In Roxborough, fight over newly vacant lot

It was not much more than 12 hours after neighbors lost the fight to preserve the 130-year-old Bunting House at Roxborough and Ridge Avenues that the gracious, flat-topped stone landmark with maroon trim began to come down.

By day's end, it was a pile of rubble.

Three months later and still mourning the building's loss, neighbors are fending off a battle on a new front: what will replace it? Will it be a drive-through Wendy's, as rumored? And is the home of the Baconator really a worst-case scenario?

In Roxborough, where just about every place on Ridge Avenue has been something else before and something else before that, it's hard to know where to draw the line.

Old-time residents accuse the opponents of being yuppies and gentrifiers who thumb their noses at a perfectly good fast-food operation.

The newcomers swear they're not trying to push anyone out, or turn Roxborough into Manayunk on the Ridge or a NoWestNoLibs; they say they're just trying to preserve what it is that makes Roxborough Roxborough.

But what is that?

"I don't consider myself a yuppie," said the woman behind the "Roxborough residents against Wendy's" Facebook page, which had 290 likes and 467 people talking about it at last check. (A petition on change.org had 913 signatures.)

The woman, Joanne, said she did not want her last name used because of the tenor of the comments back and forth. It's gotten that tense.

"I'm working-class, grew up in South Philly. I'm very familiar with the flavor of Philadelphia neighborhoods," she said. "A fast-food restaurant really brings down the charm of the neighborhood, as well as the property values.

"If you care so much about the neighborhood," she added, "why do you think a greasy fast-food place makes it better?"

The Bunting House was named for its first resident, Ross Richardson Bunting, a post-Civil War-era physician who is buried in St. Timothy's Cemetery nearby. Whether he is in fact turning over in his grave is presumably being debated on a hyperlocal website.

Meanwhile, the owners of the property, Frank and Anthony Giovannone, say the rumors of a Wendy's are just that, taking on a life of their own in the neighborhood blogs and Facebook pages.

"Everybody's making up all kinds of stories," Anthony Giovannone said in a brief telephone call. "We don't have a contract with anyone at this point. There's so many mistruths there. People will say whatever they want."

Ed Hotham of the Central Roxborough Civic Association said residents had been "very vocal about what they don't want."

"They seem very adamant about no drive-through," he said.

"It's definitely a visual piece of history, a part of Roxborough and it's gone forever," he said of the Bunting House.

At Councilman Curtis Jones Jr.' Roxborough office, staffer Josh Cohen said a solution that satisfied the property owners and neighbors had yet to be found. He has looked into the possibility of the one thing everyone seems to be able to coalesce around: a Trader Joe's. But no go. Not enough space, demographics not quite, well, gentrified.

"We hated to see the Bunting House go," Cohen said. "It wasn't certified historic, but it added tremendous character to the neighborhood. It was a shame it had to be demolished.

"I've heard a variety of different reasons why people don't want the Wendy's. Obviously, they're still a little bit sore about the demolition of the Bunting House."

A drive-through anything would require a variance, though there are a drive-through beer shop and a drive-through Rita's Water Ice stand on the Avenue.

Cohen noted that, like most everywhere, chains had made inroads into Roxborough's idiosyncratic charm, squeezing Subway, Dunkin' Donuts, Starbucks, and Dollar Stores in with the old-time Roxborough Shoe & Luggage Repair and Bob's Diner, the health-conscious Yoga on the Ridge, and the hip Foodery and Crossroads Cafe. The Bunting property is next to a small strip of stores that include a Rite Aid drugstore.

At Bob's, the diner in the cemetery that is perhaps the most iconic Roxborough haunt, owner Jim Evans says a Wendy's wouldn't bother him because his prices are competitive and his customers are attached to their Bob's ritual. He did worry it might make customers from that part of the neighborhood have to fight more traffic to get to his diner.

"For me, if it brings people into the area and they see us, that's positive," he said.

At the shoe-repair place, third-generation merchant Mike Zinar noted that the people complaining were not the ones with money invested in the property. "Are you going to do the upkeep?" he asked. "Are you going to pay the taxes? We went through this with the Turner Funeral Home," another property torn down recently.

At a house directly adjacent to the Bunting property, Greg Molchen said they were mostly sad when the trees on the property were torn down. They're neutral about the Wendy's scenario, though he added, "I'd rather a Burger King."

Joanne, of the Facebook page, said the conversation seemed backward. A proposal for a park, or a dog park, was met with social-media jeers that it would attract drug addicts, rowdy kids, and vagrants. "So we're trained to think that a park is a bad thing and a fast-food joint is a good thing?" she said. "What? What's happening?"