Demolition

William A. Geppert Jr., 88, of Lafayette Hill, a decorated World War II veteran and former chairman of the board of Geppert Bros., a demolition firm in Colmar, died Friday, June 29, of cancer at his daughter's home in Wyndmoor. Mr. Geppert's father, William Sr., established the demolition firm in 1925. After he died in 1953, the business was operated by Mr. Geppert and his three younger brothers. Geppert Bros.' major projects included Connie Mack Stadium, Philadelphia State Hospital at Byberry, Philadelphia Naval Hospital, and the Spectrum.

Should the Episcopal Cathedral of Philadelphia be allowed to destroy two historically recognized buildings it owns, and build a 25-story apartment, office, and retail complex in their place, in order to finance cathedral repairs and expand its ministry? That is the question coming Friday before the Philadelphia Historical Commission, which deadlocked on the issue May 11 when it first arose. The four representatives of the Nutter administration voted in favor of demolition of the properties on the 3700 block of Chestnut Street, while all four independent members opposed the plan.

No decision on demolition of cathedral buildings The Philadelphia Historical Commission failed to reach a decision Friday on whether to allow the Philadelphia Episcopal Cathedral to demolish two historic buildings in the 3800 block of Chestnut Street and erect a 25-story apartment tower on the site. The cathedral, around the corner on 38th Street, is seeking to tear down its own parish houses, designed over a century ago by noted church architect Charles Burns, who also designed the cathedral.

The Philadelphia Episcopal Cathedral, a decade after withering criticism of what many viewed as a destructive renovation of its own ornate Victorian interior, is planning to demolish two historically certified brownstone structures in the 3800 block of Chestnut Street to make way for a 25-story apartment tower. The project, which goes before the Philadelphia Historical Commission Friday, would obliterate the cathedral's parish houses, designed by the noted ecclesiastical architect Charles M. Burns, and connect the proposed tower and administrative offices to the church itself via glass-enclosed walkways cut into the cathedral's façade.

YORK, Pa. - Days are now numbered for six historic and long-blighted city properties that York College owns. York officials have awarded demolition permits for the buildings in the 200 block of West Springettsbury Avenue along the college's northern border. The college acquired the land with the long-term goal of building a dormitory or apartment complex. But for now, plans call for all of the properties to be razed and the site graded and seeded by mid-January, college spokeswoman Mary Dolheimer said Wednesday.

Excerpts from Ask Gonzo, a weekly chat on Philly.com with columnist John Gonzalez: I wonder what changed. Maybe the Flyers didn't finish their year by hoisting the Stanley Cup and marching triumphantly down Broad Street, but for a solid two-thirds of the season, they were the best team in hockey. And then came the many unexpected changes - moves that left quite a few fans and media members flat flummoxed because few (if any) anticipated the extreme makeover. After the season, I asked Ed Snider how he'd respond to the faction of Philadelphians who wanted major changes - the group that said, loudly, blow it up and do it now. "I'd say that's ridiculous," Snider said.

For decades, people walking out of Camden City Hall's west door were forced to look at an ugly, rectangular, five-story brick-and-metal building. Now, after three months of demolition, they can feel a breeze, and take in the Philadelphia skyline straight ahead as well as historical structures in Camden's downtown. The infamous Parkade Building is dead. Its remains are spread over the three-acre site that is to be turned into Roosevelt Plaza Park, a green space with benches and bike racks.

Every day for the last 20 years, the Doley sisters were taunted by the same neighborhood menace: a pair of abandoned houses on the corner of their Germantown block. No matter how many times they complained to City Hall, the eyesores remained as fixed and immutable as the points on a compass. That changed Monday. A backhoe clawed at the remains of the two derelict buildings at Rockland and Greene Streets, sweeping their scorched bricks and rotting timbers into a neat pile. The Department of Licenses and Inspections had been dispatched on the personal order of Mayor Nutter, who read in an Inquirer story about the Doleys' effort to improve West Rockland.

As the steel claws of the construction vehicle crunched a section of the roof of the Chester County Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, an employee winced. "I didn't expect to get emotional," said Allison Tilling, 29, of Downingtown, tearing up as she watched the demolition of part of the facility on Phoenixville Pike in West Goshen Township. Tilling, a nearly four-year kennel technician, said she certainly understood the need for the $1.6 million expansion project that began Tuesday, but she still found the destruction bittersweet.

As Philadelphia's most beloved Catholic saint, Katharine Drexel is said to have performed miracles by curing the sick. A miracle of a lesser sort occurred Tuesday when a Philadelphia appeals board stunned preservationists and voted to spare the Church of the Assumption, the Spring Garden Street church where Drexel was baptized, from impending demolition. The unanimous vote by the Licenses and Inspections Review Board effectively overturned a decision by the city's Historical Commission that would have allowed the church's current owner to raze the ochre building, which dates to 1848 and is the oldest surviving structure on a once-elegant boulevard.