Justin Detwiler spent five years restoring Krisheim, working to exactly as it was – no matter what it took. Nothing about that project was fast, or easy, whether it was the restoration of a demolished stone tower or the careful counting of slate shingles found in the basement, all of which had been meticulously labeled in chalk before the porch roof they were restoring was torn down.

That instinct, for finding value in something that was almost lost, runs through this whole issue.

Inspired by a wedding dress, Heidi Barr and Emma de Long are rebuilding a fiber flax industry that died out in Pennsylvania during World War II, using a lot of imported know-how from Belgium along with their own vision.

Sam Katz walked away from three losing mayoral campaigns to become a documentary filmmaker at 57, raising money from the same Northwest Philadelphia donors who once backed his politics to build a portfolio that spans Philadelphia history, Beethoven in Beijing, and Detroit’s bankruptcy.

Adebunmi Gbadebo drives thirteen hours each way to a former South Carolina rice plantation to dig for clay her ancestors once worked. She hauls it home to Germantown, where she turns it into artwork that’s been shown at the Metropolitan Museum, and the Venice Biennale.

The Southeast Asian Market at FDR Park started four decades ago with a Laotian couple selling papaya salad out of a van, dodging police until organizers built it into one of the largest markets of its kind in the country.

And bargain hunters aren’t the only ones lining up at Northwest Philadelphia thrift shops anymore. Eco-minded shoppers are joining them. Annette Craig found a $5 wooden play kitchen that retailed new for $150, scrubbed it down with her kids in the driveway, gave it away when they outgrew it, got it back again years later, and sold it at a yard sale for $20.

— Carla Robinson