Chestnut Hill Conservancy adds five new places to Architectural Hall of Fame

Posted 12/6/18

Among the inductees to the Chestnut Hill Architectural Hall of Fame is The Abraham Rex Store, now the home of the George Woodward Co. offices. The Chestnut Hill conservancy added five historic places …

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Chestnut Hill Conservancy adds five new places to Architectural Hall of Fame

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Among the inductees to the Chestnut Hill Architectural Hall of Fame is The Abraham Rex Store, now the home of the George Woodward Co. offices.

The Chestnut Hill conservancy added five historic places to its Architectural hall of Fame last weekend at a celebratory gala at the historic Rotunda of Chestnut Hill College on Saturday, Dec. 1.

The hall of fame is a distinguished list of Chestnut Hill’s most beloved significant buildings, structures, and landscapes, chosen by more than 6,000 votes from the general public. One property was selected by the Conservancy’s Preservation Committee.

The new members included the following structures:

1. The Abraham Rex Store/Woodward Offices, 8031-33 Germantown Ave. built in 1762.

2. Chestnut Hill Baptist Church & Cemetery, 2 E Bethlehem Pike, built in 1835.

3. Chestnut Hill College and its historic complex, 9601 Germantown Ave., built between 1850 and 1961.

4. The Water Tower Recreation Center, 209 E. Hartwell Lane, built in 1889, altered in 1919.

5. The Half-Moon Houses, 7919- 25 Lincoln Drive, built in 1916.

“The Architectural Hall of Fame celebrates Chestnut Hill as one of America's most architecturally significant communities,” said Lori Salganicoff, the Conservancy’s executive director. “The community is blessed with outstanding examples of architecture spanning four centuries, along with stunning natural landscape that weaves throughout. Chestnut Hill is not only a historic place but one where great design thrives into the future.”

“The Architectural Hall of Fame serves the Chestnut Hill Conservancy’s mission to protect and manage change in the built environment by raising community awareness about its irreplaceable assets,” Salganicoff said. “And it honors the effort that current stewards are making, which is essential.”

The Chestnut Hill Baptist Church, built in 1835, was named to the Chestnut Hill Conservancy’s Architectural Hall of Fame[/caption]

More than 200 people attended the gala, which was sponsored by the Nottingham-Goodman Group of Merrill Lynch Bank of America, Dennis F. Meyer Inc. Bowman Properties, George Woodward Co., and MIS Capital LLC. Additional sponsors included Chestnut Hill College, Hirshorn Boothby A Bryn Mawr Trust Company, Nolan Painting, the Sivel Group, Matthew Millan Architects Inc. Halstead Roofing, Wescott Financial Advisory Group, Unique Indoor Comfort and Schechtman Tree Service.

The Architectural Hall of Fame recognizes the community’s most treasured buildings, structures and landscapes in Chestnut Hill. These properties represent groundbreaking approaches to planning and design; or are significant for their design, materials, craftsmanship; or as an exceptional example of their style, or are of historic significance because of an association with an event, a person, or by virtue of age.

These are added to existing Hall of Fame properties: the Thomas Mill Covered Bridge (originally built 1731), Morris Arboretum (numerous notable architects, 19th-21st centuries), Gravers Lane Station (Frank Furness, 1883), the Wissahickon Inn (G.W. and W.D. Hewitt, 1883-84), the Chestnut Hill Fire Station (John T. Windrim, 1894), Church of St. Martin-in-the-Fields (G.W. and W.D. Hewitt, 1895), Krisheim, 7600-block McCallum Street (Peabody and Stearns, Olmsted Brothers, 1910-12), Margaret Esherick House (Louis Kahn, 1960-61), and the Vanna Venturi House (Robert Venturi, 1962-64), and 614 St. Andrews Road (Elie-Antoine Atallah, 2013).

Photographs and brief histories of all of these properties can be seen at chconservancy.org

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