Editor’s Note: A version of this story was published in the Winter 2026 issue of Extant, a publication of the Preservation Alliance for Greater Philadelphia.

Photo: Google Street View

6657 Blakemore Street

Location: 6657-59 Blakemore Street

Built: 1927

The corner building at 6657-59 Blakemore Street in East Mount Airy has been demolished. Constructed in the 1920s during a period of dense residential growth along the Chestnut Hill East railroad line, the two-story, four-unit, semidetached apartment house was designed and constructed by Eugene K. Davis–one of 30 buildings in a coordinated development of Tudor Revival structures.

Constructed primarily of Wissahickon schist with steeply pitched roofs and half-timbered upper stories, the development’s design created a cohesive, yet visually rich streetscape opposite the Stenton Station. At the ends of the block, the U-shaped corner buildings at 6601 and 6657-59 Blakemore Street served as architectural anchors. Larger and more elaborately composed than their rectangular counterparts, these bookend structures articulated the rhythm and human scale of the entire terrace.

After a fire and years of deferred maintenance under prior owners, the property was acquired by the Philadelphia Redevelopment Authority in 2020. Despite the submission of a historic district nomination for Blakemore Street by the Keeping Society of Philadelphia in April, City officials applied for a demolition permit one day after the nomination was filed. The building was razed before the Philadelphia Historical Commission could assume jurisdiction in August. The corner lot was ultimately classified as non-contributing and excluded from the newly designated district, resulting in the loss of one of the development’s defining anchor buildings and diminishing the architectural cohesion of the block.

Photo: Michael Bixler

Lawnside

Location: 4641 East Roosevelt Boulevard

Built: 1859

Lawnside, the 1859 Superintendent’s House on the historic Friends Hospital campus, was lost to arson in September after a long and contentious fight to save it. Designed in coursed fieldstone and built amid the hospital’s park-like setting, Lawnside stood as a rare surviving example of mid-19th century institutional housing and was recognized as a contributing structure in the National Historic Landmark District designation of Friends Hospital, the nation’s first private psychiatric hospital, founded by Quakers in 1813.

In July 2023, the Philadelphia Historical Commission approved the building’s demolition to make way for a new public health center, despite strong community opposition and a robust case for preservation advanced by the Preservation Alliance. Nevertheless, the Historical Commission deemed demolition to be “in the public interest,” and appeals to the Board of Licenses and Inspections Review and the courts were not successful. 

Before the final appeal to Commonwealth Court concluded, disaster struck. On September 4, the vacant structure was set ablaze by an unknown person. The fire rendered the building unsalvageable, and Lawnside was entirely demolished within weeks. Its loss marked not only the destruction of a 166-year-old historic building, but also the end of a prolonged preservation effort that sought to balance public needs with Philadelphia’s architectural fabric.