel.

“Very much like The Met, the town hall has amazing bones,” Olshin said, expressing excitement about being a part of its restoration. “I’d see this building year after year, and say, ‘What is this? And how in God’s name can it be left here like this?’”

Fullard and Olshin said they plan to restore the town hall, built 1925 and listed on both the Philadelphia and National Register of Historic Places, with a keen eye for preservation. Previous news reports indicate that copper and bronze features, railings, and other elements have been stripped away over time. Yet Olshin said the building’s captivating, three-story, open rotunda remains as a centerpiece, replete with memorials of Germantown’s war dead that will be restored.

Paul Steinke, executive director of the Preservation Alliance of Greater Philadelphia, said an 1828 clock that once was hung in Independence Hall, and a contemporaneous bell cast by John Wilbank in the same shop as the Liberty Bell, also remain onsite. “The Preservation Alliance is glad to see some movement on repurposing this long-neglected historic landmark,” Steinke wrote in an email.

Despite the excitement over reactivating this abandoned landmark, proud Germantowners have something of their own to say. During Fullard’s community meeting, a voluntary engagement outside the normal RCO process yet to come, numerous neighborhood locals in attendance raised concerns about details of the redevelopment plan, both known and unknown. Many were residents who remember the building as an inviting center of community life in the late-to-mid-20th century, with open-door City offices, a military recruiter, and even a successful boxing gym in the basement. How could a closed-off charter school, which poster boards at the meeting depicted taking up the entirety of the second and third floors, comport with that history, several wondered. “That was a central point for the community for decades, forever, and when it all boils down to it, it seems you’re trying to block the property off so you can make money,” said a person who who identified themselves as James. “This property is really on sacred ground.”

Past Meets Present

A review of the property’s history indeed reveals its long use as a public space. Germantown was founded in 1683, a year after Philadelphia. Maps through the mid-19th century show development aligned mostly along the Germantown Avenue corridor, including along the block where Germantown Town Hall now sits. In the 1850s something changed: the arrival of a “Germantown Hall” near the intersection of that thoroughfare and Poorhouse Lane, now Rittenhouse Street.

Germantown was one of many independent municipalities that spent as much money as possible prior to the 1854 consolidation, knowing that the City would assume all existing debts. Seeking to build a monument to the community’s outgoing independence, leaders erected an original, wood-framed town hall designed by architect Napoleon LeBrun. When that building was declared structurally unsafe in 1920, according to a 22011 preservation studio study at the University of Pennsylvania’s Weitzman School of Design, it was torn down and replaced by the current one as part of then-Mayor J. Hampton Moore’s “campaign promise to relocate all City agencies” to City-owned buildings. “Furthermore, the move was an outgrowth of the reformist Decentralization Movement, which took hold in early 20th century public policy with the purpose of distributing City services to remote residential neighborhoods,” the report states.

The current building, designed by City architect John Penn Brock Sinkler, was modeled after William Strickland’s Merchant’s Exchange building on 3rd and Dock Streets in Old City. Upon its opening in 1926, the building was used for all municipal functions in Germantown and later as one of three emergency operation centers in the city. Yet, by the 1980s, the City began to pull out due to waning demand of services and deteriorating finances before leaving entirely in 1998 and passing control to the Philadelphia Industrial Development Corporation (PIDC).

The building has sat vacant ever since, increasingly forlorn and open to the elements and trespassers. Fullard said several years ago he tried to put together a mixed-use plan centered around residential use, but it didn’t “pencil out.” His current plan envisions assembling $3 million from the state Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program, $5.6 million in new market and historic tax credits, and about $4.4 million in debt financing, which he says his team feels “very confident that we can handle” with the building’s prospective anchored tenants. He maintains a memorandum-of-understanding with the PIDC, has key support from local political leaders, and said current plans can be executed by-right.

Fullard would not disclose the name of the prospective charter school, citing ongoing contractual obligations, frustrating some community members. Several descriptions of the school suggest it may be, or be similar to, YouthBuild Philadelphia Charter School, a nonprofit that aims to steer at-risk young people ages 17 to 20 toward careers in fields like healthcare, culinary arts, and the building trades. Fullard also serves on the Board of Trustees of YouthBuild, and Olshin’s firm designed a 2023 restoration of the school’s current location in a former PECO building on North Broad Street.

Fullard said the charter school at Germantown Town Hall would serve about 140 students and it would be an expansion of an existing school, not a relocation. His team would add an elevator, handicap access, new wiring and mechanicals, and the building’s first-ever air conditioning system.

More details were available about a prospective culinary use in the town hall’s basement. Tarik Ryant, a South Philly-based restauranter nicknamed “Chef Reeky,” was on hand to identify himself as a future tenant. Ryant said he planned to install a high-end commercial kitchen to service a “cuisine hub” with potential uses including a staple diner or cafe, but also for the use of local food entrepreneurs or nonprofits steering youth toward culinary careers. “My vision for this beautiful space would be to have the basement as a hub for community, other entrepreneurs, so we can lose this sort of food desert concept in Germantown and bring some really, really good craft cooking,” Ryant said.

Fullard also teased a third tenant, which he is close to signing an agreement with, whom would anchor a space on the first floor and bring the building to 100 percent utilization. He hinted that it would be a community-focused use and something he thinks the community will be “very, very happy with.”

Yet, that level of detail wasn’t good enough for some in the first public audience to hear of Fullard’s plans, who continued to raise concerns about what’s coming down the pike. Among the questions: where would cars park, would students loiter after school, would the public not be able to access the building during school hours, why not make space for uses like artists studios, where was the community benefits agreement, and would there be green space?

In the most heated moments, things became personal between Fullard, a Germantown resident for 63 years, and other long-term residents, over the purity of his plans. Fullard asserted he intended to do right by his community, offering opportunities for local residents and tradespeople, and insisting there was still flexibility to implement the public feedback that he was receiving, especially for community-focused uses in common spaces like the rotunda.

Yet, while it appears Fullard has successfully laid the groundwork for a major physical renovation of Germantown’s historic Town Hall, it is evident he still has work to do to fully win over the community that calls it home. “I’ve known [Fullard] a long time. He is from Germantown. We used to play when we were kids,” said a man who identified himself as Sam. “I know he’s put his heart and soul into this project. I just wished that your team would have reached out to the community a little bit sooner, and hopefully not everything is written in stone.”

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