The St. James is a luxury residential skyscraper in Washington Square West, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. The , 45-story high-rise stands along Walnut Street and Washington Square and is the 15th tallest building in Philadelphia.
The Chicago-style, glass-and-concrete skyscraper incorporated into its design several historic 19th-century buildings that lined Walnut Street. These buildings included three Federal-style rowhouses built in 1807 called York Row and the Italianate-style former headquarters of the Philadelphia Savings Fund Society, built in 1868–1869. After lying vacant and neglected for years, the only part of York Row preserved were the rowhouses' facades. Only a back portion of the Philadelphia Savings Fund Society building was demolished, the rest being incorporated as retail and office space.
Developer P&A Associates first attempted to develop the site in 1995, but was delayed because of a lack of investor confidence in the project. When the Philadelphia residential market improved in the late 1990s, St. James Associates Joint Venture, a joint venture of P&A Associates and others, began construction in November 2001. The high-rise building, completed in 2004, features 306 units, with each but the studio apartments having a private balcony. Its amenities include a swimming pool, a private courtyard, and a nine-story parking garage that makes up the base of the building.
History
PSFS headquarters and York Row
The site of The St. James was formerly occupied by a group of historic 19th-century buildings that lined Walnut Street in the Washington Square West neighborhood in Center City, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The most notable of these was the former headquarters of the Philadelphia Savings Fund Society (PSFS). Designed in 1868 by Addison Hutton, the granite-faced Italianate-style building was the second headquarters building that PSFS had built. Construction began on the building on June 13, 1868, and it was opened for business on October 11, 1869. An addition designed by Hutton was added in 1885, and another designed by Frank Furness in 1895. The building served as the PSFS headquarters until 1932 when the company moved to the PSFS Building on Market Street.
The other buildings are a group of three brick three-story rowhouses called York Row. Built in 1807 in the Federal style, they are an early example of speculative housing development. York Row was built at a time when Philadelphia's population was shifting westward, away from the Delaware River.
The buildings were bought for US$4.7 million in 1988 by real estate investor Samuel A. Rappaport. Rappaport, who made a fortune by buying, improving, and then selling run-down properties, announced in 1989 that he planned to turn the building into his own personal headquarters and add a glass-enclosed ballroom on its top. Rappaport also planned to have an apartment in one of the York Row houses. However, like many other Rappaport-owned buildings, they ended up being left vacant and neglected, becoming a target for vandals and the homeless.
Rappaport died in 1994, and in January 1995 developer P&A Associates announced its agreement to buy the properties from his estate. The developer also disclosed plans to build a luxury residential tower at the site. The plan called for dismantling part of Furness's additions to the PSFS headquarters, which would serve as the tower's lobby. The York Row houses would have been completely demolished. The plan was controversial as preservationists wanted the buildings to remain unchanged. P&A Associates met with representatives of the Preservation Alliance for Greater Philadelphia and in February 1995 advanced a new plan that would preserve most of the PSFS headquarters and the York Row facade. The new plan, which was approved by the Philadelphia Historical Commission, included renovating the PSFS headquarters and converting it into restaurant and office space. The York Row building interiors had been stripped of everything except for one fireplace mantle and could not be restored. P&A Associates would instead preserve the front facade of the houses, back to the roof ridge line.