Main Line preservation debate | Real Estate Newsletter
And the mayor’s $800M housing plan.
Property rights. Historical preservation. The character of Lower Merion Township.
They’re all part of a lively conversation happening now around a Main Line home designed in 1900 by an influential Philadelphia architect.
Preservation activists are leading a grassroots campaign to get the distinctive three-story house onto Lower Merion’s list of historic places. But the home’s owner is not on board.
Keep scrolling for that story and more in this week’s edition:
$800M for housing: Catch up on what Philly’s mayor said about housing in her budget speech ahead of the scheduled reveal of her long-awaited housing plan.
Multimillion-dollar makeover: Learn about ongoing renovations at an iconic Pennsylvania home that’s a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Garden of ceramic: Peek inside this Montgomery County home decorated with ceramic-tile patterns.
📮Have you decorated your home with unique artwork (made by you or someone else)? For a chance to be featured in my newsletter, email me.
(Longtime readers may remember that last April, I asked for photos of artwork in your home that you love. Linda H., a newsletter reader and mosaic artist, sent me a picture of one of her creations.)
— Michaelle Bond
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Advocates who are working toward historic designation for the 125-year-old home in Bryn Mawr say the property is worthy of Lower Merion’s strongest protection.
The house on Elliott Avenue is considered architecturally significant. And Lower Merion’s Historical Commission recommended that township officials place the house on their list of historic properties.
If advocates get what they want, the township will have more control over the home’s exterior renovations and can restrict demolition. The house sits on a block where other older homes have been knocked down.
“The word is still spreading about this really special house,” one of the advocates told my colleague, Kevin Riordan, “and if the commission votes against preservation, I fear it would send a message that the township doesn’t really care about historic preservation.”
The historic designation process is now on a pause. That’s because township officials aren’t sure they want to designate the house over the opposition of its owner.
He’s worried that if his house is declared historic, he’ll have a harder time making repairs and selling when the time comes.
Keep reading to find out more about the house’s possible future and interesting past. (It’s got an early version of a feature believed to be among the first of its kind on the Main Line. This feature later became a fixture of American suburbia.)
The birds have started chirping. The trees are budding. And the evenings have gotten brighter.
You know what that means: It’s budget season in Philly.
A week ago, Mayor Cherelle L. Parker presented her proposed budget to City Council. And housing featured heavily in her speech.
Parker wants to infuse $800 million into the city’s housing programs. Her administration has said that her strategy includes building new homes and repairing existing ones. Home repairs are crucial if the city wants to keep homes affordable.
The mayor’s budget proposal also includes getting rid of a construction tax and increasing the realty transfer tax.
Parker promised that she’ll reveal details of her housing plan at a special session of Council on Monday, what she called “the D-Day for housing.” So stay tuned for what exactly is in that plan.
In the meantime, keep reading to catch up on what we know so far.
The latest news to pay attention to
One of the world’s most iconic homes built by one of the country’s most famous architects is in the middle of a $7 million restoration project.
Philly usually inspects rental homes only if someone complains. The city may soon start doing proactive checks.
Pew says Pennsylvania isn’t building enough housing, and that’s hiking prices.
A Montgomery County home contractor who “created misery and financial ruin” after failing to complete work was sentenced to prison.
The city says 16 homes severely damaged in the Northeast Philly plane crash are uninhabitable, displacing families struggling with housing.
A company that owns thousands of Philly apartments plans to save the shell of a historic building on Fairmount Avenue as part of a new six-story rental building.
A West Philly church that unknowingly sold its valuable Tiffany windows is now up for court-ordered sale after defaulting on its mortgage.
DOGE has moved to end one in 10 federal leases in the Philly area. Here’s where the cuts hit.
House of the week: For $579,000 in Swarthmore, a three-bedroom Colonial renovated by the owner and his 89-year-old father.
Home tours are so interesting. You usually can’t tell from the outside of someone’s home what they’ve got going on inside: the furniture, artwork, personal touches, and decor decisions that make it uniquely theirs.
Members of the Norristown Garden Club came to Deb Webb’s Lansdale home last year to admire the award-winning gardener’s blooms on her four-acre property. But they were struck by blooms made of ceramic inside the house.
The flower-themed artwork made of ceramic tiles was created by Webb’s husband, Rick, and it’s spread throughout the 6,000-square-foot house:
the sunflower tile panel on a teal blue wall in the living room
the flowered tiles above picture windows in the sunroom
a 3D flowered tile with pink and red petals in the loft where the couple’s grandchildren play
the flowers on the edge of a wall corner in the home office
That’s just some of the tile work in the Webbs’ home. Rick also took inspiration from Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse for some of his other pieces. And he has decorated with tile on a bench in the foyer, a headboard in the main bedroom, and around the fireplace.
Peek inside the Webbs’ home, which Deb decorated to complement the tiles, and see the pandemic-era project Rick built in the backyard with their sons.
📷 Photo quiz
Do you know the Main Line location this photo shows?
📮 If you think you do, email me back. You and your memories of visiting this spot might be featured in the newsletter.
Last week’s photo quiz turned out to be a tough one. I didn’t get any correct answers. That photo showed joggers framed in a piece of the “Spirit of Enterprise” sculpture by Jacques Lipchitz along Kelly Drive.
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I was a census reporter years ago, so I might be slightly biased, but I think changes in Philly’s population are interesting. And it looks like the city is starting to reverse its pandemic-era population decline.
Enjoy the rest of your week.
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