Context - Winter 2015 - (Page 20)
TRUly AnD
UnobTRUsIvEly MoDERn:
Chestnut Hill is known for the quality of its built
environment: the careful interweaving of good
design in both architecture and landscape within a
relatively narrow range of scale and with a strong
relationship to the shared, street context. The
legacy of Chestnut Hill's high design quality begins
in the mid-nineteenth century and continues to
the present, including some of Philadelphia's most
recognized buildings. The Margaret Esherick House
by Louis I. Kahn and the Mother's House (Vanna
Venturi residence) by Robert Venturi are both
justifiably world-renowned and local, Chestnut
Hill landmarks.
They are rarely if ever, however, recognized as
products and part of a specific regional, even local
context. In fact, they are not unique achievements
in the design history of Chestnut Hill. There one
can find important examples of the trends in local
modernism that precede the emergence of the
famous "Philadelphia School," and thereby trace
the connections between the work of such wellknown architects as Kahn and Venturi and that of
their Philadelphia predecessors and contemporaries,
including Oskar Stonorov, Montgomery and Bishop,
and Kenneth Day.
In contrast to the recognition that has been
afforded the Esherick and Venturi Houses for
some time, the other modernist architecture of
Chestnut Hill has received relatively little attention.
The Chestnut Hill Historical Society began the
important and substantial task of updating the
1985 National Register Nomination that created
Chestnut Hill National Historic District in the
fall of 2015. This update was made possible by
funding from the Preservation Alliance for Greater
Philadelphia, and its main goals are to create
greater recognition of the significance of a number
of modernist buildings from the 1930s to the
1960s and to afford further protection to a select
number of them through listing in the Philadelphia
Register of Historic Places.
The Chestnut Hill National Historic District
is one of the largest in the state, and includes
nearly 3,000 properties. It comprises almost all of
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WINTER 2016 | context | AIA Philadelphia
this portion of the city, stretching from Stenton
Avenue at the city's northeast limit into the
Wissahickon Valley on the west, and from the
Cresheim Creek on the south to Northwestern
Avenue on the north. The original nomination of
the district was a heroic undertaking by the early
leaders of the Chestnut Hill Historical Society and
historian Jefferson Moak. The "50-year rule" that
generally keeps newer properties off the National
Register of Historic Places by federal regulation
dictated, however, that the modernist buildings
constructed after 1935 could not be considered
"contributing resources." While the nomination's
text recognized their design worth, they had to
be classified as "intrusions" in the accompanying
inventory. The present project will change the
status to "contributing" for a large number of
these important buildings and thus list them in
the National Register for the first time. Further
information about their significance will be
included in an addendum to the original document.
The modernist buildings of Chestnut Hill were
woven into a richly varied, existing environment.
This area remained relatively rural into the midnineteenth century, when the arrival of the first
railway line (now SEPTA's Chestnut Hill East)
in 1854 began its transformation. Substantial
country houses by notable Philadelphia designers
such as Sidney and Merry and Samuel Sloan were
constructed near the highest point of the hill
along Summit Street and Chestnut Hill Avenue,
taking advantage of the views to the north and
cooler summer temperatures. Alongside this elite
enclave grew a community of entrepreneurs and
workers who provided goods and services. Another
major wave of growth began in 1884 when a
second rail line (now the Chestnut Hill West) was
introduced and Henry H. Houston began substantial
developments in the land west of Germantown
Avenue. The firm of H. W. and W.D. Hewitt
designed an inn (now part of Springside Chestnut
Hill Academy), St. Martin-in-the-Fields Church,
double houses as rental properties, a number of
larger, single residences for sale, and Houston's own
eMily t. cooPerMan
BY EMILY T. COOPERMAN
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Context - Winter 2015
Editor’s Letter
Community
Up Close
Philadelphia’s Everyday Modernism
Truly and Unobtrusively Modern: Chestnut Hill Architecture of the Twentieth Century
Rehabilitating Richards
2015 Design Awards
Index to Advertisers
Context - Winter 2015
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