The Philadelphia Historical Commission approved the Powelton Village Historic District last week, making it the largest historic district the city has created since at least 2003.
A home in the 3600-3700 Hamilton Street is shown in Philadelphia, Pa. Monday, November 14, 2022. A new historic district in Powelton Village, will protect buildings from before 1931 from demolition.Powelton Village is an iconic West Philadelphia neighborhood made up of intricate Victorian-era rowhouses and twins, nestled in Drexel University’s ever-expanding footprint.
It is the largest historic district created since at least 2003, when backlash from City Council over the feared costs of regulation began to challenge the city’s preservation movement. When then-West Philadelphia City Councilmember Jannie Blackwell threatened to strip the historic commission of its powers in the 2000s, she argued that historic preservation regulations could negatively impact lower-income homeowners. She feared that their home values were threatened by regulation, and that the costs of upkeep could beBut in recent years, Council members have heard a different set of constituent concerns.
In the last five years, the number of historic districts has almost doubled, although many are miniature in scale, protecting only a handful of properties. The Powelton Village district is the largest since the 2003 approval of a district in Old City. In at least one case, homeowners sought exclusion from the district in part because of perceived cultural differences between their corner of the neighborhood and the Powelton Village Civic Association’s priorities. A representative noted that so many buildings had already been demolished and replaced with student housing that there was little of the original character left on his block.
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