Here now, From Curbed Marketplace, highlighting an intriguing pick from that spot at the top of the page that rotates listings and makes real estate junkies refresh and refresh and refresh the page until the trackpad is dotted with blood.
Ah, the Victory Building. Thank goodness someone finally did something with the Center City Second Empire beauty, which loomed over Chestnut Street with craggy trees sprouting from its rooftop for 23 years. Up until 1982, it had been inhabited—most excitingly, perhaps, by the London Victory Nightclub, which was born (of course) in the ’70s. In a 2004 piece for City Paper, Patrick M. Starr remembered London Victory:
The dramatic first floor was perfect as a club, with cavernous "make-out" rooms that had 20-foot ceilings and enormous 16-foot-high open doorways "telescoping" room to room. The dancefloor had 30-foot ceilings, and I remember an overhead cable supporting a spaceship out of which dancers would "explode," dangling and spinning to the pounding beat. It was hot. After a fire, however, it was not. Starr writes, "the building, owned by none other than the inimitable Sam Rappaport, became an unlit, lifeless hulk -- contributing to Chestnut Street’s downward spiral."
Until 2005, the circa-1878 building was like a mini Divine Lorraine: editorials were written, activists acted up, preservationists made arguments at various meetings. Finally, the Preservation Alliance got an easement so that the building will be historically preserved no matter who moves in. These days, the building houses condos, and the one featured here, as you can see from the gallery, is currently tenant-occupied by a Yorkie—probably in med school at Jefferson—paying $1,700 a month. The building is also occupied on the ground floor by a Starbucks. While you can kick the current tenant out (you heartless cad), you cannot get rid of Starbucks. Do with that what you will, by which we mean we see many hot beverages you didn't think you wanted in your future.
Size: 2 beds, 1 bath, 852 square feet
Parking: Street
Price: $350,000
· Listing: 1001-13 Chestnut Street [Zillow]
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