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Opponents charge that Philly's Historical Commission choose developers over history
The sprawling white villa at 40th and Pine streets, on the fringes of the University of Pennsylvania, is a historic mansion in disguise. Converted into a nursing home decades ago and later encased by concrete additions, the mansion has been a hulking, blighted eyesore for years, both before and after the Ivy League school paid $1.6 million for it in 2003.