Philadelphia is a historic city filled with historic buildings, but Philadelphia City Council is considering legislation that could alter Philadelphia’s ability to protect these buildings by changing the way historic preservation works in the city, a group of community members and organizations have been pushing back, and have formed a stop demolishing Philly coalition. Around the block reporter Winter Schneider brings us this story about what’s at stake.
Winter Schneider
Bill 251030 was first introduced in November 2025 by Council Member Mark Squilla, who represents neighborhoods bordering the Delaware River from Port Richmond all the way to Packer Street in South Philly. Even with significant pushback and multiple delays, Squilla plans to reintroduce the bill to City Council potentially this fall. Digging into this issue exposes a deep and familiar pattern for Philadelphians: the neglect and demolition of historically and culturally significant buildings, even when people come together to fight for their preservation. One example of this pattern is the demolition of the historic Saint Laurent’s Church in Fish Town in 2022, after years of advocacy on the part of its neighbors and preservation groups across the city,
Kevin Brett
it goes neglected, neglected, neglected until they’re kind of out of options.
Winter Schneider
Kevin Brett is the president of the volunteer organization Repoint Philadelphia, and one of the organizers behind the coalition against Squilla’s bill as it stands. And what’s there now?
Kevin Brett
Oh, they’re building probably eight luxury housing units. I think you know, so that’s just what Fish Town needs. Yeah.
Winter Schneider
Philadelphia’s historical commission was established in 1955, a time when cities across the country justified massive urban redevelopment projects at the expense of Black, Brown, poor, and working-class residents who were often displaced from their neighborhoods in the process, whose history was worth preserving, was and remains a deeply politicized issue, and the commission has wielded its power to different ends over time. But even with its flaws, current preservation law still fundamentally serves as a buffer against demolition.
Kevin Brett
Ultimately, the commission can pretty much approve anything with good reason, but it at least is sort of like a stopgap that makes us think about things before we just go ahead with a wrecking ball.
Winter Schneider
Let’s break down the law a little bit. Currently, even a nomination for historic designation protects a property by placing it under the commission’s jurisdiction, which means that a developer can’t do anything to the building while the commission considers the nomination. One thing the new bill would do is create a 30-day loophole before this jurisdiction kicks in, which would allow developers to get out of historic designation by irrevocably altering or demolishing the building first. Another thing the bill would do would be to disqualify the building from historic designation altogether if the owner even files a zoning application on the property.
Kevin Brett
The table is clearly tilted in one direction on a number of fronts.
Winter Schneider
Councilmember Squilla initially said that he sponsored the bill to address complaints with preservation law, not only from developers but also from individual property owners who felt like historic designation restricted what they could do with their property. Kevin says that there is a widespread agreement among preservation advocates about the need for practical solutions, but that this bill does not address that. We
Kevin Brett
do want preservation to be easier for people, particularly people who are lower income and maybe have fewer resources. We are still very big on this concept of what we call flexible districts. Some people call it tiered districts. The idea is that if you were to have a historic district, you would have varying levels of significance that would make it easier. Like if your building is on a sort of lower significance tier, then we’re not going to care about the paint. We’re not going to care about the windows. We just don’t want you to like knock the place down. Basically, that’s the type of. Legislation that we wish we were talking about.
Winter Schneider
Philly has been in a historic preservation boom over the last 10 years. Community groups have pushed for historic designation on properties throughout the city as a way to hold on to neighborhood history and identity. Kevin says Bill 251030 would put even more power in developers’ hands while taking agency away from the public.
Kevin Brett
You’re really like pulling the rug out from under these community actors, and just empowering sort of like economic interests or what what have you that don’t have as much skin in the game on a lived experience basis. Like they many times they don’t even live in the city.
Winter Schneider
While this might all just sound like a legal fight over buildings. It’s also fundamentally about who gets to live in and use them. Sierra Freeman and Paul Brown organize with the Brewery Town Sharswood Neighborhood Coalition, or BSNC, which is part of the coalition pushing back against Squilla’s bill.
Cierra Freeman
Historic preservation, whether cultural or architectural is definitely more than just the buildings themselves, the stories themselves. It’s the ability for folks to to continue to live here.
Paul Brown
Philadelphians will tell you we are losing our spaces, especially we see it for the kids. They don’t have enough third spaces to go to.
Winter Schneider
BSNC is organizing with other groups in the area under the Dope Neighborhood Project, an initiative to get Charleswood recognized and protected as a culturally historic district. This would protect sites like the Checker Club, once known as the Checker Cafe, a historic venue from the heyday of jazz in North Philly in the mid 20th century. The building is the last one standing on what used to be a whole strip of theaters and jazz clubs along Ridge Avenue, and is now owned by the Philadelphia Housing Authority.
Cierra Freeman
That’s a place that maybe it could get a marker, maybe it could be updated for community use. But like so many other buildings across Philadelphia, it’s just sitting here, and we’ll sit here as long as the powers that be deem it necessary to sit before it is sold to someone else.
Winter Schneider
The side of the Checker Club features a mural of the trailblazing black singer, actress, and comedian Pearl Bailey, who called the neighborhood home. Paul and Sierra shared with me that Pearl Bailey’s own house, which is already in the city’s register of historic places, was recently put up for sale on Zillow.
Paul Brown
There’s definitely people who would live there, but they don’t have the money to invest to build up the space to make it livable. So then you have to rely on the developers or corporations to take a stake in it, and then unfortunately you lose some autonomy in how you want to build out this space.
Winter Schneider
This example highlights the reality: the historic designation still cannot guarantee preservation, which also depends on investment of money and other resources. And still, the recognition and preservation of historic buildings is one tool in tracing a clear story that connects the history of the neighborhood to all the people living in it today.
Cierra Freeman
For me, and how it comes up in the work, is making sure that the history is as clear as possible, and as full as possible, as detailed as possible, to share that information with folks who have just moved here, so that that helps them to deepen their relationship with the neighborhood itself, as they build relationship with other community members, but also for the folks who have been here for a very long time, who we call MBSNC generational neighbors, it helps to reinforce the pride that they have in their neighborhood, the pride in the history of the neighborhood, which then lends itself to the pride that they have in themselves and their self-esteem as it’s connected to their surroundings and their relationship to each other.
Winter Schneider
Anyone interested in preserving Philly’s neighborhood histories can find out more about the initiative to kill Bill 251030 at stopdemalishingphilly.org, and you can check out the Brewerytown Charleswood Neighborhood Coalition’s work and get involved in the Dope Neighborhood Project by visiting BSNC Philly on Instagram. For Around the Block, I’m Winter Schneider.