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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Randall F. Mason
Schuylkill River Park: (Not) Far From Fitler Square
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Schuylkill River Park, between 25
th
and the river, Spruce and Delancey, opened in 1966. It is my neighborhood park, and greatly loved by its many users. It is also a rich historic landscape and complicated preservation story. The park and its surrounds give glimpses of earlier landscapes that preceded today’s recreation ground. Layers of 19
th
- and early 20
th
-century industrial development structure the neighborhood and frame the park; modern play spaces attract us to sit, run, garden or walk the dog; this Park landscape and its story also recall an earlier moment of gentrification. The mid-century disappearance of buildings, businesses and communities is also part of the story.
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In the 1960s, this western edge of Center City transformed from a workaday industrial district to a gentrified neighborhood abutting what became the Ritt-Fit District. John Collins’ design, part of his larger Schuylkill trail scheme, traded hard edges for soft ones. (Just before park construction, the main part was a City impound lot.) Markward Playground, a community garden, and the still-working rail corridor (and now its parallel trail) frame it. Visions for open space between Center City and the river date from booster John Lewis’ 1924
The Redemption of the Lower Schuylkill
and have been implemented by the contemporary heroes at SRDC and the City.
Through an urban history lens, Schuylkill River Park perfectly embodies the turning-inside-out of industrial cities to become consumption cities. In the mid-20
th
century, Philly’s boosters claimed this riverfront park would “civilize a wasteland” create an “urban resort” yet were “not designed to foster gentrification”. We all know how that worked.
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Today, the working-class neighbors, coalyards, and docks are gone, and the neighborhood park steals the show. The few industrial traces left are mostly big ones surrounding the Park, all preservation victories: the big warehouses (now loft apartments and condos) and the grid of surrounding blocks of 19
th
-century rowhouses. When I slow down, more subtle traces come into focus – the former Killeen’s Bar at 26
th
and Pine (the sign for the “Ladies’ Entrance” remains); or, underfoot, some rubble peeks through the park’s grassy mounds. While our preservationist sensibility usually dwells on what remains, in SRP, what’s missing -- and filled with new life -- is also part of the story.
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Randall F. Mason
Associate Professor, the Graduate Program in Historic Preservation, Associate Professor of City & Regional Planning and
Senior Fellow, PennPraxis
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NEW VIRTUAL LECTURES
Watch from the safety and
comfort of your own home!
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Tuesday, May 26, 6:00 PM to 7:30 PM
Penn Square, City Hall, and the Emergence of Modern Philadelphia
Presented by Paul Steinke
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Executive Director,
Preservation Alliance for Greater Philadelphia
The building of Philadelphia City Hall at Center Square in the late 19th century was not only a monumental feat of art, architecture and engineering. It was also a powerful catalyst for city building, and for the forging of a civic identity. Preservation Alliance executive director Paul Steinke discusses the forces that led our municipal headquarters to be located where it is, as well as the forces it unleashed to transform the surrounding neighborhood.
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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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University of Pennsylvania's architectural masterpieces
-- a virtual walking tour by Dr. David Brownlee
In this video series, join David Brownlee, Frances Shapiro-Weitzenhoffer Professor of 19th Century European Art in the School of Arts and Sciences, as he leads a virtual tour of some of Penn’s best-known historic buildings.
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