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. 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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John Hanson
Sellers Hall
150 Hampden Road, Upper Darby
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I was surprised in the winter of 2010 to receive a call from John Milner, a friend and mentor from my days in Penn’s Graduate program in Historic Preservation, about a studio class he was teaching called Architectural Archaeology. John and his firm John Milner Architects have a well earned reputation as experts in early American vernacular architecture, and a 17th century homestead had found its way onto his radar through the efforts of some grass roots preservationists who were concerned about its fate. John was hoping to leverage the efforts of his students into a building rescue while giving them opportunities to learn about the history of the building and its occupants, and about the hard work of preserving our built environment. His request to me was simple: would I be willing to show up to a class or two armed with power tools, and help conduct some selective demolition, and thus began a relationship with the project that continues today.
Samuel Sellers fled religious persecution in England and settled with his wife in what is now Upper Darby in 1682. He built a house for his family that was completed about three years later, and began a cloth weaving business, which eventually morphed into wire mesh and industrial manufacturing, and a company that would survive many succeeding generations. Later members of the Sellers family would become founders of the American Philosophical Society and Franklin Institute, and leading abolitionists who made the family home a stop on the Underground railroad.
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As the business grew so did the house. Five separate building campaigns were discovered and documented during the two semesters the students spent at the site, creating lots of lightbulb moments as we peeled back the fabric. Miraculously, elements of the windows and exterior wood trim from the original roof structure remain on the building and helped provide clues about its history and evolution. We also discovered multiple former chimney and interior stair locations, (one behind a 1950s era tiled shower) that helped us understand how the building’s form had evolved over time.
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Thanks to the efforts of the students, and the Friends of Sellers Hall, a group of local preservationists and surviving members of the Sellers Family, the building was successfully nominated to the National Register of Historic Places in 2017. My firm was hired at that time to do a first phase of the exterior restoration, which included removal of stucco and repointing of the original stonework on two elevations, window restoration, and reconstruction of a pent roof over the first floor.
There is still more work to do and the future use of the building is still not clear, but it is no longer under threat, and its survival has helped create the next generation of people who care deeply about the history of our built environment.
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John Hanson
John and his brother Chris own Hanson Fine Building, whose specialties include residential and institutional preservation projects. John also serves on the Board of Directors of the Preservation Alliance.
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NEW VIRTUAL LECTURES
Watch from the safety and
comfort of your own home!
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Tuesday, June 2, 6:00 PM to 7:30 PM
Saving Neon and Rowhouse Culture
Presented by Len Davidson
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Founder,
Neon Museum of Philadelphia
For over 40 years Len Davidson has produced new neon and collected the old, both in sign and story. His 1999 book "Vintage Neon" is an essential photo archive and cultural history for sign lovers. Len’s interactive talk will examine Philly neon history including his establishment of the Neon Museum of Philadelphia in lower Kensington.
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Tuesday, June 9, 6:00 PM to 7:30 PM
Philadelphia's Everyday Modernism
Presented by William Whitaker
, Curator of The Architectural Archives, University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia has its share of exceptional modern buildings. Louis Kahn’s Richards Laboratory and Robert Venturi’s Mother’s House are two iconic examples of the role that the city’s architects played in defining (and redefining) architecture internationally during the second half of the twentieth century. But focusing on those luminous examples and other works of the so-called “Philadelphia School” risks missing the vibrant, everyday modernism of the Philadelphia neighborhood: the corner store, the health center, and the filling station. Missing too is the modernism that shaped the burgeoning bedroom communities beyond the city line: from King of Prussia to Cherry Hill, Levittown to the Concord Pike in Wilmington, with all those highway interchanges, shopping centers, hotels and motels, and office parks in-between.
Venturing out into this world can be fascinating and sometimes it leads to the discovery of buildings that are significant nationally—but overlooked. This talk will bring that legacy into vivid focus. These less celebrated buildings were, after all, far better integrated into the lived experience of most Philadelphians than their more famous counterparts. And although the purposes that many of these examples once served have given way to “progress,” they demonstrate remarkable architectural ingenuity and provide lessons for today’s designers, who continue to add to the distinctive vitality and variety of Philadelphia’s modernism.
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TICKETS COMING SOON
Michael Lewis - A Talk on the Work of Frank Furness
Tuesday, June 16, 6:00 PM to 7:30 PM
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