Regarding Ray's detailed email showing the <<historic district called the west philadelphia streetcar
suburb historic district. look how big it was>> apparently shrinking to an area roughly similar to the Alexander School's catchment area <<later (november 2001), it was announced that uchs and shca
had joined forces to nominate the spruce hill historic district>>:
Sorry to keep sending clarifying emails, but the conspiracy theories are multiplying! The West Philadelphia Streetcar Suburb NATIONAL REGISTER HISTORIC DISTRICT is alive and well, in its large size! See the UCHS web site page on historic districts -
http://www.uchs.net/
- which says:
<<On February 5, 1998, most of the Spruce Hill and Cedar Park neighborhoods were placed on the National Register of Historic Places....
The new West Philadelphia Streetcar Suburb Historic District
joins other University City locations on the National Register, such as Garden Court, Powelton Village, University of Pennsylvania, as well as many individual sites ranging from The Woodlands to the WFIL-TV Studios where American Bandstand was produced.
The areas of Spruce Hill, Cedar Park, and Squirrel Hill that are included in the new district were considered to be significant by the National Register because of their wealth of architectural styles and because of the neighborhoods' importance in the transformation of residential patterns in Philadelphia. The range of architectural styles represented here is impressive. Architects and builders have worked in the Italianate, Victorian Gothic, Second Empire, Gothic Revival, Queen Anne, Colonial Revival, and Classical Revival styles, as well as in many variations and combinations of these styles.>>
The Spruce Hill PHILADELPHIA LOCAL HISTORIC DISTRICT is a separate entity, one that UCHS has been working on since 1987. Work was stalled on all Philadelphia LOCAL districts when the Philadelphia law was challenged, but then upheld by the PA Supreme Court. In the meantime, UCHS had gone on to work on the larger NATIONAL REGISTER DISTRICT. I was UCHS president when we asked Philadelphia's Historical Commission to let us revise our proposal to include the entire larger area - there was pressure from neighbors in the wider area to be included - but the HC said it would be too large and unwieldy for them to process, so UCHS would have to submit other areas later, separately.
None of this had anything to do with the Alexander School, and all of this predates the Alexander School.
Melani Lamond
