Select Page

Preservation Awards

Spotlighting preservation projects that deserve community recognition

The annual Preservation Recognition Awards celebrate a variety of the area’s best preservation projects, as selected by the Chestnut Hill Conservancy’s Preservation Committee. Each of these remarkable projects meet or exceed nationally-held best preservation practices.

 

The Preservation Recognition Awards honor outstanding projects within Chestnut Hill and surrounding areas. Each award recognizes a project that is a striking gift to the neighborhood today – and far into the future — and an inspiration for others as they care for their own buildings. These awards help to express our gratitude to those who cherish our historic and architectural resources.

 

 

The Chestnut Hill Conservancy’s Preservation Recognition Awards honors projects in the following categories:

  • Preserving / protecting historic resources (in the built or natural environment),
  • Historic building restoration, rehabilitation or adaptive reuse, or
  • Good stewardship of an important building.

Congratulations to the 2021 Winning projects: Woodmere Art Museum: Sustainable Stewardship; Morris Arboretum Step Fountain: Preserving/Protecting Historic Resources; Nicholson Wall at St. Martins and Gravers Lanes: Preserving/Protecting Historic Resources; Private Home: Historic Building Restoration; and Pastorius Park: Restoration. Click on the projects below for full details.

Sustainable Stewardship Award: Woodmere Art Museum


Starting with Charles Knox Smith’s decision to publicly share his collection in a converted 19th century mansion rather than a new Center City building, Woodmere’s enduring and creative dialog of nature with art, industry, history, and life can be considered the very essence of sustainable stewardship.

The Woodmere building, the 6 acres on which it sits, and the core of its art collection stand as a “remarkable testament to its founder’s vision of connecting art and nature, with profound reverence for both.” In line with this vision, Woodmere recently secured the most economical and sustainable way to increase capacity when it bought St. Michael’s Hall from the Sisters of St. Joseph last year. The Hall could have been torn down and its 4 acres filled with more than 20 homes, but will instead represent an exquisite balance between serving the needs of a growing institution and respect for the spirit and assets of the community in which it sits.

Anyone familiar with the institution will know that this is just Woodmere’s most recent achievement in a long tradition of sustainable stewardship. In addition to the adaptive reuse of historic buildings, Woodmere protects the environment with a pollinator garden, monumental heritage trees, and contemporary stormwater-management features such as green parking, a bioswale, and step pools. Art and nature are playfully and effectively connected with projects like their La Cresta hugel mound project, the mulch-covered “rot road” walking path meandering down the back slope behind the museum through future art installations, and their wonderfully creative hay mazes.

The Conservancy is proud to have helped with the acquisition of St Michael’s Hall, and deeply impressed and grateful for Woodmere’s spirit, energy, and creativity under the bold leadership of Dr. William Valerio and Woodmere’s Board and supporters. This is the first time that the Conservancy has appreciated sustainable stewardship with a Preservation Recognition Award.

 

Preserving/Protecting Historic Resources: Morris Arboretum Step Fountain Restoration Project
The Morris Arboretum Step Fountain – completed in 1916 for Lydia Morris from a design by architect Robert Rodes McGoodwin, is one of the most unique, popular, and frequently photographed water features within the garden. A meticulous restoration in 2020 addressed masonry issues, and modernized the Step Fountain plumbing from the original gravity-powered water line fed from Overlook Garden.

Masonry work included conservation of the original limestone (including balustrade, lion heads, and urns), as well as bluestone pavers and pedestrian steps. Replacement stone was cut to mimic the original artistic look using the same high-end materials; cheek walls were recreated with Indiana limestone. Pedestrian steps on the right and left side of the bluestone fountain steps have been refurbished and re-installed.

New plumbing lines were installed, along with a 500-gallon cistern to collect water when the plumbing system is turned off. The new circulation system is programmable for energy conservation, and features water filtration to keep the water clear, greatly reducing or perhaps eliminating future use of abrasive chemicals.

The restoration was completed with assistance from historic preservationist and project manager T. Scott Kreilick, of Kreilick Conservation, LLC, in collaboration with Pullman SST, Inc. (masonry) and PondWorks (plumbing.) This project was made possible with the support of the William B. Dietrich Foundation.

Preserving/Protecting Historic Resources: Nicholson Wall at St. Martins and Gravers Lanes
The Nicholson Wall at the corner of St. Martins Lane and Gravers Lane is a new construction. It was recognized with a preservation award nevertheless, since the form and materials of this newly constructed wall were carefully chosen to relate to the aesthetics of Chestnut Hill. The historic resource preserved with this project is the neighborhood itself.

Creation of the wall originated with the City of Philadelphia’s federally funded project to resurface streets and install/upgrade American with Disabilities Act (ADA) curb ramps. If built as originally planned, with a 12-inch concrete cheek wall and regrading of the landscaped area behind the wall for a new concrete sidewalk and ramp, this could have significantly altered and adversely impacted the landscape’s aesthetics. In addition, the root system of neighboring property’s extensive, well-maintained garden would also have been damaged.

Inspired and informed by neighbor Joe Nicholson’s foresight, ingenuity, and expertise, neighbors and the City’s in-house construction staff devised an alternative scheme to better relate to the community. An ADA-compliant ramp, sidewalk, and cheek wall were constructed in a manner that saved the existing landscaping embankment, and a short, handsome retaining wall was built to hold the embankment. The retaining wall was built of Wissahickon schist, evoking the architecture of the area. The result is a corner that is both accessible and also adds to the character and beauty of the area.

Historic Building Restoration: Private Home
Chris Meyer and his team at Meyer Woodworking reconstructed missing and highly visible deteriorated architectural elements of this 1889 Dutch colonial home. Windows here had crumbling glazing, deteriorated woodwork, and were so large that they were bowing under their own weight. As these windows were much too large to try and repair in place, and replacing them with modern windows would change the facade too much, the decision was made to meticulously reproduce them. Every detail down to the last 1/16” was scrutinized for fabrication. Custom molding knives were ground to match the profiles on the muntin bars. All material used in construction was Sapele Mahogany and all parts were pre primed and fished before installation.

The windows were separated by plywood boxes that were removed for the window work, revealing original fluted columns between all the windows – all intact except for one. Existing columns were repaired, and the missing column recreated exactly, with hand carved egg and dart capital moldings a lathe-turned profile. Tapered flutes were routed into the 8’ length of body of the column. The new column fit into the existing opening as if it were installed there in 1889.

 

Preserving/Protecting Historic Resources: Pastorius Park Restoration Projects

In 2021 Friends of Pastorius Park (FOPP), led by Tracy Gardner, embarked upon an ambitious plan to restore the plantings and vistas of Pastorius Park. They did so with the goal of not only preserving Frederick Peck’s original Olmsted-inspired Pastorius design, but also to expand the diversity and resilience of the park’s trees and shrubs for the future.

FoPP replaced the old upper boundary hedge, 195′ of overgrown and bare space (primarily invasives) with 65 Sweetbay Magnolias. The other old moat hedge was an overgrown and leggy mix of boxwood and inkberry. FoPP had Belk Gardens replace this mixed hedge with a uniform hedge of Summersweet – native hedges that will be pruned and maintained by FoPP, contribute seasonal interest with fragrant flowers, seed pods, and changing leaf color, and will benefit pollinators, birds, and other wildlife in the park.

Additionally, to restore the amphitheater as a more formal space (an ‘outdoor room’) as it was originally designed to be, FoPP had Laurel Hill Gardens install flanking perimeter beds of a Wissahickon style mix of broadleaf evergreens and flowering shrubs and trees. this planting plan reflects the stylization found in landscapes designed by Frederick Peck. the new perimeter beds replace previously ‘wooded’ areas in the amphitheater that were in poor shape.

In May, in consultation with Paul Meyer and Rob Fleming, FoPP began a pilot project in the ongoing restoration of Pastorius at the Roanoke/W. Abington entrance to the park. Large islands of invasive plants that had long blocked original park vistas and created an unsafe, tunnel-like entrance to the park here were removed by FoPP arborist Erik Werner (The Hedgerows Arborist Services). FoPP volunteers created new planting beds and ultimately installed 29 new native shrubs in this area as well as at the Lincoln Dr. entrance to the park. After encouraging fundraising by FoPP, and matching grants from CHCA’s Greenspace committee, 39 diverse new trees were planted in the pilot project vicinity and at the Lincoln Dr. entrance this fall.

Throughout 2021 FoPP volunteers regularly stepped up to remove invasive plants, establish planting beds, weed, and knock back large areas of knot weed in the park. Philadelphia Parks and Recreation reliably removed large piles of plant material that volunteers brought street-side, and installed an outside faucet at the warming hut that provided water for new plantings. FoPP did not lose a single new plant, though they experienced 4-5 heatwaves this summer.

The participation of 2 local garden clubs (the Wissahickon Garden Club & Garden Club of Philadelphia) in October achieved a great deal in just 2 days, including opening up another vista into the park in the corner woods at Millman St. and Sunrise Ln.

Wild American Chestnut Orchard: In May FoPP partnered with the NY chapter of the American Chestnut Foundation to participate in the ‘Darling 58’ transgenic project to develop and propagate blight-resistant American chestnut trees. FoPP cleared a massive stand of euonymus in the NW meadow of the park to accommodate the new chestnut orchard. As a result of this clearance, the NW woods corner was opened up to reveal a nice grove of mature trees in the overgrown ‘bird sanctuary’ portion off the park, in effect expanding the accessibility and size of the park.

Further clearance of euonymus and invasive plants in this section of the park bodes well for the future landscape here, as this area, currently a food desert for wildlife, can be replanted with native understory plants to provide food and shelter for birds and other wildlife.

Read about 2019, 2017, 2016, 2015 and 2014 awarded projects in the Chestnut Hill Local.

View Previous Award Winners HERE