THREE REGIONAL SITES ON PENNSYLVANIA AT RISK 2003 LIST

Three Philadelphia-region sites have been included on Pennsylvania At Risk 2003, an annual list of the Commonwealth's most endangered historic properties according to Preservation Pennsylvania, the statewide preservation advocacy group.

The regional sites are: the Chalfont Historic District, Chalfont Borough, Bucks County; the Coatesville train station, Coatesville, Chester County; and three historic districts in Philadelphia in which historic residential properties may be demolished as part of the city's Neighborhood Transformation Initiative (NTI).

There is good news however! It appears that one of the listed sites - the threat to the historic heart of Chalfont Borough - has already been averted. In early August 2003, a proposal to build a modern Eckerd drugstore in the center of Chalfont was withdrawn by its developer, and four Victorian-era homes along the community's main corridor will not be demolished now. A strong, vocal, and active local grass-roots campaign to stop the demolitions and the drugstore development carried the day. The intrusion of modern drugstores in traditional, often historic, communities still remains an issue elsewhere in Pennsylvania and across the country, despite a promise to the National Trust for Historic Preservation by the major drugstore chains that they would not locate new stores in historic districts if that meant the loss of historic properties.

A two-story brick train station in Coatesville remains neglected and vandalized after twenty years of abandonment. There may be hope for the 1865 Italianate-style station of the Pennsylvania RR however: a grant from the Knight Fellowship Program in Community Building will fund a design charette to help the borough of Coatesville - which leases the station from Amtrak - find viable ways to reuse and revitalize the historic building.

Parts of three historic districts - all in north Philadelphia - may suffer the loss of Victorian and post-Victorian houses during the blight removal phase of the NTI program. The Strawberry Mansion, Diamond Street, and Lower North Philadelphia Speculative Housing historic districts are affected. The Preservation Alliance, along with the National Trust, and Preservation Pennsylvania are working with the city to minimize the loss of historic properties, and to undertake one or more demonstration projects that show how historic rowhouses can be economically rehabilitated.

North 32nd Street in Strawberry Mansion historic district

For more on these three endangered properties, and to see the entire Pennsylvania At Risk 2003 list go to www.preservationpa.org. And look for the first-ever Preservation Alliance list of endangered historic properties in the Philadelphia region this fall in our newsletter, the newspapers, and at www.preservationalliance.com.