The Erasure of Philadelphia's Historic Architecture

The city of Philadelphia's failure to protect their historical buildings has led to the rising trend of demolitions.

Matt Wolfinger

Background

Philadelphia has been considered one of the core historical American cities since its founding by William Penn in 1682 — often labeled the birthplace of America's independence.

The city is home to a plethora of old historical buildings, from brownstone townhouses to factories that once held some of the largest booms in American industry. Take a brief tour and you'll pass Independence Hall, countless Quaker homes and Philadelphia City Hall.

To the right you'll find a map of historic sites that are on the Philadelphia Registrar with the Historical Commission. These protections provide an almost surefire way to avoid potential demolition.

However, what happens to the older buildings in Philadelphia that don't possess those protections? Incentivized development as a result of increased need within the 21st century's population/real estate boom has subjected Philadelphia to a disturbing spike in demolitions. As a result, the city's historical identity is at risk of being stripped away and replaced with bland, gentrified condominiums that will displace the communities that call Philadelphia home.

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This slider showcases a segment of Philadelphia's historical sights as they intersect with demolitions conducted by the city and private contractors. Utilize the slider to compare the Historical Sites (red) with those sites who have incurred either partial or full demolitions (black construction cones).

Although  more than two thirds of Philadelphia buildings were built more than five decades ago  (making them eligible for protection),  just under 3% of those buildings are documented as historic . These lack of protections have given rise to demolitions from private companies, seeing a near 200% uptick in the last decade.

Highlights

Here are just a few of the hundreds of historic buildings in Philadelphia destroyed within the last decade.

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Rising to meet need for urban development is vital, and I think there's merit to want to meet the demand for more housing in a city with a steep increase in population, but more often than not we demolish beautiful architectural structures in favor of beige cardboard-box-esque buildings with insanely-high rents, forcing communities that once occupied those neighborhoods for decades out of them.

If we're putting our money anywhere, I personally believe it's better served toward preserving these buildings and repurposing them into spaces that serve their communities rather than demolishing them en masse and erasing large portions of the city's historical identity.

These aren't just colonial buildings, though. A lot of recent effort from Philly citizens has been allocated toward preserving sites with artistic significance as well.

Looking Forward

There's hope for the fight against private demolition companies, and it's something the citizens of Philadelphia have already been seeing evidence of. This is the renewed interest and emphasis on repurposing buildings rather than demolishing them. The practice is known to some as "adaptive reuse."

Here are a few repurposed sites of note that I find especially interesting and could serve as templates for the city's future historic preservation planning.

True Hand

2345 E Susquehanna Ave

Bok

1901 S 9th Street

Trail's End Cafe

375 Conshohocken State Rd

True Hand

 2345 E Susquehanna Ave

True Hand is a tattoo shop/graphic design studio that opened in 2019, renovated by Mike Ski — who occupies the lower floor with his wife and family. The Fishtown church building used to be known as Fifth Reformed Dutch Church before Hand bought and repurposed the property in 2017.

Hand started expressing interest in the building at the same time a developer was considering the site for demolition — a saving grace for Philadelphian preservation activists when Hand scared them off.

True Hand won the Preservation Alliance for Greater Philadelphia’s annual Preservation Achievement Award, a shining example of how we could be repurposing these sites instead of letting them simply be demolished by greedy developers.

Bok

1901 S 9th Street

The building that used to be known as Edward W. Bok Technical High School now serves as a collective workspace for artists, non-profits, and smaller businesses. Lindsey Scannapieco and her team began the process in 2013, with more being added each year.

Each summer, the rooftop morphs into a restaurant and bar.  Their website  boasts that the collectives within the building consist of 50% women-run businesses and 71% South Philly residents.

Over the last few years, the building has morphed into a space that is serving the smaller citizens of its community like never before, and all because the building was repurposed and saved from demolition.

Trail's End Cafe

375 Conshohocken State Rd

This is a smaller example, but what was once Cynwyd Station — a smaller station building constructed in the 1880s to capitalize on the customer base of railroad passengers — was converted into a small coffee shop in 2016 to serve bikers and runners upon the newly remodeled Cynwyd Heritage Trail along the Schuylkill River.

This was a smaller building without much significance, neglected by SEPTA and all but forgotten — which was preserved and miraculously given a new sense of purpose within its community.

If you have a site in mind in the city of Philadelphia you'd want considered for preservation, there's a  handy portal  that allows you to submit ideas and provide feedback on other submissions. Since nominations for historical sites within the city of Philadelphia are almost always user-sourced, taking initiative and nominating sites held dear to the hearts of its citizens before developers can bulldoze them from right under our noses is vital to preserving the historical architecture of the city of Brotherly Love.