African American Initiative
The Preservation Alliance has launched an initiative to provide preservation outreach, education and technical assistance to the city’s historic – and historically underserved – African American neighborhoods.Over the years, there has been relatively little preservation focus on historic city neighborhoods with predominantly African American populations. Yet these neighborhoods are rich with historic resources.
The goal of the Alliance’s initiative is to engage these residents, historic sites and community organizations that have not been traditionally engaged with historic preservation, to educate about how preservation tools can be used for community revitalization and to build leadership and organizational capacity to guide and sustain preservation activities.
The initiative includes the following components:
African American Outreach and Technical Assistance
Historic Context Statements and Inventories
Philadelphia’s African American Heritage: A Brief Historic Context Statement for the Preservation Alliance’s Inventory of African American Historic Sites, by Dana Dorman (2009)
Inventory of African American Historic Sites (2009)
Inventory of African American Historic Churches, City of Philadelphia, by Emily T. Cooperman (2008)
From Refuge to Strength: The Rise of the African American Church in Philadelphia, 1787-1949, by Matthew S. Hopper (1998), A Context Statement for the Inventory of African American Churches
Inventory of African American Historic Sites (2009)
Inventory of African American Historic Churches, City of Philadelphia, by Emily T. Cooperman (2008)
From Refuge to Strength: The Rise of the African American Church in Philadelphia, 1787-1949, by Matthew S. Hopper (1998), A Context Statement for the Inventory of African American Churches
Historic District and Site Nominations
Parkside Historic District (9.6 MB PDF)
African American Outreach and Technical Assistance
With a three-year Partners in the Field Challenge Grant from the National Trust for Historic Preservation, made possible through a gift from the Robert W. Wilson Charitable Trust, the Alliance has created and filled the new position of neighborhood preservation program coordinator. Working under the auspices of the Alliance’s well regarded Neighborhood Preservation Program, the coordinator is reaching out to the city’s African American neighborhoods to:
• connect with community organizations involved in planning and implementing preservation projects,
• develop leadership that will contribute to strengthening support for preservation in the city as a whole,
• identify specific projects selected by community organizations that the Alliance can help to advance,
• provide information to individual homeowners about how to best maintain their historic properties, and
• encourage African American homeowners to apply for the Alliance’s Historic Properties Repair Program grants.
To learn more about how the Preservation Alliance is at work to save Philadelphia’s rich African American heritage and historic resources, and strengthen the city’s diverse neighborhoods, contact Melissa Jest, Neighborhood Preservation Program Coordinator, at 215-546-1146 x 6 or Melissa@preservationalliance.com.
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