October 4, 2007 Issue                                       

©2007 The Chestnut Hill Local

It’s History: Historical Society sets a landmark
by KRISTIN PAZULSKI

Shirley Hanson is one of the Chestnut Hill Historical Society’s founders and still an active board member. (Photo by Erin Vertreace)

It’s so easy in the Chestnut Hill community to take for granted, not only the historical richness that infiltrates our everyday activities (such as, did you know that the building housing the Chestnut Hill Cat Clinic is the oldest building on Germantown Avenue?), but also the effort that goes into keeping these historical landmarks intact and true to their past.

The Chestnut Hill Historical Society, now a full-fledged non-profit corporation complete with a board and full-time staff, educates the community and advocates for the preservation of the Hill’s history through archives, an easement program, preservation workshops and more, but the society had much humbler beginnings.

In 1967, the threat of demolishing the third floor of the VFW building at 8217-19 Germantown Ave. brought a group of women to the forefront of preservation. Shirley Hanson, still an active board member with the Historical Society, was one of them.

Hanson and the others — including the late Nancy Hubby and Ann Spaeth, who went on to become the first two presidents of the society — banded together and called themselves “The Committee for the preservation of Historic Buildings in Chestnut Hill.”

Their goal was to prevent the further demolition of the third floor of the VFW building, which had been condemned by the city. The Veterans of Foreign Wars, which owned the building, had raised only enough funds to demolish one floor and renovate the rest of the building.

“We had never been into anything like this,” Hanson said. “When you get into something this complex, you don’t know what to expect.”

And they almost didn’t succeed, as Hanson explained in her piece that ran in the Local on Sept. 13.

After much persistence from the committee, the VFW finally agreed to stop demolition, but only if Hanson and the committee raised $4,000 within 48 hours.

By the deadline the committee had only managed to raise $800 until an anonymous donor contributed the rest in the 11th hour (or the 49th hour, to be exact, which was still accepted despite the deadline breach).

“We thought it was amazing,” Hanson said of that final donation.

It was during that effort that the committee incorporated into a nonprofit.

“It was an immediate need,” Hanson said, in order to accept contributions. And although the women felt they were helping Chestnut Hill’s history as a whole, they did not realize they were making history themselves by starting the society.

The next year, the society organized 50 volunteers who researched and published an architectural history of Chestnut Hill, which included information on 600 buildings in the Chestnut Hill and Wyndmoor area.

Since its inception, the society has tackled a number of big projects that helped “save” and preserve pieces of this community’s historical architecture.

“We took projects just one step at a time,” she said. “When something came up that was really important to the community, we stepped up and put our energies into it.”

The two big projects that Hanson recalls best are the restoration of the Graver’s Lane train station, still used today by the R-7 commuter line, and the Norwood Avenue homes behind Chestnut Hill Hospital.

During their architectural study, the society learned that the deteriorating Graver’s Lane station was designed by the well-known Philadelphia architect Frank Furness, and the society wanted to see the building better cared for.

At the time, the building was owned by the Reading Railroad, which told the society that if the society did any work to restore the building, it would be responsible for the maintenance of the station — everything from repairs to snow removal.

The small volunteer group could not take on that responsibility, so they waited a few months, asked again and received permission without the liability, Hanson said.

“One of the things we learned is that if ‘plan A’ doesn’t work, just wait a bit and ‘plan B’ or ‘C’ might work,” Hanson said, adding that sometimes plan B and C involves just waiting around until the right moment comes along.

The preservation of the now almost 150-year-old Norwood Avenue homes behind Chestnut Hill Hospital was personally a difficult project for Hanson.

At the time of this battle in the 1980s and ’90s, she said, the hospital was revered in the community and usually went unchallenged when it presented plans to make improvements to its facilities.

“Formerly, it was whatever the hospital wanted to do, they could do,” she explained. “There was a different attitude then toward doctors and hospitals.”

So when she and others opposed the hospital’s demolition of the homes at 8860 and 8840 Norwood Ave., she felt resistance not only from the hospital, but from community members that were previously her friends and acquaintances.

People looked away as she walked down the street or even crossed to avoid meeting her, Hanson said.

“It was really difficult because there was so much community support for the hospital,” she said. “It was kind of touchy. It was personal, but it worked out in the end.”

The deal that the hospital made was that if those opposing the demolition could find a tenant that was willing to pay for the renovation of 8860 Norwood Ave., the hospital would lease it to the historical society for only $1 for 10 years.

The building, at the time, was uninhabitable with a leaky roof, holes in the floor and no electricity, and the society had only three weeks to get an estimate for repairs and find a tenant willing to live there and pay a nominal rent plus the cost of renovating the building.

Miraculously, they were able to find a tenant, Hanson said, “otherwise there wouldn’t be a building there.”

A few years later, the society and hospital struck the same deal to preserve the home at 8840 Norwood Ave.

When the society came up with the idea to have the entire Chestnut Hill community entered onto the National Register of Historic Places, it was told by the city that it would never happen as a whole community, and it was suggested that the community be divided into districts.

“But we didn’t want to do that,” Hanson said. “Dividing it up was just one more way of dividing the community.”

But in 1985 the society applied for the designation — which is an honor and does not come with restrictions — and despite two opposing votes from Philadelphia’s representatives on the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, the commission supported the proposal and the entire community was given historical status.

For years the volunteer historical society operated from a small room and large closet in the Community Centre at 8419 Germantown Ave., home of the Women’s Exchange. But during its 20th anniversary in 1987, the society raised the money to purchase the historic building at 8708 Germantown Ave., which it eventually shared with the Friends of the Wissahickon, a relationship that has lasted into the present.

In the beginning, the downstairs held the offices of a psychiatrist, but eventually FOW and the society took over the entire building, which appropriately has historic significance, being built in 1857 as the parsonage for the Presbyterian Church of Chestnut Hill, then located in the current Seventh Day Adventist Church at Rex and Germantown avenues.

In the late 60s, the society hired its first staff member, administrative assistant Mary Lou Thorell.

“I didn’t know what to do with myself,” said Hanson, who, then in her second year as president, had previously been doing a lot of the work on a volunteer basis.

Eventually the society’s administrative position was transformed into the job of executive director, which at first was shared with FOW. Now both organizations have their own staff, and the bottom floor now holds the society’s extensive archival collection, which the society, under the direction of archivist Liz Jarvis, is transferring into a digital resource.

Hanson said the mission of the historical society was never to try to preserve Chestnut Hill on its own, but to teach community members how to take care of their historic homes and community.

“The models of a historical society at the time we incorporated was that it bought and fixed buildings,” Hanson said. “But in Chestnut Hill, we thought the most important part was the entire community, and our goal wasn’t owning. It was teaching and educating people about what they own and offering resources to care for it.”

One of those resources are the workshops the society hosts that teach residents home repairing techniques, such as prepping windows for a cold winter and energy efficiency.

“The key is bringing in the residents,” she said. “The more they know, the more they understand … and know how to preserve their own homes.”

Hanson said the society hopes to expand on that idea in the future:

“We want to get people involved in preserving the environment that makes Chestnut Hill.”

In honor of its anniversary, the historical society is honoring Hanson with the Founder’s Award, established this year as a non-annual award. She will be honored with this award at a special celebration in late October, prior to Preservation Potpourri. For information on the Founder’s Fund, making contributions to honor Hanson, or other details, please call the Historical Society at 215-247-0417.

ABOUT EVENT

Contact staff writer Kristin Pazulski at 215-248-8819 or Kristin@chestnuthilllocal.com.