{"id":221223,"date":"2026-06-17T09:25:07","date_gmt":"2026-06-17T09:25:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/221223\/"},"modified":"2026-06-17T09:25:07","modified_gmt":"2026-06-17T09:25:07","slug":"northwest-phillys-historic-leibert-house-may-be-demolished","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/221223\/","title":{"rendered":"Northwest Philly\u2019s historic Leibert House may be demolished"},"content":{"rendered":"

Next steps for preservation<\/p>\n

Repairing the property would fall to NewCourtland<\/a>. The nonprofit operates nearly 600 units of affordable housing, primarily for older adults. The portfolio includes a 180-bed nursing and rehabilitation facility, which sits on the same grassy campus where the Leibert House is located.\n<\/p>\n

NewCourtland has expressed interest in tearing down the building<\/a> to expand its facility on the campus, but it\u2019s unclear if that remains the case. The house is now historically designated at the city level, meaning NewCourtland would need approval from the Philadelphia Historical Commission to do any demolition.\n<\/p>\n

NewCourtland President Joe Duffey said the organization is taking a \u201cthoughtful, informed approach\u201d to evaluating the future of the Leibert House.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cTo inform our decision-making, we are in discussions with the Preservation Alliance for Greater Philadelphia, engineering experts, and government officials to better understand the opportunities, challenges, and responsibilities with the site as we determine the most appropriate next steps,\u201d Duffey said in a statement.\n <\/p>\n

A spokesperson for NewCourtland called the decision a \u201cpriority\u201d but could not provide a timeline for the process.\n<\/p>\n

\"An\u201cA. Liebert House, now part of Lutheran Home, no. 6926 Germantown Road [6950 Germantown Avenue], opposite Gorgas Lane,\u201d c. 1890. Source: Thomas H. Shoemaker Germantown and Philadelphia portraits and views collection, Historical Society of Pennsylvania.The city has ordered the nonprofit to hire a licensed engineer to assess the property to \u201cdetermine the extent of the structural defects,\u201d according to public documents. The company must also install \u201ctemporary protections of the public way and adjacent properties\u201d and pay for a detailed remediation plan before making any repairs, among other requirements.\n<\/p>\n

L&I cannot force a private owner to make repairs, however, even if the building is historically designated. The department can only impose fines and place liens on a property to enforce the building code.\n<\/p>\n

The historical commission also lacks that authority.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no preservation jail, we often say,\u201d said Paul Steinke, executive director of the Preservation Alliance for Greater Philadelphia.\n<\/p>\n

Tearing down a historic property that\u2019s been neglected is not unheard of in Philadelphia, but it is uncommon. The most recent example, said Steinke, was 19th Street Baptist Church<\/a> in South Philadelphia. Designed by famed architect Frank Furness, the 19th century building was demolished last year after a protracted, and ultimately unsuccessful, effort to save it.\n<\/p>\n

The front porch of the Leibert House was previously removed, but Beisert, who nominated the building for historic designation, is cautiously optimistic that the rest of the property can be preserved if it\u2019s repaired.\n<\/p>\n

As Philadelphia prepares to celebrate the nation\u2019s 250th anniversary, he said it would send the wrong message if it wasn\u2019t.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cThe 250 priorities to me are just totally out of whack,\u201d Beisert said. \u201cWe\u2019re restoring meaningless commercial buildings on Market Street and these buildings are rotting.\u201d\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Next steps for preservation Repairing the property would fall to NewCourtland. The nonprofit operates nearly 600 units of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":221224,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[6451,69,71,70,2312],"class_list":["post-221223","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-historic-preservation","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news","tag-planphilly"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221223","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=221223"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221223\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/221224"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=221223"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=221223"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=221223"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}