Author: Jim

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1338 Harrison Is Getting Rebuilt

1338-harrison-rebuilt

The story of 1338 Harrison Street continues.  Remember that house?  It suffered a fire way back around March and pretty much sat for a while, including having the fire damage sit until the weekend before the city was going to start fining.  It’s getting rebuilt, I really didn’t see that happening, especially with the bay window severly damaged.

I look at it as a good example long time owners move away but keep their houses for rentals.  You just don’t get the diligence in the upkeep of the property.  I don’t blame them, life in the burbs is the priority, that neighborhood they left is just an afterthought.  I hear it all the time.  “Man it’s getting rough down there” or “I hate going to visit my parents in the old hood, it’s just not the same” or my favorite “We got out when everyone else left”.  But I’m still here, what about me?  I even had the owner come leave a comment:

i am the owner of 1338 Harrison St and lived there for 30yrs before i moved out in 1998, i now rent the property out and recently had a major fire 2 months back , the insurance co had to do a full investigation and i was unable to get rid of anything until now which i plan on cleaning the front of the house sat april 18 if I’m able to get a dumpster, if not sat then during the week. growing up in fkd most of my life and watching the house you lived in burn down is a very hard thing to handle. i have full intentions to fix this property up if structurally possible and apologize for the look of the condition the house is in now

He has my sympathies, he really does.  It’s all about priorities.  And let’s face it, if Frankford was in demand, they probably would have sold long ago.  I do call bullshit on the “it’s the insurance companies fault”.  If I coulda gotten pics of kids playing on that trash I woulda been able to get Fox 29’s Dave Shratwieser up here.  And they don’t leave trash out like that downtown or in the burbs.  And not to be nit picky but 30 years of service doesn’t get you off of any responsibility for the proper upkeep in your property.  I’m still here and I have to walk through this place every day.

But I digress, cause this house isn’t the issue.  There are so many juicy examples of Frankford’s troubles wrapped up right here.  Hell, the whole of Northeast Philly should be looking at this house.  Maybe the first thing to realize though, is that absentee landlords aren’t always the dreaded New York based Asian investor, they can be your friends and former neighbors.

But the house got sold on 5/27/09 for ten grand.  Let’s see what happens with it now.

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Neast Philly Highlights Why Frankford Sucks

From Neast Philly’s account of last nights Frankford Civic Meeting:

The 25-minute affair was due to a lack of zoning issues or other news, said Civic association Vice President Brian Wisniewski.

But that didn’t keep the six residents or seven board members in attendance from again using the second floor conference room of Frankford Hospital as a forum to vent concerns over their neighborhood, a common end-result of recent civic meetings there.

What’s that, like 13 members of the community show up?  Out of 38 thousand?  Didn’t anyone even read Margie’s plea?  Frankford doesn’t deserve anything.  It ain’t ever gonna deserve anything until more than 13 members of the community show up for a civic meeting.

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Frankford Civic Meets Tomorrow Night

From Margie on the message board:

I am fighting for my family’s home. Our comfort zone. I am making my voice heard in fighting this problem of “recovery homes” next door to families in Frankford. I’ve heard that there are many and I’ve even read a post about one on Penn St. having the same problems as mine. I do not understand why I am the only one showing up at the Civic Meetings wanting to make changes. I have never ever been a person to stand out in a crowd or speak out in front of a crowd. My own neighbors don’t go to the meetings. I figure it’s because they don’t live next door it and don’t see and hear what my family does. I know there’s got to be people living next door to these “recovery houses”. I can’t be the only one! One hour of one night a month of your time isn’t much to ask for to fight and get laws made so that if you should decide to buy a home and 3 years later a recovery home wants to move in next door to you, sharing your front steps, you’ll be able to stop them. We all can’t keep moving because of people wanting to make money off of addicts who need a place to live and open a house anywhere and call it a recovery home. Please come to the Civic Meetings on the first Thursday of every month at 7:00 p.m. Have your voice heard or just listen. The worse that came happen is that you will learn about what’s going on in your community.
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Historical Society Of Frankford Tells Us Who George Sale Was

george-t-sale-window

From our previous post about the huge castle for sale at the corner of Griscom and Dyre, we were emailed a photo that said “RES. OF MR GEORGE T SALE FRANKLIN AND DYRE STS. FRANKFORD PA”.  We’ve heard back from Debbie Klak at the Historical Society of Frankford as to who this man was:

George Sale was a Northeast Philly real estate developer.   He  built the apartment building at Griscom and Oxford Ave to be a doctor’s hospital (clinic) with all of the modern amenities.   He built a car barn(exactly where we’re still unsure) to house the B buses , the first buses to transport people up to Byberry farms for there were no means to get there.    In those days, transportation dropped people off 2 miles from Byberry Farms. The other interesting thing is that when George died, creditors came after his estate.  He owed people a lot of money,(to the tune of $750,000) tho they didn’t get much from his estate.

The pic above was taken from Temple’s picture database.  Obviously it’s from a real estate office but it says it’s from the Frankford section and the reflection looks like the Margaret/Orthodox El stop to me, but the address says 1532 Oxford Pike, which by today’s street numbers, put it up in Lawndale.  I’m also guessing he built the George T. Sale Building downtown that’s been turned into condos.

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Northwood Native Brea Bee Stars In Philly Based Vampire Web Series

Brea Bee Brea Bee, St Joachim’s alum and Northwood native, is currently starring in a Vampire web series based in Philly called Bleeder.  This vampire stuff is sooooo the rage now.  And the production and distribution of web based television is quite literally at the forefront of the ongoing media revolution.  From Bleeder’s website:

Alex Daub is desperate. He’s lost his home. He’s lost his money. And he’s about to lose his life. A disease eats away at him from the inside and he is incapable of stopping it. But a chance encounter will change his future and may give him a second chance to live the life he once knew. With the help of an unlikely group of allies, Alex must struggle to regain everything he’s lost, all the while protecting an unbelievable secret.

It’s getting some good press after only one episode.  Here’s a great writeup and an interview with Brea.  I had an email exchange with producer and hemopheliac star Mark Kochanowicz, himself a North Catholic alum but native of Port Richmond, about getting them to film in Frankford.  They’re looking for a gritty industrial vibe and that’s just how Frankford balls.  Their rooftop location in episode 1 looks like they’re using the factory over in Port Richmond at Castor and Sedgley.  And they’ve already started filming episode 2.  But I threw a few contacts his way so we’ll see what happens.  But if I see a scene where some vampire stuff is happening in a room with the El rushing by right outside a window that wasn’t shot somewhere between Church Street and the FTC I’m gonna flip.  Special thanks to David for the tip.


[link] http://www.bleederseries.com/