We wanted to see whether Manayunk was still under water, so we headed up to Main St. to survey the damage. What we found was utter normalcy. Great news! One thing we noticed while scampering about was a For Sale sign for 3900 Main St., and upon further investigation, we learned some interesting history.

Huge

Keeps going

The listing for the lot expired, but the asking price for the 1.25 acre lot was $3.4M. The only use that we could come up with for this parcel is a new condo building, like the newish Bridge Five building down the street, but we can’t imagine that anyone would build a project like that in this economy. What else could possibly go in this location? On the plus side, there is good access to the waterfront!

On the negative side, flooding seems possible.

The property was last purchased in 1997 for $1.5M by a company called Brunson Ross, based out of Baltimore, MD. This is the only parcel that this company owns in the city, from what we could gather. The name Brunson has some meaning in the area, as Dorothy Brunson ran a local television station, WGTW-TV 48, out of a space across the street from 1992 until 2004, when she sold the station to Trinity Broadcasting Network. A City Paper story from 2003 details her fascinating story as the only black female television station owner at the time. We can only assume that Ms. Brunson purchased the lot back in the boom days for the television station, but we don’t know what her plans were for the site. Unfortunately, Ms. Brunson passed away last month, so it could be quite awhile before her heirs sort out what they want to do with 3900 Main St.