Cresheim Valley Apartments tenants and their neighbors are cultivating a new — and greener — chapter in the Mt. Airy building’s history.

West Mt. Airy Neighbors, Cresheim Village Neighbors and the building’s current manager CPM MGMT are conducting several landscaping upgrades on the 24-unit complex, located adjacent to the Richard Allen Lane SEPTA station.

The grounds will be decorated with a variety of plant species, and building railings and pillars will be repainted. When completed, there will be 14 trees installed throughout the front and side of the complex, perennials along the front walls and flowering shrubs near the stairways.

The beautification effort is emblematic of loyalty Northwest Philadelphia residents have for their historic neighborhoods, said tenant Cynthia Dutwin, who spearheaded the project.

“West Mt. Airy is known for community, its historical architecture, and its beautiful gardens and trees. So, I wanted to pull all of that together for the front of this building,” she said.

Dutwin said she felt the 100-year-old Tudor Revival-style complex needed some care after tenants experienced a tumultuous period with the former landlord, Philip Pulley. He had several trees removed to fix water pipes and replaced the brick terrace with cement stairs and white railings, which began to rust within a year. Neighbors’ requests to reinstall flowers and trees were shut down, Dutwin said. Pulley lost ownership of the building after Fannie Mae sued him for defaulting on mortgages at Cresheim Valley.

By then, there was no greenery on the front lawn except for a patch of crab grass, Dutwin said, and the grounds “just looked very desolate and sad.”

Michael Yanoff, Pulley’s former attorney, said the landlord had been in the process of renovating the property. His efforts were delayed when the building was added to the Philadelphia Register of Historic Places in 2023, meaning any new changes to the exterior need to be reviewed by the Historical Commission.

CPM MGMT, a Philadelphia-based property management company, took over in the fall. Dutwin connected with Josephine Winter, executive director of West Mt. Airy Neighbors and Liz Hersh, co-leader of Mt. Airy Tree Tenders, to obtain the trees, which were donated by Tree Philly.

In addition, neighbors volunteered to help with the landscaping and donated perennials, Dutwin said. In May, nearly 20 volunteers gathered on the lawn and planted 12 trees of several species: red bud, dogwood, serviceberry, witch hazel and pear.

Dutwin said CPM MGMT’s support for the project and other tenants’ concerns has been “unbelievable.” Damar D. Wilson, director of project management for CPM MGMT, helped get the project approved, supplied volunteers with free equipment and had the railings painted brown to match the building architecture.

“It’s no secret that when residents see care and investment being put into a property, it creates pride and encourages people to care for their community even more,” Wilson said in an email. “And while we have not had Cresheim for long, property management has been around long enough to prove that. We want residents to feel proud of where they live.”

“We hope this project becomes an example of what collaboration between residents, neighborhoods, and property management can accomplish and serves as the gold standard for other property management companies,” he added.

Steve Stroiman, who referred Dutwin to volunteers, said it’s inspiring to see different segments of the community working together on this initiative.

The project symbolizes the loyal culture of Cresheim Village Neighbors, which spans around 300 houses from Allens Lane to Mount Pleasant Avenue and from Germantown Avenue to Cresheim Road, he said. Members have monthly meetings, maintain the neighborhood landscaping and engage in advocacy efforts.

“We are a neighborhood that helps each other,” said Stroiman, the longtime coordinator of the association. “There are a number of things that we do on a neighborhood level. We help each other individually. We help each other communally, and we’re proud of what we do as a community.”

The neighborhood banded together to take legal action against the former landlord a few years ago, which led to a separate lawsuit by the state attorney general. Tenant advocacy organizations and neighborhood groups, including WMAN and East Mt. Airy neighbors, organized with residents of Cresheim Valley Apartments.

Neighbors have also unified to preserve Northwest Philadelphia buildings. WMAN nominated Cresheim Valley Apartments for designation on the Philadelphia Register of Historic Places through its Historic Preservation Initiative. The Philadelphia Historical Commission’s Committee on Historic Designation approved the designation in 2023. The Historic Preservation Initiative later secured a spot on the register for the Northwest Apartments Thematic District, which features 30 buildings and condominiums.

 Moving forward, volunteers at Cresheim Valley Apartments will build wooden flower boxes and place them around the front of the building, as well as install perennials and flowery bushes in the near future, Dutwin said.

“There is a lot of appreciation and gratitude around just how everyone came together to work on this project and make this happen... and work together to really bring this property back to what it was,” she said. “It was something that was magnificent and can be magnificent again.”

The project is currently accepting perennial donations. Those who wish to add some to the gardens can contact dutwin.cynthia.@gmail.com.