I can’t imagine this house getting repaired. I just can’t. Roofs are collapsed, walls are buckled. Garages are crushed.
But a dumpster is sitting in front with all the junk from the inside. And the tree that was sitting on top of the garage is gone. Maybe they’re clearing it out before they raze it. If the owner reads this, shoot us an email at tips@frankfordgazette.com and let us know what’s up.
I don’t know what the workers’ employer’s actual intent is– just what I heard from one of them. Still. The bones of the house aren’t all that bad. I don’t see any daylight through the windows, suggesting the roof is still intact, which means that not too much water has been getting in. (Workers were walking around confidently in the second floor and throwing things out of that second story window into the dumpster.) The only structural flaw I see is the bad crack and shift in the Wakeling Street side. The rear part of the house looks bad, but that’s a frame section that could be demolished separately. So I think it could be fixed up, though it wouldn’t be cheap.
The worker said the garage would be repaired too, but I doubt that; that tree caused a _lot_ of damage.
We got a tip that the new owner is Frank Rocchino, he purchased the house about 2-3 weeks ago. L&I told him to clean it up and stabilize the blding. He also lives a half a block away on Penn Street.
I met him there recently. He bought it at the January 16th sheriff’s sale for $19,100, according to the Sheriff’s Office. He told me his plans are to restore it– not just fix it up, but actually to restore it, including the garage– and that it will definitely be a single-family home, not apartments.
He does own other properties around here, including across from the former nurses’ home on the 4900 block of Penn (4921-23 and 4925, both of which have been his for decades), but he doesn’t live there, he says.
I would like to share some information concerning Frank J Rocchino who owns 5003 Penn Street. This guy is a long time Frankford resident who owns a lot of property in the neighborhood.
Frank owns the house behind mine on Orchard Street (4339, currently being rehabbed) as well as the old Hood Brothers factory (also on Orchard, 4326-38 ) and 4340 ORCHARD ST, 4342 ORCHARD ST., & 4359 Orchard St. He also owns 4267 PAUL ST, 4270 Paul St., 4272 Paul St, 4282 Paul Street, & 4286 Paul st. These are just the places near my house that I know about.
Frank seems to go more for apartment conversions on his larger properties (the Civic heard a variance request from him less than a year ago) so I seriously doubt 5003 Penn street will remain a single family home.
I will say that Frank is not an absentee landlord but his properties are not the best looking ones in Frankford. They aren’t the worst looking properties either.
What a great picture of what that house looked like in 1910 and another reminder of what a great neighborhood Frankford use to be.