About
The
Spruce Hill District
Spruce
Hill Historic District
For Further Reading
There are a wide variety of materials that cover historic preservation in general and the history and development of Philadelphia, West Philadelphia, and University City in particular. The following list is by no means comprehensive, but should provide a good start for any research on the area.
Philadelphia
History | West Philadelphia History
Web Resources | Historic Preservation
General histories of Philadelphia
- Russell F. Weigley (ed.), Philadelphia: A 300 Year History, 1982
- Thomas J. Scharf and Thompson Westcott, History of Philadelphia, 1609-1884, 3 vols., 1884
- John Cotter, The Buried Past: An Archaeological History of Philadelphia, 1992
Histories specific to West Philadelphia and University City
- Allen Meyers, Jewish Community of West Philadelphia, 2001
- Leon S. Rosenthal, A History of Philadelphia's University City, 1963
- Robert Morris Skaler, West Philadelphia: University City to 52nd Street, 2002 (to be published late February)
- M. Lafitte Viera, West Philadelphia Illustrated: Early History of West Philadelphia and Its Environs; Its People and Its Historical Points, 1903
Some books with sections dealing with West Philadelphia
- Sam Bass Warner, The Private City, 1968, see Chapter IX
- John R. Stilgoe, Borderland: Origins of the American Suburb, 1820-1939, 1988, see Chapter 12
- Robert Shackleton, The Book of Philadelphia, 1918, see Chapter XVII "A College Town Within the City"
- Essays by Christopher Morley collected in Ken Kalfus, editor, Christopher Morley's Philadelphia, 1990, see "In West Philadelphia" and "The University and the Urchin"
- Joseph Jackson, Market Street, Philadelphia, (1918?), see Chapter XXV "West Philadelphia-Washington Street and the West Chester Road-Hamiltonville"
Resources on the World Wide Web
- Van Pelt Library at The University of Pennsylvania has prepared a Resource Guide on Philadelphia history with an emphasis on West Philadelphia.
- The Philadelphia City Planning Commission created a Plan for West Philadelphia in 1994.
- Information on many sites and districts listed on the National Register of Historic Places is available at UCHS's Historic Districts page.
- Students in the Historic Preservation program at the University of Pennsylvania produced a Community Preservation Resource Guide for a 2000 studio project. In 2001, they prepared a study of Powelton Village; much of the information is applicable to Spruce Hill, as well. The entire study can be downloaded in Adobe Acrobat format here (25MB). The Adobe Acrobat Reader is available here.
- Places In Time: Historical Documentation of Place In Greater Philadelphia is a web site that brings together a vast wealth of visual and documentary materials on buildings and landscapes in the Philadelphia area.
- The University City Review, the neighborhood's weekly newspaper. See what's happening now.
Readings on Historic Preservation
- Philadelphia's Historic Preservation Ordinance
- The Preservation Alliance for Greater Philadelphia's 1998 study, The Economic Benefits of Historic Preservation includes sections on Historic Preservation and Neighborhood Development and Historic Preservation and Diversity.
- Donavan Rypkema, "Culture, Historic Preservation and Economic Development in the 21st Century" Paper Submitted To The Leadership Conference on Conservancy and Development, 1999
- Historic Preservation resources at Cyburbia, the Urban Planning Portal