Northwest Philly’s Wissahickon neighborhood fights for historic preservation to try to keep its character as it grows

On the edge of Roxborough, along the ridge above where Main Street leads into Manayunk, sits a cozy Northwest Philadelphia neighborhood called Wissahickon.

Cradled by the southern tendril of Wissahickon Valley park, it’s a leafy community defined by an eclectic mix of 19th- and early 20th-century homes. Although some may think it is part of Roxborough, neighborhood leaders say it has an identity all its own.

“There was, I think, a time where people lost track of this being its own neighborhood,” said Joshua Castaño, a historic preservationist who moved to Wissahickon in 2020.

Between 2010 and 2020, Census data show over 700 additional residents in the neighborhood. New development has occurred, too, mainly comprising large single-family homes. A proposal for an apartment building at 90 Rochelle Ave. also provoked intense backlash among some neighbors.

Now Castaño and the community group Wissahickon Interested Citizens Association (WICA) are leading an effort to create a historic district for the neighborhood to ensure it will maintain its character as it grows.

Earlier this autumn, Councilmember Curtis Jones Jr. passed a one-year demolition moratorium to pave the way for that effort, ensuring that property owners couldn’t knock down older homes while the historic district works its way through the approval process.

“We have to look at smart development,” Jones said in an October interview. “There is so much history that gets blown away with demolition. So, let’s hit pause.”

If approved by the Historical Commission next year, a historic district would ensure the preservation of the neighborhood’s venerable housing stock by making it hard for property owners to demolish older structures.

But some critics fear the district will stanch new development in a high-demand neighborhood. Philadelphia’s historic districts give the Historical Commission some oversight over non-historic buildings and, to a lesser extent, vacant lots in the protected area, which add regulatory hurdles, delays, and costs.

“When you are creating a district, not just designating a building, the concern is it becomes another barrier to housing production,” said Alex Armlovich, senior housing policy analyst with the Niskanen Center, a nonprofit think tank in Washington, D.C. “Obviously, there are buildings worth preserving but it’s not free. There is a trade-off.”

» READ MORE: How three Philly neighborhood groups took different paths to create historic districts

Castaño says the proposed designation as a historic district is in no way motivated by antidevelopment sentiment. He notes that many of the neighborhood’s large homes have already been carved into apartments and that the preservation campaign is meant to protect a unique Philadelphia neighborhood from heedless demolitions.

“A historic district is not about freezing a neighborhood. It’s about maintaining character,” Castaño said. “The neighborhood is already very mixed. There is a lot of multifamily. That’s its strength and that’s what should be maintained. It’s just saying there’s another set of priorities to help manage how change happens.”

Like most of Northwest Philadelphia’s neighborhoods, parts of Wissahickon can feel almost suburban in some stretches — but in an early 20th-century way, with sidewalks, a train station, and snug yards that connect neighbors instead of push them apart.

These areas saw intense development interest during the pandemic because those who could afford to buy were often in search of more space and more outdoor access than South Philly or Center City provide.

“These [Northwest Philadelphia neighborhoods] are like small towns in big cities,” said Jones, who’s been Council member for the area since 2008. “That has changed because of the vitality of the real estate market. Single properties are being diced up, and multiunit structures are replacing [single-family homes] because higher density means more profit.”

Earlier in his City Council career, Jones was skeptical of historic preservation and helped block a proposal for a historic district in the Overbrook Farms neighborhood. (The district eventually got enacted a decade later with his support.)

As development heated up in Philadelphia for the first time in almost half a century, he changed his tune and helped facilitate a historic district for Ridge Avenue in nearby Roxborough by enacting a yearlong demolition moratorium.

“The original moratorium saved close to 300 properties,” Jones said. Wissahickon’s “moratorium may save another 180. It’s so that we can have time to take a look at the highest and best use.”

Castaño is a longtime preservationist, and when he moved to Wissahickon, he was surprised to learn it didn’t already have historic district status. The neighborhood’s architectural legacy is largely intact and unchanged from when it was built between the 1880s and 1920s. The structures are generally in good condition.

“This is exactly the kind of place that historic districts are meant for,” Castaño said. “It’s an intact historic streetscape, block after block. It should be conserved.”

Castaño pitched the idea to the Wissahickon Interested Citizens Association (WICA), the local neighborhood group, and quickly found takers.

The group’s primary focus at the time was a five-story, 90-unit apartment building proposed near the Wissahickon Transportation Center. The proposal from the Westrum Development Co. required multiple approvals from the city’s zoning board and faced fierce backlash. (It now appears to be on hold. CEO John Westerum told The Inquirer “we are in a ‘no comment’ zone right now.”)

But that project was unusual for the neighborhood because there isn’t much open land for new development. Instead, the new construction that’s occurred is composed of large new single-family homes — some selling for almost a million dollars. These new buildings were a much greater influence on the proposed historic district than the apartments at 90 Rochelle (which doesn’t fall within the district).

Neighborhood leaders point out that the community already has many of its older, larger homes carved into apartments anyway and that WICA is supportive of that long established trend.

“These are huge and they’re perfect [for multifamily] because they’ve already been converted into three to six apartments,” said Caitlin Martin, a vice president at WICA. “That’s affordable.”

There are no opponents to the historic district in Wissahickon yet, although that may be because it’s too early in the process. Before the proposal makes it to the full Historical Commission for consideration, affected property owners will receive a letter, which is often when community concerns arise.

If approved, the district designation would prevent the demolition of the buildings in the area that contribute to its historic interest (outside of extreme situations). Buildings within the district will have to conform to specific standards when they replace windows or make changes to a part of the structure that can be seen from the street.

Plans for buildings outside the period of historic interest are subject to review by the Historical Commission, which can delay or squash new housing projects if they are found to clash with the historic integrity of the property and its environment.

Critics such as Armlovich of the Niskanen Center worry historic districts will add another barrier to new development, which in combination with the tangled web of regulations across the region contributes to ever escalating housing costs. He argues that the commission shouldn’t have jurisdiction over non-historic buildings or vacant lots because even adding a nonbinding review isn’t free; it necessitates more billing time for expensive zoning attorneys, and every delay costs money.

He argues that new historic regulations should be paired with a relaxing of zoning regulations. Almost the entire neighborhood is zoned for attached single-family homes, and allowing more apartments by right would lower one barrier to development while a new one is erected.

“If you’re seeing teardowns to build new single-family mansions, you could combine an upzoning for a more generous multifamily district with the historic district,” Armlovich said. “Showing that you’re not part of the trend [of hyperlocal anti-density legislation in Philadelphia] would go a long way.”