Soon, that home on Sumneytown Pike will be razed and redeveloped into 17 townhomes.
You know the home: It lies abandoned and purposeless next to Gwynedd Healthcare & Rehabilitation Center and across from Merck, near Canterbury Drive. It was easy to miss for years, encased in a cocoon of colossal, overgrown trees and shrubs and creeping flora that staked claim to its 122-year-old white Old Colonial brick façade and stately, columned porch and roof, turning the two-story, 1,900-square-foot home and its two-acre environment into a Stephen King scene.
Certainly, a far cry and ironic dichotomy of not only the pharmaceutical setting across the street, but also the surrounding commerce between Allentown Road and Broad Street.
The property at 779 Sumneytown Pike – which is zoned, literally, as “Residential-Boarded-Up House” by Montgomery County – and the residential property next door at 783 Sumneytown Pike will be known as “Wheatley Walk,” now that Upper Gwynedd Township Commissioners gave preliminary and final land development approval last month to developer W.B. Homes, according to The Reporter.
W.B. Homes President Chris Canavan said construction can start by early April.
Known by the sobriquet “Jeppy Property,” both parcels are owned by JEPPY, of 411 Carmichael Drive in Upper Gwynedd, according to county property records. The Carmichael Drive address belongs to Neal and Sharon Pearlstine, according to county property records.
County property records show JEPPY purchased the 779 Sumneytown Pike parcel, which had an assessed value of $167,330, in 1995, for $165,000, then transferred it 19 days later to Stephen Marinelli, who transferred it two years later back to JEPPY for $30,000. An assessment appeal in 2013 brought the property assessment for 779 Sumneytown Pike down to $102,300, per county records. There are no ownership records for the property prior to 1995 on the county website. JEPPY purchased the 789 Sumneytown Pike parcel in 1996 from John Wexler for $1, per county records.
The parcel at 789 Sumneytown Pike also has a two-story Old Colonial home built in 1900, but it will be demolished in the project.
In 2003, a three-story hotel was planned for the properties, per The Reporter, but never came to fruition. Some 17 years later, W.B. Homes presented plans for two 12-unit apartment buildings. However, after discussing stormwater runoff and construction density concerns with neighbors, W.B. Homes scaled back the plan to 17 townhomes, constructed over three separate buildings.
Read more on the project and resident concerns and questions at this link.
See also:
New Upper Gwynedd Communications Firm Contract Allots $30,000+ for Martin Tract Communications
Towamencin Inches Closer To Possible Sewer Privatization With Feb. 11 Bid Deadline
New Year, New Taxes: A Roundup of Recent Tax Changes Across the North Penn Area
North Wales Borough Makes History as First Deaf Mayor Sworn-in Monday Night
