We’ve gotten so many emails about 1942 Christian St. over the past few months, and have come up fairly empty in terms of answers about it, so today we bring it to you, good readers, to try to find a way to clean up this underused, undermaintained building on a wonderful corner.

Blah

We know for sure that the first floor retail space is vacant, and has been for over a year. We know this because at one point in the past several months, you could see into the space from outside. And it looks terrible in there.

The last tenant

We’re not clear on whether the apartment units above are occupied or vacant. These photos were taken on a freezing cold day a week ago, so the open window on the third floor might indicate the latter.

The owner of this building is Christian Street Associates Ltd, which purchased the property for $410K back in 1988. This doesn’t really compute, since property values were far lower in this area at that time, and we’re not sure this property would even fetch that number today. The address on public record traces back to The Ingerman Group, an affordable housing developer based in Cherry Hill. We know they’re paying a modicum of attention, as the property taxes are being paid, but they can’t be paying all that much attention, considering the maintenance of the building.

From the south

Does anybody who’s lived in the area for awhile have anymore insight into why this place is the way it is? Could the absentee owners be interested in selling the property at the right price? While the first floor commercial space screams neighborhood bar to us, we’re not sure that St. Charles Borromeo or the Philly Free School across the street would be on board with that plan.

But then again, maybe they would…