Preservation Alliance

I just tried another walking tour and it was awful. It was given by the author of a book about the golden age of retail in Philadelphia. He was just basically reading from his book a list of dates and architects. He didn’t weave in any of the interesting things that make architecture come alive such as relationship to history, changes in demographics, modernization. We left after more than an hour. He also had very little depth of knowledge of the subject for having written a whole book about it. $ 32 (for two of us) down the drain.

I went to the Old House Fair about a month ago in Germantown, and it was a great event which accurately reflected the work of the Preservation Alliance. Getting together organizations, businesses, property owners, and the miscellaneous concerned citizens who see the value of architectural preservation. I had a fab time, met old friends and made new ones, learned a few things, joined the P.A., and ate like a pig.
Marvelous.
I rode my bike home to West Philly (hopefully burning off that meatball parm sandwich) and took a look at their website
. I had seen it before, but hadn’t paid too much attention, turns out that it rocks! The calendar section alone is enough to keep you busy for quite awhile, but when you sit down to look it over have your planner on your lap because you will find events that you don’t want to miss.
Skip forward a few weeks and I’m attending the Homeowner Workshops in Queen Village and Cedar Park. Experts demonstrate skills from masonry to roofing, and much more. If you need to work on an older house with the intent to maintain it’s integrity then these workshops may be of great help to you. If you end up just hiring a contractor you will learn the vocabulary to communicate your needs, and be a more informed consumer of their services.
Owning an older house is always a challenge, unless your financially independent, so be sure to get some help from the P.A. It’s a membership based organization, so consider joining, taking on an old house is always easier if you have allies.