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Thu
Jul 14
2011

What to do with W.S. Peirce School?

The Peirce School, located at 2400 Christian St. and closed since 2007, sits on a 35K sqft. lot and the building itself is more than 50K sqft. According to the Notebook, the district voted last April to sell the building that once housed Peirce. To this point, the building has not gone on the open market to our knowledge, but its safe to assume that the cash-strapped PSD will put her on the market in the near future. Which gets us thinking- could this be the best privately owned parcel left in the Graduate Hospital neighborhood? The other day, we looked at the Catharine St. YWCA which recently went on the market for a crazy $2.2 million, and sits on a lot one-third the size. Looking at a comparable property, the building that houses the Independence Charter School sold in 2007 for $6 million. That said, it’s impossible to guess the asking price for Peirce. While we don’t believe that 16th and Lombard can be talked about in the same breath as 24th and Christian with regard to real estate prices, the School District’s behavior simply cannot be predicted.

So let’s just say, for the sake of argument, that the building goes on the market for a somewhat reasonable price. Seems like a no-brainer condo conversion, right? Or think of the number of $600K homes that could be built on such a huge lot. While those would seem to be appropriate real estate uses, we could also get behind a local charter school opening in that building, especially with the specter of E.M. Stanton School at 16th and Christian Sts. possibly closing in the near future. With Charter School management being well outside our area of knowledge, we don’t know what that would entail, but it sure sounds like a nice idea in a vacuum. Hey, it worked at 16th and Lombard, right?

And while we’re talking about the School District, check this out. Seems like our goodly Superintendent was supposed to get some new perks but then didn’t. Well, at least not yet.

Lot next to the school

9
COMMENTS
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Posted in Graduate Hospital | Tagged , , , , , | 9 Comments
  • http://philaphilia.blogspot.com GroJlart

    A charter school will probably buy it up or rent it. Many of them are still renting old catholic school buildings or working out of old offices.

  • http://thisoldcity.com This Old City

    I hope it remains a school. I live in the neighborhood, and while I’m a big supporter of higher residential density, tearing down this gothic detailed building for more row homes is a bleak prospect.

    If one were to replace all the windows (with European-style casements) and doors (detailed gothic) and go high-end with a better trim color (black), this building would look amazing.

    The cages and window air conditioning units have got to go.

  • http://twitter.com/palvar Terry Nicol

    Why would it have to be torn down to become residential?

  • http://thisoldcity.com This Old City

    It doesn’t… just responding to the article. 

    “Or think of the number of $600K homes that could be built on such a huge lot.” 

  • Dr_gingivitis

    The most recent school district report suggests Science and Leadership Academy may move in. SLA is one of our top performing magnet highschools, and could be a great addition to the hood.

  • Briancd

    Daycare center!!!

  • Guest

    Problem with SLA (which is Science Leadership Academy… no “and”) moving into Peirce is that the location could potential diminish the special partnership between SLA and The Franklin Institute. “Wednesdays at The Franklin” is one of the key components of SLA’s freshman program and the partnership is strong throughout the other grades as well.

  • Supporter of Stanton School

    I know that E. M. Stanton is not the main point of this story, but I must comment on one of your supporting assumptions.  

    The phrase “specter of Stanton closing in the near future” only contributes to the general public’s all too frequent resignation.  Just because something is suggested, proposed or even decided, does not mean it will come to pass.  Even a few people, if organized can act and change the course of human events.  

    Supporter of Stanton School Member

  • http://nakedphilly.com/graduate-hospital/new-home-coming-to-2400-block-of-christian-st/ New Home Coming to 2400 block of Christian St. | NakedPhilly

    [...] reader emailed us last week about a new construction site at 2411 Christian St., across from the former W.S. Peirce School, vacant since 2007. While Christian St. in this neighborhood has numerous houses under construction at the moment, we [...]

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