 In March 1852 Fuchs purchased the lot at the southwest corner of Fort Road and Walnut Street, which he expanded by purchase of the northwest corner in June 1853, and the adjacent northwest corner of Walnut and Oak Street (now Smith Avenue N.) in November 1854.The $420 price paid by Fuchs for the stone house lot only one month later (December 1854) suggests there may already have been a small wood frame structure there.Fuchs' stature as a contractor is shown by the fact that he was hired to build the Athenaeum in 1859, one of the most prominent public buildings in Uppertown at the time, and also by the $6,000 in real estate he had amassed by 1860—at a time when vacant lots in Uppertown could be acquired for as little as $300.