1722 Pine was built in 1845 as a single-family residence. The 1700 block of Pine Street is one of the few streets with a continuous cornice line, indicating that the entire block – 20 continuous homes – was built by a developer. Pairs of houses share a brick façade; in the middle, ours share a facade with both neighbors. The front façade is the highest quality brick, nationally known as ‘Philadelphia brick.’ The rear brick is low-quality and highly porous– the 19th century’s equivalent to vinyl siding. Some things never change.

In 1922, when the home was 77 years old, the first major renovation was initiated to convert the building into three apartments above a professional ground-floor office. The front stoop was lowered, and the former split-level stairs were removed and replaced with the wide switchback stair behind the front rooms. The professional office had the current entrance for a waiting room off the foyer and a second one on the other side of the internal entry door (since removed). A third floor was added, and the rear addition extended the building to the south property line. The second-floor apartment was the ‘owner’s apartment,’ with high ceilings and spacious rooms. They added a third and first story to the bay, which, like our neighbors, was originally only on the second floor. The first-floor bay extension had no footings! The whole bay was sinking and structurally unsound.

In 2016, Laura and Paul’s recent major renovation began 96 years after the last renovation. Bathrooms and kitchens were small and worn, and systems were nearing the end of their useful life. The 1920s single-pane Pine St windows were cold, drafty, and didn’t function. The 15-year-old replacement windows in the rear were newer but still starting to fail. The ground floor business tenant was not renewing, and our mortgage was paid off. Our son longer attended the neighborhood school, and our firm needed a better office space. Finally, we wanted to live in a Passive House.

We embarked on an intensive renovation, converting the first-floor therapist offices and underpinning the basement for a bi-level owner’s apartment and professional office, updating the apartment layouts, adding and expanding bathrooms, enhancing the envelope to approach or meet Passive House quality, and updating electrical, plumbing and HVAC systems, among other improvements.

Lot: 20ft x 90ft = 1,800sf, Rear side yard: 331sf
Basement: 1,225sf Unit A, Utility room
1st Floor: 1,469sf Unit A, Side yard
2nd Floor: 1,499sf Unit B
3rd Floor: 1,499sf Unit C, Unit D
4th Floor: 801sf Unit D, Unit D deck, Common deck
Total: 6,493sf

TIMELINE
1845 – New single-family approx. 5-bedroom residence. Four floors are at the front block and two at the rear.
1922 – Convert to multi-family with three full-floor units (two are two-bedroom/ bath and a one-bedroom/one-bath attic apartment with a ground-floor professional office. Renovations included lowering the stoop, reconfiguring the stairs, adding a 3rd floor, and expanding to the rear lot line.
1998 – Install separate gas boilers and water heaters for each unit and replace some rear windows.
1999 – Annex the third-floor front room to the 4th-floor unit- making a bi-level 2-bedroom unit. Add a bi-level roof deck and other aesthetic upgrades.
2016- Convert building to a 4-unit multi-family with a professional office annexed to the ground floor unit. Underpin and finish basement for a large bi-level “owner’s apartment” and architecture office.

1722 PINE BY THE NUMBERS:
Four floors with basement; 4 unit townhouse
Unit A: 3 BR, 3 Bath, all new
Unit B: 2 BR, 2 Bath (new bathroom, laundry and expanded kitchen)
Unit C: 2 BR, 2 Bath (new bathroom & laundry)
Unit D: 2 BR, 1 Bath, Deck