Chestnut Hill Historical Society embarks on a new home documentation project

Posted 3/4/15

This house at the corner of Crittenden Street and Gravers Lane was designed by noted Philadelphia architect Theophilus Chandler for Lillie and George Dunn in 1888. by Heather Snyder Killinger …

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Chestnut Hill Historical Society embarks on a new home documentation project

Posted
This house at the corner of Crittenden Street and Gravers Lane was designed by noted Philadelphia architect Theophilus Chandler for Lillie and George Dunn in 1888. This house at the corner of Crittenden Street and Gravers Lane was designed by noted Philadelphia architect Theophilus Chandler for Lillie and George Dunn in 1888.

by Heather Snyder Killinger

Chestnut Hill residents in possession of historical photographs of their home or business are encouraged to assist the Chestnut Hill Historical Society with a new project.

The neighborhood of Chestnut Hill is comprised of over 2,800 buildings, designed and constructed in widely different styles, but executed in similar scales and materials. The result is a widely admired, unique tapestry of buildings which contributed to Chestnut Hill being added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1985.

In an effort to confirm that there are photographic records of all the buildings in Chestnut Hill, the CHHS has embarked on an analysis of more than 8,200 photographic images currently held in the database. Many buildings, both residential and commercial, are not currently represented in the photographic collection.

One of the missions of the CHHS is to make the ever- growing, professionally managed collection available to the public for research purposes. Thus, the documentation of buildings missing from the collection has been identified as a significant need. For the next several months, CHHS archivists will be identifying the buildings that require documentation, and wherever possible, photographing the structures from the street or sidewalk.

How can the public help? This is a wonderful time for Chestnut Hill residents to participate by loaning or donating historic photographs to the CHHS. Please use the email address buildingproject@chhist.org to take any of the following actions:

• Make an appointment with an archivist to donate your historical photographs.

• Email your scanned old photographs, being sure to note the full address of your building in the subject line of the email. Unless you request otherwise in the email, the CHHS will assume copyright permission to add the images to the CHHS Online Photography Catalog at their discretion.

The CHHS is grateful to the community for their support of this project. For more information about the CHHS visit www.chhist.org, or call Liz Jarvis, Curator/Archivist at 215-247-0417.

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