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More than two decades after Rudolph Walton Elementary closed, a nonprofit developer is preparing to breathe new life into the historic North Philadelphia school.
The blighted stone building on North 22nd Street near Huntingdon in Strawberry Mansion will be converted into a 50-unit apartment building for older adults with low incomes.
The homes will all be subsidized through a partnership with the Philadelphia Housing Authority, which owns the building and the land.
“It is really a special opportunity,” said Emma Colley, vice president of affordable housing development at HELP Development Corp. “Firstly, restoring such a beautiful building and, more importantly, providing the neighbors and community members with a whole vibrant space that they can be a part of.”
The units will all be one-bedroom and available to people aged 55 and above.
A total of 37 units will be affordable to individuals earning up to 50% of the area median income. The rest will be priced for residents earning up to 30% of AMI.
That translates to between $25,770 and $42,950 a year.
The $34 million project is backed by Low-Income Housing Tax Credits, meaning they will remain affordable for at least 40 years after construction.
A neighborhood ‘eyesore’
Built in 1900, the four-story property is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It is not locally designated, meaning it is not protected against demolition.
The school closed in 2003, shuttered as part of a larger series of closings carried out by the School District of Philadelphia.
The housing authority bought the abandoned building in 2015 to develop into affordable housing. The purchase came after KIPP Philadelphia, a charter school operator, backed out of a deal to buy and renovate the property for one of its high school programs.