Blog of the Pennsylvania State Historic Preservation Office

Category: Philadelphia (Page 11 of 11)

Preservation Achievement Awards

Every year the Preservation Alliance for Greater Philadelphia presents the Preservation Achievement Awards to individuals, organizations, businesses and projects from throughout the region that exemplify outstanding achievement in the field of historic preservation. The Awards include Grand Jury Awards to specific projects and Special Recognition Awards to individuals and organizations whose extraordinary accomplishments in preservation contribute to the region’s unique character and sense of place. Continue reading

Spotlight Series: National Alliance of Preservation Commissions

The Spotlight Series is an occassional series that highlights interesting people, places, programs, and partner organizations working on historic preservation issues.

PrintWhen it comes to protecting historic places and maintaining the character of our neighborhoods, villages, and landscapes, we all know that the real action is at the local level.  Cities like Charleston and New Orleans paved the way for municipal historic preservation programs in the 1920s and 30s when they adopted ordinances designating portions of those cities as historic districts and enacting design review programs for managing changes to buildings in those districts.  Since then, thousands of communities across the country, including hundreds in Pennsylvania, have adopted preservation ordinances of their own.  A major resource for these communities is the National Alliance of Preservation Commissions, the only national –level organization dedicated to serving the needs of local government preservation boards and commissions through education, advocacy, and training. Continue reading

Smokin’ Joe Frazier and Pennsylvania’s Boxing History

On February 5, 2013, the Pennsylvania Historic Preservation Board gave their support to heavyweight boxer Joe Frazier’s Philadelphia gym for listing in the National Register of Historic Places. That’s one step closer to official recognition for not just the man but also the gym where he trained for most of his career and later shared his skill and experience with Philly’s youth. Continue reading

Uncommon Modern

Professional Offices, Chester, Delaware County. Photograph by Betsy Manning.

Being one of the earliest areas of European settlement in the United States means that Pennsylvania has an incredible, and in some ways unrivaled, architectural legacy that encompasses every major era in American history.  We’ve got colonial taverns, frontier log cabins, charming farmhouses, monumental churches, imposing 19th century factories, one-of-a-kind government buildings, and everything else in between.  But being the place where so many important events of our nation’s founding took place, and where America’s industrial age flourished, also means that the buildings that came after those periods don’t often get the attention or respect they deserve.  That’s right, I’m talking about Modernism – the buildings of the post World War II era.  The architecture of the automobile.  The design of the Space Age.

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