PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — A Mount Airy couple is working to save a piece of Philadelphia history by purchasing and restoring a well-known building on Germantown Avenue.
That couple has asked the community for help.
“The community has really shown up for us,” said Antoine Joseph. He and his wife Samantha saw developers buying up the 6600 block of Germantown Avenue.
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“They leveled properties to put up big massive apartment buildings," Antoine explained.
"We thought, 'The Sun Building is next,'" Samantha added.
Located at 6663 Germantown Avenue, the Sun Building was the longtime home of the Philadelphia Sunday Sun, a newspaper founded by late journalist and longtime NAACP leader Jerry Mondesire.
The paper moved out of the property a couple years ago, and the building has sat vacant.
“If nobody wants to buy it, we should buy it," Samantha said.
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While Antoine does real estate part time, they are not developers.
“Nobody wanted to lend us the money to purchase it and fix it up," Samantha explained.
They got an investor to put up some cash, got a pro bono architect and started a GoFundMe, raising more than $25,000. They only need $20,000 more by the end of the month to close the deal.
“We’re excited," Samantha said. "Every dollar counts.”
The couple says the first floor will be a community space.
The Philadelphia Sunday Sun is not affiliated with this project.