About Us

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The Conservancy has multiple success stories under Act 135, PA's Abandoned and Blighted Property Conservatorship Act. In most instances, the owners voluntarily sped up their efforts to bring their property up to code. The only project that required judicial intervention was the historic Kimball House, built approximately in 1859 and home to two prominent Philadelphia families - the Kimballs and the Mineharts.  Built by renowned architect Samuel Sloan (1815-1884) for Frederick S. Kimball, head of a private banking firm that is today Janney Montgomery Scott, his son  Frederick J. Kimball organized the Norfolk & Southern Railway. The house was later sold to  Dr. John R. Minehart, Temple University’s first dean of pharmacy, and was the childhood home of Thomas Z. Minehart, who became PA's Auditor General, Treasurer, and City Councilman, among other prominent positions. The Kimball House is a Federal, historically certified (but not city certified) 152 year 152-year-old Italianate villa with Oriental (Japanese) Moss/Olive Green wooden ornamental treatment.  The house is three stories with 15 rooms, seven bedrooms, three full and 2 ½ baths, and four fireplaces. The main floor features a full-size ballroom. The house was in the control of Freddie Mac when the Conservancy intervened.

The Conservancy departed from its bailiwick to protect a property owner's First Amendment right of access to the courts, which the PA State Constitution also guarantees.  Situated in the Bustleton section of Northeast Philadelphia, the Conservancy has interevened in one commercial property when usurpers are attempting steal an easement and in one residential property where one owner-in-tenacy is attempting to oust the co-owner-in-tenacy in what has turned into a "Family Feud on Steriods."  Because the Ousting owner has left the house abandoned since 2012, water damage from a deteriorated chimney and roof has now disturbed the asbestos aluminum siding that the house is now a Philadelphia Fire Dept. Haz-Mat Box. The Conservancy is maintaining a 24/7 fire watch as required by the city FIre Code, while the Conservancy's Counsel wards off interference from the Ouster Owner who lives in Florida.