Celebrating National Historic Preservation Month
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May is National Historic Preservation Month.
To celebrate, the Preservation Alliance asked 31 historic preservation leaders in Philadelphia to name a building that has inspired them and why.
Beginning today through the end of the month, we invite you to watch this space daily and hear from leaders in the local preservation movement as they reveal the historic buildings that have inspired them.
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Francesca Russello Ammon, PhD
315 South American Street
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315 South American Street is one of ten three-story, Greek Revival row houses that were built on either side of this narrow thoroughfare in 1847. Including a shared alley to its south, the building occupies a lot measuring just over 18 feet wide by 35 feet deep. When planners redeveloped the Society Hill neighborhood in the 1950s to ‘70s, the Historical Commission included the building on its list of historically certified properties. In this way, it was typical of hundreds of sites so designated as part of the neighborhood’s pioneering approach to restoration-based, rather than clearance-based, urban renewal. Today, it is a vital element of an historic streetscape that gives both the neighborhood and the city their distinctive feel. I selected the building for both its modest typicality of historic Philadelphia urbanism, as well as a two decade-long resident of the property who was foundational to the history of historic preservation in this city.
Penelope (Penny) Hartshorne Batcheler and George Batcheler purchased 315 South American Street from its landlord owner in 1968. Both husband and wife were architects, and they designed the restoration themselves. Penny Batcheler had been one of only three women enrolled in her undergraduate architecture program at Illinois Institute of Technology, from which she graduated in 1953. Two years later, she began working in Philadelphia as an architect with the National Park Service. There, she was a leading figure in the restoration of Independence National Historical Park, for which she scoured the archival records of the 18th-century buildings of Society Hill, located to the park’s immediate south. This foundational architectural research helped set the standards that building restorations would follow. At one point, she was the sole woman among a team of architects and preservationists working to restore Independence Hall. In parallel, she combined historical research with contemporary practicality to restore 315 South American Street, a somewhat younger, mid-19th century row house of her own.
In 2004, three years before she died, Batcheler joined with several other Society Hill residents to supplement the archival record of the neighborhood. They developed a collection of oral history interviews, which they called Project Philadelphia 19106, to document the area’s urban renewal from a resident perspective.
Today, those interview transcripts are available as part of
Preserving Society Hill
, a public history website developed through a collaboration among myself, my students at Penn, and a handful of history-minded neighborhood women who have nurtured the initiative for more than a decade and a half.
The project continues to bring the area’s history to life, just as Batcheler did for so many years from her home on South American Street.
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Francesca Russello Ammon, PhD, is an associate professor of City & Regional Planning and Historic Preservation at the University of Pennsylvania. She is the author of
Bulldozer: Demolition and Clearance of the Postwar Landscape
and a member of the Preservation Alliance Board of Directors.
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NEW VIRTUAL LECTURES
Watch from the safety and
comfort of your own home!
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Tuesday, May 5, 6:00 PM to 7:30 PM
Olympia, Icon of the Navy
Presented by John Brady
During thirty-three years as an active naval vessel
Olympia
came to symbolize both the glories of nationalism and their price.
Olympia
played a part in many of the events that came to define the 20
th
century, the battle of Manila Bay, WWI, the Bolshevik Revolution, and the introduction of radio to the Navy to name a few. The wide variety of roles she played made her a symbol of the Navy itself and now makes her one of the most important historic sites in the country with lessons to teach us on subjects ranging from guerilla conflicts to pandemics.
John Brady is President and CEO of the Independence Seaport Museum, the stewards of
Olympia
, and will lead us through a discussion of why this ship matters now, 125 years after her first commissioning.
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Wednesday, May 6, 6:00 PM to 7:30 PM
Yesterday's Aftermath: Philadelphia's Epidemics and the Built Environment
Presented by The Carpenter's Company of the City and County of Philadelphia and the Preservation Alliance for Greater Philadelphia
Join us for this FREE event as Inga Saffron moderates a discussion on the impact of Philadelphia's epidemics on the built environment.
The Carpenters' Company and the Preservation Alliance for Greater Philadelphia present Inga Saffron in discussion with David Barnes, Jane E. Boyd and George Wohlreich on the history of Philadelphia's epidemics.
Inga Saffron writes architectural criticism for The Philadelphia Inquirer. This panel is inspired by her March column "Philadelphia Has Endured Plagues Before. It Adapted and Became a Better Place." Saffron has maintained her column in the Inquirer's "Home and Design" section since 1999 and has written for the Inquirer since 1984.
- David Barnes, PhD, is Associate Professor of History at the University of Pennsylvania.
- Jane E. Boyd, PhD, is an independent exhibit developer and was the historical curator for the M¨¨ütter Museum's recent exhibit "Spit Spreads Death: The Influenza Pandemic of 1918-19 in Philadelphia."
- George Wohlreich, MD, MA, is President and CEO of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia.
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Tuesday, May 12, 6:00 PM to 7:30 PM
Boathouse Row: Untold Stories of a Philadelphia Icon
Presented by Dotty Brown
Digging into 150 years of archives for her book,
Boathouse Row, Waves of Change in the Birthplace of American Rowing
, Dotty Brown, a former editor at the Philadelphia Inquirer, discovered quirky and fascinating stories behind the façade of these 19
th
century houses. She will reveal some of them, including: how one of Philadelphia’s best known architects came to build on Boathouse Row; its ties with two of the city’s 19
th
century firehouses; why Thomas Eakins’ early work focused on rowers; and the battle women fought for a house of their own in the all-male venue. Dotty blogs about the Row and its history on her website:
www.BoathouseRowTheBook.com
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