Arts & Entertainment

Gladwyne Barn, Mill Buildings on Conservancy's New Watch List

The Lower Merion Conservancy released its 13th annual list of preservation priorities.

A federal push for energy conservation, and an accompanying tax break amid a recession, have been prompting more Americans to replace old, drafty windows in the last couple years.

However, in this way, energy conservation can threaten historical preservation, said Lori Salganicoff of the Lower Merion Conservancy, which this month headlined its 13th annual Preservation Watchlist with the window-replacement issue.

"That's actually a national issue that is affecting us in Lower Merion," said the conservancy's director of historic preservation. She has seen plenty of township property owners replace old buildings' windows, "some of which were beyond repair but many of which might have been repaired."

Find out what's happening in Bryn Mawr-Gladwynewith free, real-time updates from Patch.

The list also includes Inwood Farm Barn (at Conshohocken State Road and Spring Mill Road), Oddfellows Hall and Cemetery (324 Righters Mill Road) and some mill buildings all in Gladwyne, and the Gerhard Building at 135 Bryn Mawr Avenue in Bryn Mawr, which was on the first Watchlist and which Main Line Health now uses for offices.

"They've done some good work, but their mission is not the preservation of historic architecture. Their mission is health care," Salganicoff said.

Find out what's happening in Bryn Mawr-Gladwynewith free, real-time updates from Patch.

The purpose of the watchlist is to attract public attention—and in some successful cases, benefactors—to endangered historical elements in the township. An advisory committee of architects, historians and civic leaders takes nominations from the public each fall, then culls the list down to about a dozen properties or general issues based on:

  1. the relative historical importance of the properties;
  2. the immediacy of the threats to them;
  3. special considerations, such as that a property would be a suitable symbol of a larger issue that needs more attention.

"With the short list, I reach out to all of the owners to find out as much as I can," Salganicoff said. "Do we have the correct information? Is there anything going on behind the scenes with the property that we don't know about?"

Perhaps understandably, property owners often do not respond.

"And that's fine," Salganicoff said. "We want for this list to really be a help, rather than a bludgeoning tool. We have found people have been able to connect with resources. There are only so many regulatory tools."

As a Lower Merion observer would reasonably expect, the list also makes mention of the street-sign controversy, in which the federal government has pushed Lower Merion to replace its historic signs with larger signs that are easier to read.

Salganicoff said those might be suitable for busier roads, but not in neighborhoods: "Where there are slower streets, we believe we should be able to retain our street signs."


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here