Another Wash West Fire. Another Wash West Demolition?

The huge crane that was parked on the 1200 block of Locust Street last week was there to pick over the wreckage of the latest Washington Square West building to be damaged by fire, the Lincoln Apartments - an 1892 a building designed by architect George H. Fettus in a style that clearly borrows from contemporary Frank Furness. So far, Philadelphia fire marshals and the owner haven't decided whether the five-story palazzo-shaped structure can be saved, although it looks like most of the interior and the west wall are lost. If the entire, 51-unit building goes, it will be second 19th Century apartment house in the neighborhood lost to fire since the one at 11th and Spruce burned in the summer of 2003. Washington Square West is hardly the sort of neighborhood you'd expect to see going up in flames. It's one of Center City's most desirable and historic places to live.

Wash West is so desirable, in fact, that the Lincoln's owner was in the process of converting the upper-floor apartments into condos when the four-alarm fire broke out June 30, just as the city was celebrating an early Fourth of July on Penn's Landing. Firefighters had to work all through the night and into the morning to put out the blaze. By the time they had the fire under control, flames had eaten through the upper story wood joists, and the damaged floors began crashing down on one another, pancake style. It's now just a big pile of charred timbers on the inside of the U-shaped building.

But even if it's impossible to expect the owner to salvage the interior of the Lincoln, let's hope he has the sense (and his insurance company's support) to save the surviving exterior walls. The word is that the front facade and the east wall are intact. The Lincoln may not be a designated historic structure, or a real Furness building, but they sure don't build them like more this any more. The Lincoln, which has had a varied history as a YMCA, hotel and apartment house, is one of those massive blocks that makes you think of a Roman palazzo - what with its regally arched entryway, flanked by Furness-style compressed columns, and scalloped window fans, striated water table, and understated latte-colored brick. The heavyhanded replacement that was built at 11th and Spruce (by BLT) should be a caution. Just compare the Lincoln's undulating bay windows with the massive, overscaled ones on the 11 the Street corner. No doubt, though, there is someone out there rubbing his hands over the possibility of building a much bigger building on the Lincoln's footprint.