Historically Protected Church for Sale in East Passyunk

The 130+ year-old property is on the market after St. John's Baptist Church recently closed its doors

St. John’s Baptist Church at 1601 S. 13th St. has stood on the SE corner of 13th & Tasker since the building first rose in 1892. This was one of many churches that went up at the time across the northeast corridor, with a purpose-driven approach to provide access to Protestant houses of worship given the high influx of (predominantly) Italian-Catholics immigrants to the area. We know this, of course, due to our deep understanding of the demographic shifts in Philadelphia in the 1890s and/or thanks to a successful nomination to the local register of historic places a few years ago. Let’s check out this handsome building that is not far from another potentially handsome building we reported on in July.

Looking SE towards the lovely St. John’s Baptist Church, courtesy of Marie Pogue/Keller Williams

A look at the stone facade, rounded windows and pointed rooftops

While successful for well over a century, the congregation size of the church dwindled all the way down to five people. In something that has become fairly common across the city, the church was no longer financially viable, eventually closing its doors back in August. We’ll bet you a dollar that you can guess where this is headed: the property is now on the market for $1.5 million in as-is condition. The building itself is pretty darn wonderful on the inside as well, with the public-facing spaces feeling both grand and cozy thanks to the abundance of wood trim/ceilings. Additionally, there are also plenty of functional spaces, with large storage and classrooms mixing with a kitchen and bathrooms. Let’s mosey on through to scope out the space.

Vaulted ceilings, pews, lamps, and stained glass are all part of the sale

More open spaces, with tall ceilings and a catwalk

A look towards the altar shows the huge volume of space

A look at the detail of the stained glass - seemingly in great shape

Not gorgeous, but a large, light-filled, functional space

The church basement giving off extremely strong church basement vibes

While the inside is likely to change dramatically, this is most certainly an intriguing property. This building is much bigger than it appears in photos, with nearly 10K sqft of gross leasable area, with nearly 4K sqft additional space as well.

Below ground contains spaces both large and small

Second floor consists of open areas with wood trim/stained glass

Some office space, a catwalk, but mostly open to the area below

While this may seem like a slam-dunk adaptive-reuse case, we can thank the zoning here for lessening the likelihood of this happening quickly. The property and the entire surrounding area are zoned RSA-5, preventing almost every usage besides single-family homes, daycares, and religious assembly locations - the latter two being its most recent function. As such, anyone purchasing this property would either need to be willing to turn this into a massive single-family home (which will require oversight from the Historical Commission for any exterior changes) or else a new owner will need to petition the local registered community organization for zoning relief - always a tricky endeavor.

Given all of these issues, we do hope the building can find a new owner so it doesn’t end up sitting vacant and deteriorating until reuse isn’t possible. This is exactly the type of instance where it would be wonderful to have additional tools in place so that whoever does decide to purchase this building can give it the love and attention it deserves without having to jump over years of hurdles to lead to a reasonable outcome. Go Birds.