Blog of the Pennsylvania State Historic Preservation Office

Category: Preservation Alliance for Greater Philadelphia (Page 1 of 2)

Preserving the Henry Ossawa Tanner House

Earlier this year, the National Trust for Historic Preservation included the Henry Ossawa Tanner House in North Philadelphia on their 11 Most Endangered List.  With the help of the Preservation Alliance for Greater Philadelphia, I was able to connect with Chris Rogers of the Friends of the Tanner House to talk about what is happening at this National Historic Landmark.

Read on if you’re looking for some good news…

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Preservation’s March Madness

“March Madness” in the historic preservation world isn’t quite the same as the highly competitive, single-elimination college basketball tournaments that happen each March.

I’ve coopted the phrase to describe National Historic Preservation Advocacy Week and the days leading up to it in our office. Just like the NCAA I players that begin prepping and practicing weeks and months before their games, we kick off each New Year with making plans, preparing materials and partipants, and scheduling visits for Advocacy Week.

One big difference, of course, is that preservationists don’t compete against each other in a nail-biting, winner-takes-all game. One big similarlity, however, is the frenzy of activity, nerves, and excitement before the big event.

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Add this to your summer reading list! #preservationhappenshere – PA’s Statewide Preservation Plan – is ready for you

Picture yourself – lounging poolside, lakeside, or on the beach – with your tablet or smart phone (or even good old-fashioned paper) enjoying the hottest summer publication that hasn’t yet made the New York Times bestseller list: #preservationhappenshere, Pennsylvania’s next statewide historic preservation plan. Continue reading

Preservation People & Places Worth Celebrating

As many of you already know, May is national Historic Preservation Month.  What better way to kick-start our month-long celebration of historic preservation than with this year’s winners of the Preservation Alliance of Greater Philadelphia’s 2017 Preservation Achievement Awards.

If you’re not familiar with the Preservation Alliance, they are the Philadelphia region’s non-profit, membership-based historic preservation advocacy group.  Their work focuses on actively promoting the appreciation, protection, and revitalization of the Philadelphia area’s historic places and spaces and advocating for strong public preservation policies. Continue reading

School Daze

No, this isn’t a review of Spike Lee’s 1988 movie.  I’m referring to my state of mind when I think about all of the work I’ve done with public schools in Philadelphia over the past few months.

As you may remember from this post, I joined BHP in July and my first assignment was to complete the survey component of a larger project to document Philadelphia elementary and secondary public schools of all types, styles, and dates.  I had a good start on the survey work thanks to the headway my predecessor made in 2013 by assembling lists and survey maps, which are organized by zip code.  My school daze started when I realized that there were about 300 public schools that qualified for this reconnaissance-level survey.  And, even more intimidating, that 205 still needed to be surveyed before school started on September 8thContinue reading

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