Germantown Group Renews Effort To Refurbish Once-Majestic Waring House

By Paul Kurtz

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Volunteers have returned to a neighborhood in the Germantown section of Philadelphia to resume their effort to restore an old, abandoned property that once served as an anchor for the community.

Wister Neighborhood Council president Anita Hamilton (wearing pink hardhat in top photo) watched as one of her neighbors tossed tables, chairs, and other items  out of a second floor window onto a heaping pile of debris outside the Waring House, on East  Penn Street.

"This is our second step to try to get the remainder of the inside cleaned out," she said, "so that when the professionals come they can have a clear view, can do some measurements. We need plans drawn up, we need all that stuff."

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And they will need a lot of money. Council executive director Debra White-Roberts says the building needs a complete makeover.

"It could range from... I've heard $300,000 quotes, $500,000 quotes, I heard million-dollar quotes," she tells KYW Newsradio.

Built in the mid-1800s, the Waring House was one of many now-decaying architectural gems that dot the Germantown landscape.  The property was abandoned about ten years ago by Germantown Settlement, after the social services agency went belly up.

Hamilton says it's been sorely missed.

"(They) were a comprehensive service.  People didn't have to go ten places to get what they needed," Hamilton recalls.

Now, Hamilton and her gritty band of determined neighbors are hoping to breathe new life into this old house, one small step at a time.

"We are rebirthing. We will be here until the next generation takes over," she adds.