Inventory of Historic Religious Properties in Philadelphia: An Assessment of Significant and At-Risk Houses of Worship A Report Prepared for: The Preservation Alliance for Greater Philadelphia 1616 Walnut Street, Suite 1620 Philadelphia, PA 19103 August 2011 By: Molly Lester M.S., Historic Preservation Candidate 2012 University of Pennsylvania, School of Design TABLE OF CONTENTS Project Overview………………………………………………………..................2 Background Scope Administration Methodology………………………………………………………........................2 Sources……………………………………………………….................................4 Data Categories………………………………………………………....................8 Inventory of Historic Religious Properties………………………………….12 Summary of Results At-Risk Indicators Indicators of Architectural Modifications or Integrity Indicators of Architectural Significance Status of Designation Preservation Planning Opportunities Cover Photographs (Source: Philadelphia Architects and Buildings) Top: Germantown Mennonite Meetinghouse, Germantown Avenue Center: North Muchmore Presbyterian Church, North Broad Street Bottom: North Tenth Street Church, Girard Avenue PROJECT OVERVIEW Background Founded as William Penn’s “Holy Experiment,” Philadelphia has a centuries-long history of fostering and constructing prominent houses of worship throughout the city. In recent decades, as congregations face declining membership and shifting neighborhood demographics, their historically- and architecturally-significant properties have often suffered from deferred maintenance, insensitive alterations, and partial or complete demolition. Advocacy organizations such as Partners for Sacred Places and the Preservation Alliance for Greater Philadelphia have focused on this issue for years, highlighting the threats to Philadelphia’s neighborhoods and communities if these structures continue to be abandoned or lost. In order to fully understand and address this issue, the Preservation Alliance established this project to gather and develop data on the significance and status of the city’s religious properties. Scope This phase of research focused on the identification of all of Philadelphia’s historic religious properties—a degree of comprehensiveness not captured in previous inventories or data sets. It emphasized historical and architectural information on properties, as well as external data sets such as real estate information and demolition permits that had never been linked with congregational inventories. The project therefore seeks to strengthen the data of concerned advocacy groups and address the issue of declining religious properties with research from two angles: the identification of architecturally and historically significant properties that are not listed on historic registers, and the use of external indicators to identify properties that are particularly at risk of deterioration and demolition. The scope of this summer’s research precluded on-site documentation and fieldwork (beyond the author’s previous experience with several dozen of the city’s historic religious congregations). Information on building condition and integrity is therefore dependent on earlier site visits by Partners for Sacred Places and on (undated) exterior conditions assessments included in the data provided by the Department of Licenses and Inspections. Administration This database and report were prepared over the course of the summer of 2011 for the Preservation Alliance for Greater Philadelphia, under the supervision of Executive Director John Andrew Gallery and Advocacy Director Benjamin Leech. Additional supervision and research support was provided by the staffs of the Philadelphia Historical Commission and Partners for Sacred Places. METHODOLOGY This inventory of historic religious properties was populated by data from several resources, agencies, and research collections, including: the Philadelphia Historical Commission; Partners for Sacred Places; the Preservation Alliance for Greater Philadelphia; the City of Philadelphia Office of Property Assessment (formerly the Bureau of Revision of Taxes); the City of Philadelphia Department of Licenses and Inspections; the Philadelphia City Planning Commission; the Philadelphia Architects and Buildings Project; the Historical Society of Pennsylvania; the Greater Philadelphia Geohistory Network; Google Page | 2 Maps, Google Earth and Google Street View; the Philadelphia Historical and Museum Commission; the National Register for Historic Places; the Historic American Buildings Survey; the Philly Church Project; the University of Pennsylvania’s Historic Preservation Department; and others. With the exception of Partners’ for Sacred Places’ existing inventory (see below), none of these data sets focused exclusively on historic religious properties. All of these resources, therefore, needed to be culled and cross-referenced to identify all of the buildings that meet the following parameters: Located within the City of Philadelphia Currently standing Constructed before 19601 Constructed as a religious house of worship (this excludes rowhouses and other storefront congregations)2 1 Because historic preservation policies typically define “historic” in terms of 50 years or older, the year 1960 was used as a benchmark date for inclusion in the main inventory. In cases of buildings constructed in the 10 or so years after 1960, a separate list of modern religious properties that emerged during research is included. This list is incomplete, however, and should be consulted but not considered comprehensive. 2 In some cases, the original function of a building was unclear. This includes properties that may have originally served as parochial schools or other parish properties (rather than places of worship), as well as buildings that were constructed with no religious function at all (e.g. factories or commercial buildings). Again, a separate list of non-purpose-built properties (as well as those properties whose original purpose is undetermined) is included for reference, but does not capture all of the buildings currently occupied by congregations that were built to serve non-religious functions. Page | 3 SOURCES Pre-2007 Religious Properties Database (Philadelphia Historic Properties Corporation; Partners for Sacred Places) Partners for Sacred Places’ database—inherited and adapted from the former Philadelphia Historic Properties Corporation—included 622 entries for historic religious properties in Philadelphia and the surrounding counties. This inventory included architectural information for many (but not all) properties, including construction dates and original architects. For the purposes of this new inventory, which focuses only on properties within the City and County of Philadelphia, data had to be filtered based on zip code to identify only those properties that are located within the county lines. The existing PSP database also included several duplicate entries for properties, as well as out-of-date information on congregations and records for properties that have since been demolished. Tax Parcel Listings and Data (City of Philadelphia Office of Property Assessment) Data from the City of Philadelphia’s Office of Property Assessment (formerly the Bureau of Property Taxes) offered information related to property ownership, real estate transfers, and limited information on building condition—all of which can help identify at-risk historic religious properties. Although the OPA’s spreadsheet includes some information on building construction dates, this data is limited and, in many cases, unreliable. The data also codes its building use, including a category (“W” codes ) for religious functions, but it does not distinguish between purpose-built religious properties and rowhouse or storefront churches (or other buildings that have been adaptively reused as religious properties). Google Maps and Street View (see below) and other resources were therefore consulted for each of the 1,338 W-coded properties (that were not in the Partners for Sacred Places database) to cull the buildings that were both historic and purpose-built as religious properties. Partial and Complete Demolition Permits (Since May 2006) (City of Philadelphia Department of Licenses and Inspections) The Philadelphia Department of Licenses and Inspections provided information on all demolition permits (for partial and complete demolition) that were filed since May 2006. It is worth noting that the filing (and approval) of a permit does not signify that the demolition was completed; the status of the buildings with “complete demolition” permits could not be confirmed, however. Current Unsafe and Imminently Dangerous Citations (as of July 2011) (City of Philadelphia Department of Licenses and Inspections) As part of its inspection responsibilities, the Department of Licenses and Inspections issues citations for properties that are deemed “unsafe” or “imminently dangerous,” proving hazardous to the health or safety of the building occupants or the public. This inventory of historic religious properties denotes all of the properties that have unresolved citations, although the contributing factors for the citation were not defined by the Department’s data. Page | 4 Philadelphia Register of Historic Places and other Historic Property Files (Philadelphia Historical Commission) The Historical Commission’s files and research library provided extensive historical information and— where applicable—building permit information on several of the database’s properties, particularly those already