The Beasley Building

However, to make our vision come true, we first he had to evict the building's tenants, which included a disco called "Second Story." The disco had occupied the second floor chapel and a dance club was built in the basement known as the Catacombs, which was eerily reminiscent of the "Milk Bar" in the classic movie "A Clockwork Orange." "Second Story" was Philadelphia's version of New York's "Studio 54" and many who visit our offices still have fond, if somewhat fuzzy, memories of earlier times in our building.

From Church House to night club to legendary law office, the building indeed has a colorful history. In papers filed in Philadelphia Common Pleas Court, Jim 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." Fortunately for our firm, we won, and were able to complete the rebirth of this building. The Firm was finally able to occupy the building in 1991.

It took close to $5 million to rehab the Church House. Due to the exacting detail in accurately restoring the building, upon its completion, The Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission awarded the project a Historic Preservation Commendation for Outstanding Achievement. In 1996, we commissioned well known muralist Michael Webb to create a mural on the five-story back of our building, surrounding our private parking lot, and it is now part of the Mural Arts walking tour through Philadelphia. Recently, architectural blog Web Urbanist featured our mural in one of 23 stunning urban murals in the city and the local real estate blog Naked Philly profiled the building's history.