Shirt Corner Gets Alterations. Lucy’s Gets Demolished.


rendering 940

Restaurateur Avram Hornik opened Old City bar Lucy’s Hat Shop at Third and Market in 1998, which seems like a long time ago until you think about the decades that the Shirt Corner store was open. But the Shirt Corner building, as it’s known, will not be demolished entirely when Alterra Property Group develops the corner of Third and Market, while Lucy’s Hat Shop — once its likely sale to Alterra goes through — will be.

The reason for this was the determination made by the historic restoration firm Powers and Company on behalf of Alterra that of the parcels the development group was buying, five could be historically preserved or reconstructed while three others were “non-contributing” and would have to be torn down. Lucy’s Hat Shop is one of those three. In its place will stand a nouveau 19th-century structure meant to blend in more with the other historic buildings on the block.

The demolition, says Philly Mag’s Victor Fiorillo, is just as well. Hornik has gone on to bigger and better, while Lucy’s has become “a trashy all-you-can-drink Old City bar that no one you know wants to hang out in.”
Lucy’s Hat Shop Will Be Demolished for Old City CVS Complex [Foobooz]

In Old City, The Loss Of A Contemporary Icon, Gain Of Ancient Buildings [Hidden City]