Richard Cohen, the Northeast Philadelphia man who built an American porn empire, has placed his Society Hill mansion on the market.
The Forum Theater, 2208 Market St., is infamous for being among the last extant porno houses in Philadelphia, an almost-quaint vestige of the block's skid-row days. It has lingered despite the easy availability of sex films on the Web, despite the encroachment of upscale condos on nearby streets - despite the opening of a celebrated public high school on the next block north. Yet, just when it seemed the Forum's days were numbered, it was cleared for expansion by the city's own Zoning Board of Adjustment and planning department staff.
In most parts of Philadelphia, porn theaters and strip joints would be prohibited from doing business so close to residences (or, for that matter, to a school like Greenfield elementary at 22d and Chestnut). Since the 1990s, the zoning code has limited "regulated" adult uses to special districts located 500 feet from the nearest home. But because Trombetta's theater has been around since 1975, it is exempt from the rule.
