Preserve Philadelphia

Sample Survey Reports

In 2004, the Preservation Alliance commissioned the Cultural Resources Consulting Group (CRCG) to examine the survey data available in local district and National Register District nominations for neighborhoods in Philadelphia. CCRG identified 60 districts listed on the National Register, an additional 41 districts that had been found eligible for the National Register and 9 local districts. However, most National Register districts had inadequate or outdated survey data or no survey data at all. CCRG concluded that only 4% of the properties in Philadelphia had ever been surveyed for their historic significance.

As a result of the clear lack of adequate survey data on historic resources, the Preservation Alliance begin to explore new approaches to historic resources surveys using contemporary technology. The first application of a new approach for historic district surveys was undertaken in 2004 for the Parkside Historic District in West Philadelphia. The Preservation Design Partnership, consultant to the Preservation Alliance, with graduate students from the University of Pennsylvania, surveyed 175 properties in one weekend using digital cameras and hand-held PDA. This data was converted into the Parkside Historic District nomination.

A second application of the same survey methodology for historic districts was undertaken for the Awbury Arboretum Historic District in 2005, also by the Preservation Design Partnership. A third application is being undertaken in 2008-2009 for the West Washington Square Historic District by Kise Straw Kolodner, consultants to the Preservation Alliance and West Washington Square Inc.

In 2006 the Preservation Alliance began to explore a methodology for undertaking surveys of neighborhoods that were not necessarily historic districts. Using the Frankford neighborhood as a test case, the Preservation Alliance’s consultant, Preservation Design Partnership working in collaboration with The Athenaeum of Philadelphia, explored a way to identify potential historic properties and sites by comparing historic atlases with current property base maps. By scanning historic atlases into a GIS (Graphic Information System) format, the historic atlases and current property base maps could be layered, showing the location of properties that existed at a certain date and still appear to exist today’s. Field surveys of a neighborhood could then focus only on these properties. The first test of this methodology in Frankford proved successful. A second test, using many more atlases, will be completed in 2009.

The following reports are available: