The Beasley Building
1125 Walnut Street
Philadelphia, PA 19107
Phone (215) 592-1000
Fax (215) 592-8360
3000 Atrium Way
Suite 258
Mount Laurel, NJ 08054
Phone (856) 273-6966
Fax (856) 273-6913
Beasley Building |
The Episcopal Diocese of Pennsylvania built the "Episcopal Church House" in 1894 for $155,000. The five-story brick-and-limestone structure is located at the corner of 12th and Walnuts Streets, in Center City, Philadelphia.
The Church House functioned as diocese headquarters. The bishop of Pennsylvania maintained an office on the second floor. The original building had a pipe organ in a second-story chapel with stained glass windows, and eight stone statues of the saints posted on its roof.
The diocese stayed 27 years, selling the building for $325,000 in 1921 to the Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce. The Chamber sold the building in 1946 to Jefferson Medical College, which sold it in 1975 to Pierre Uniforms Inc.
When Jim Beasley bought the building in 1986 for $950,000, his goal was to rehab it into a law office. But first he had to evict the building's tenants, which included the Second Story, a disco that occupied the former second-floor chapel, and a gay dance club in the basement known as the Catacombs.
In papers filed in Philadelphia Common Pleas Court, Beasley, an Episcopalian by birth, argued that the current tenants were using the Church House "in a manner which is immoral, improper and objectionable," and he stated that his intention was to "restore this landmark building to productive economic and social use."
Beasley, who took over the bishop's former office, spent close to $5 million to rehab the Church House. The Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission in 1992 awarded the project a Historic Preservation Commendation for Outstanding Achievement.
