A developer demolishes a 130-year-old stone mansion in Mount Airy and neighbors have questions

When developer Christiane Murray bought a 130-year-old stone mansion on Carpenter Lane last November, some Mount Airy residents hoped it would be preserved, perhaps as part of a new senior housing community.

But neighbors were dismayed when a crew began tearing down the house at 157 W. Carpenter on June 14 without city-required dust control measures or an asbestos report. Other residents are concerned about the condition of a retaining wall on the three-acre site that a city inspection deemed unsafe. And many characterize Murray’s plan to build six upscale single-family homes there as a lost opportunity.

The house — which operated as a church-run group home before the pandemic — and its three-acre parcel of land are one of the single largest pieces of residential property to become available for redevelopment in recent memory as Mount Airy and other Northwest neighborhoods experience a flurry of new construction.

Murray, who declined to be interviewed, has undertaken a number of developments, including on Carpenter Lane and elsewhere in Mount Airy, where she lives with her family. The property was purchased for $645,000 in November 2021 by 157 Carpenter Lane Investors LLC.

“The developer made claims that the house was in horrible shape. But I can say with confidence that it was a very salvageable building,” said Morrie Zimmerman, an architect and Mount Airy resident who has done extensive preservation work.

“When people tear down perfectly good historic buildings, it’s going to create a lot of animosity,” Zimmerman said.

Mount Airy prides itself on being a diverse, organized, and engaged community that cherishes Northwest Philadelphia’s history, greenery, walkability, and transit access. Although locals recognize that Murray is free to subdivide her property and build houses on it by right, they hoped to have a voice in shaping the future of such a prominent part of the landscape.

Anna Herman, an educator whose home borders the property, hoped that having a local resident buy the property would lead to a more neighborly relationship. Then demolition started “with no warning,” she said.

“I have no problem with people buying land and making their own vision,” Herman said. “I don’t want anybody to tell me I can’t have a wildflower meadow on my property. But we didn’t even get a simple email letting us know what to expect.”

Originally called Clifflawn, the house was built of locally quarried Wissahickon schist in 1892 for businessman Sidney Longstreth Wright, who helped shape Mount Airy’s early development and enduring character. The Archdiocese of Philadelphia purchased the house in 1954 and operated a group home for young women there until the pandemic struck.

“It was a nice-looking historic structure totally adaptable to new use,” said preservationist Brad Maule, who nominated 157 Carpenter to the Philadelphia Register of Historic Places last year. The nomination is still pending.

With its own stairway to the Carpenter Station on SEPTA’s Regional Rail system, “it could have been a model for preservation, transit-oriented development, and senior housing,” Maule said.

Extensive community input into the city’s planning process for the Upper Northwest, which includes Mount Airy, identified a need and a desire for more senior citizen housing in that part of Philadelphia. The plan was adopted by the Philadelphia City Planning Commission in 2018.

“I am not anti-development. I am pro smart development. But residential development is happening so fast, all luxury, and at scale and a price point that is changing what people hold so dear about the neighborhood,” he said.

Maule also credited Murray for having done “good projects” in Mount Airy.

Although the developer attended two community meetings last year about her plans for 157 Carpenter, West Gorgas Lane resident Josephine Winter said she’s frustrated by futile efforts to get information about what is taking place on the site.

“We would have loved, of course, to keep an old beautiful building,” she said. “But that ship has sailed.”

Winter and her family live on a row of homes that is separated from the retaining wall by a narrow alley where neighborhood kids often play. The remains of 157 Carpenter are visible from her backyard, into which dust drifted during the first day of demolition work, she said.

Demolition ceased following an inspection June 14 by the city’s Department of Licenses and Inspections in response to complaints from nearby residents. On Wednesday, crews were back at work “with no communication to neighbors once again,” Winter said.

Kevin Lessard, the city’s director of communications, said Wednesday that an L&I inspector “visited the site today [and] while there, he confirmed that an asbestos report and monitor was on site and the building material that contained asbestos had been abated.

“Additionally, the dust control measures were in place,” said Lessard.

Winter, the executive director of the West Mount Airy Neighbors, and the mother of two young children, called the demolition “a prime example of what not to do” and said neighbors need to be informed whether asbestos has been found in the house and how potential airborne dispersion of the substance will be prevented.

Neighbors also want to see a report by an engineer Murray hired to assess the condition of the retaining wall.

Murray did not respond to a reporter’s request to see the report, or about the wall. But an engineer whom Winter and her neighbors hired has concluded that deterioration of the wall will worsen, with portions of it “moving toward collapse” unless repairs are made.

In a ruling issued May 22 and revised June 14, the city streets department determined — in accordance with a 1926 deed — that responsibility for the wall rests with the owner of 157 Carpenter.

But Winter said she and her neighbors are concerned how that responsibility will be carried out after the property is subdivided into six residential lots. “Who is going to take care of the wall? Who is going to answer us when rocks are falling?” she said.

Yvonne Haskins, a lawyer who lives in Mount Airy and is a longtime advocate for the neighborhood, said the city needs to develop a better system to handle issues related to retaining walls, which are especially common in the Northwest.

Haskins also said that Murray called her last year seeking support for her plan for 157 Carpenter, and that she suggested Murray meet with the community. At one such meeting at the Carpenter Station, opposition to the developer’s plan was overwhelming among the 30 people present; at a later session to which Haskins was not invited, opinions were divided, she said she learned later.

City Councilmember Cindy Bass, who represents the Northwest, also has been involved in trying to get the community and the developer talking. A meeting had tentatively been set for Friday but Bass said it was unclear whether it would take place.

“We want development but we also want preservation,” she said. “People move to these communities because they have a certain look that’s very distinctive. They want to be here, and we want to preserve the feel of the Northwest as much as we can do it in a way that makes sense.”