SEPTA Philadelphia removal of Belgian block paving stones illustrates four points about urban history/cultural resource/transportation planning

Mark D. Sanders of Ogontz, president of the Philadelphia Street Railway Historical Society, talks about construction that threatens the last bit of historic Belgian block paving under the trolley tracks on South 40th Street in University City. Photo: Tyger Williams, Philadelphia Inquirer.

This post is in response to the Philadelphia Inquirer article, "A historic West Philly street, built with iconic Belgian paving stones, is being torn up as SEPTA upgrades trolley tracks ." From the article:

As they rip up worn trolley tracks on South 40th Street, construction crews have been excavating pieces of Philadelphia history.

SEPTA says safety is at stake.

But those granite paving stones, called Belgian block, helped accelerate the development of West Philadelphia into the city’s first suburb in the late 19th and early 20th centuries by enabling electrified streetcars to link Center City to an area that was then mostly rural.

Now members of the Philadelphia Street Railway Historical Society are scrambling to save the Belgian block, without gaining much traction so far. As of last week, only a small portion remained, between Locust and Spruce Streets.

Because of strong historic protections, O and P Streets in Georgetown remains paved in stone blocks (I admit it looks cool but is a pain in the butt from a biking standpoint) and the steel rails from the old Route 20 Streetcar line have been retained as well.   

It was re-constructed about 10 years ago.

-- Remembering Georgetown’s Streetcar Era: The O and P Streets Rehabilitation Project, DC Department of Transportation

But I bet they only did it because they had to. Because of DC's previous existence as a department of the federal government, Georgtown has special status as a federal historic district, created many years before the National Historic Preservation Act was passed.   This is why the stone block road and streetcar rails were saved to begin with.

Note that the O and P Rehabilitation Project was 100% identical to what they are doing in Philadelphia and is proof that retention of the Belgian block in Philadelphia is no problem.  Except for cost.

This is a streetcar photo likely from either O or P Streets in Georgetown, from the Historic Prince William webpage on DC area streetcar photos. The streetcar destination sign says "Georgetown" and it's a stone block paved street.

WRT the Philadelphia project specifically:

1. It demonstrates that the City of Philadelphia lacks a strong commitment to preservation in Philadelphia.  While an incredibly historic city, Philadelphia has pretty weak historic preservation protections generally, and not much of a commitment to it by elected officials.  Philadelphia, sadly, is a city where the ward councilmembers have veto power over development decisions, including preservation, and they don't use this power to good use ("‘Councilmanic prerogative’ is a campaign issue. But WTF is it?," BillyPenn).

In fact, early on in my involvement in urban revitalization, at a conference in Philadelphia in 2003 I asked a leading question of a plenary speaker to embarrass the city in its lack of prioritization of historic preservation in its Neighborhood Transformation Initiative (" An outsider's vision for saving Philly," Philadelphia Daily News, 2003).  It led the city to work with the National Trust for Historic Preservation on a reconfiguration of the process.  

But despite that and other programs, such as the state receivership program ("Pennsylvania passes receivership law with regard to vacant/nuisance properties," 2010), the city hasn't upgraded its approach.

It's not that they don't know, but I guess because Philadelphia is considered a primary example of the urban renewal approach, even though at the time it involved some preservation, they didn't develop the same emphasis where preservation was enthusiastically adopted as a way to stabilize otherwise shrinking cities ("The City that Might Have Been: Edmund Bacon’s Philadelphia," PhillyHistory Blog).

Although they do have some great publications, like the Philadelphia Rowhouse Manual, a decent preservation organization, the Preservation Alliance of Greater Philadelphia, the core of historic buildings like Independence Hall and the related museum, etc.

Economics of Uniqueness: Investing in Historic City Cores and Cultural Heritage Assets for Sustainable Development, World Bank

The solution would be to do what I recommend for DC, treat the city as if it were a heritage area, whether or not they got state or national designation to do so.

From "What would be a "Transformational Projects Action Plan" for DC's cultural ecosystem":

The city should acknowledge the built environment as a key element of the city's identity, in particular historic architecture and urban design.   This is Item #3 in "40th anniversary of the local historic preservation law in DC as an opportunity for assessment," 2019:

Treat the entire city as a "heritage area" from the standpoint of the design management of the built environment, using the concept of the cultural landscape, so that all buildings would have some basic design review and demolition protections, regardless of whether or not they are listed either individually or as part of an existing historic district.

Otherwise, so many buildings and neighborhoods are unprotected now, and likelihood of protection is slim, e.g., our 1929 bungalow is quite intact, but there is no chance our neighborhood would ever become a historic district, or that a typical building of its type (e.g., bungalow, Craftsman style rowhouse, Italianate frame or rowhouse, Queen Anne rowhouse, etc.) would be able to be designated individually as opposed to being a contributing structure in a neighborhood historic district, except in exceptional circumstances.

In the US, there are two types of heritage areas, either state or federally designated.  I am not arguing that we need to create a formal heritage area in DC.  Rather we can use that framework, that is thinking about the city in its entirety as a cultural landscape, for managing the city's built environment.

Locally, Maryland has a system of state heritage areas, although they have limited additional protections concerning designation and protection and are more focused on tourism development.

Also see A Users Guide to Implementing City Competitiveness Interventions : Competitive Cities for Jobs and Growth, Companion Paper 4, World Bank.

 2.  At the local level, transportation agencies need to have stronger requirements for historic preservation. The reality is that they do have strong requirements.  Because they receive federal funds, it is considered a "federal undertaking" and they are required to do evaluations of projects for their effects on historic buildings, structures, and sites, with an aim towards preservation and mitigation. 

While preservationists frequently refer to Section 106 reviews resulting from the National Historic Preservation Act, there is a specific section of the Department of Transportation Act, 4(f), calling for historic preservation review of transportation projects ("Section 4(f) of the Department of Transportation Act," NTHP).

But a lot of times it seems like agencies are able to slide on this at the local level.  This is true in DC too, with the exception of the O and P Streets matter.

a.  When the city department of transportation was replacing alley pavements, they thought they were great because they were replacing them with red brick.  But red brick was one of at least four different pavements used, in addition to yellow brick, asphalt block, and cobblestones.  I do think my complaints on this led them to use yellow brick too, but I don't think asphalt block.

b.  I remember "arguing" with a DDOT representative when they installed a concrete wall on a historic property, when to be historically accurate it should have been constructed of stone.  They said it's not in a historic district so it doesn't matter.

This isn't the property, but this is the kind of stone wall that should have been constructed, although it would have been a few feet taller.  Instead they poured concrete.

c.  WMATA, the metropolitan transit agency for the DC area, was "gifted" a bunch of transit infrastructure from its acquisition of the old DC Transit agency--streetcars stopped running in 1962 but there was extant infrastructure like bridges, and bus related infrastructure.

One such structure was the Foundry Branch Trestle in the Palisades neighborhood.  They didn't want to maintain it, because it had zero relevance to their service program ("D.C.’s last trolley trestle is in ‘imminent risk of collapse’," Washington Post). 

While I don't disagree that it shouldn't have been there problem, DC should have stepped in, taken title, and preserved it. But DC Department of Transportation refused.

And because DC's elected officials aren't particularly committed to preservation and because there is no substantive plan for interpreting and preserving resources particularly important to DC's transportation history, the bridge was allowed to be demolished.

-- Decision and Order: Application of Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority Foundry Branch Trestle, DC Government

 3.  DC and Philadelphia, like most communities, don't have specific transportation history preservation and interpretation plans. I was clued into the need for this because of seeing a presentation which mentioned how Passaic County, New Jersey recognized the importance of maintaining and interpreting historic transportation infrastructure in their community as part of the county's master transportation plan.  Later the county's tourism plan expanded on this idea.

Terminal Town is a book by DePaul professor Joseph Schweiterman, about all the city's transportation terminals.  An exhibition based on the book was created and displayed in various locations across the city. (Photo: DePaul University/Jamie Moncrief).

Freedom Rides Museum, Montgomery, Alabama.  Photo by Michael Harding.

I've written about this in the context of railroads, although from my writings it sounds like that's all I care about ("May should be National Train Month: Rethinking promoting more comprehensively travel by train in the US "), which isn't true.  

Canals, roads, even parking lots (like those associated with the Park and Shop shopping center type), railroads, bus systems, streetcar, light rail and heavy rail, ferry systems (+ airports, ports and maritime activities, etc.) should all be covered.

And this shouldn't necessarily be at the expense of the transportation agency, because it's more of a city historic preservation matter.  In any case, funds separate from the maintenance of operating transportation and transit resources should be provided to maintain this infrastructure.

Chapter 8 of the Passaic Transportation Plan is  mistitled as "Scenic and Historic Byways" because it has a broader purpose, not just the preservation and interpretation of historic transportation infrastructure, but providing access to to these resources:

1.  Prepare a History and Tourism Element of the Passaic County Master Plan:

• Coordinate transportation services to provide better access to and between major sites and byways;
• Develop way-finding and promotional materials around major transportation hubs and activity centers; and 
• Coordinate information sharing on all levels.

2.  Adopt a process for identifying, preserving and enhancing scenic and historic resources as part of the County Development Review and Capital Planning Processes:

• Direct Passaic County staff to follow the procedures and guidelines outlined later in this section;
• Coordinate with all local planning boards, historic and environmental commissions in municipalities where byways exist;
• Promote resources along byways that are not currently on local, state and federal historic registers;
• Formally adopt guidelines that will raise awareness of these byways for potential development review applicants and local agencies; and
• All capital engineering and construction projects should e referred to the Planning Board for a review of all scenic and historic resources.

Note that the chapter is worth reading in its entirety.  Probably it would be better to do interpretation of transportation infrastructure as one chapter, and providing better transit/transportation access to historic resources should be another. 

Still, it's a pathbreaking document.

My line about historic preservation in DC is that it's the strongest law in the country for resources that are already designated, but it's not strong enough for resources that are eligible for designation, but aren't.  Clearly, DC shows this with the items I mentioned in the previous section, and Philadelphia shows us this is the case too.

Ironically, as mentioned above, this blog was started in part as a way to keep my thoughts and writings in one place, and the first substantive entry was a reprint of an op-ed I wrote in 2003 in the Philadelphia Daily News about how Philadelphia was missing the boat on historic preservation as a revitalization strategy.

=====

Point 4 is not specifically related to Philadelphia or DC and preservation but is about:

4. Belgian/asphalt block as a pavement material ideally suited to manage operating speed of motor vehicles.  I argue that transportation agencies should reimagine how they use paving materials to better manage operating speed of motor vehicles in relation to land use context, especially in residential areas.  

-- "Extending the "Signature Streets" concept to "Signature Streets and Spaces"," 2020

First Street SE, Washington, DC.

In fact I submitted that concept as one of many comments on the update process for the Salt Lake City Transportation Master Plan.

Such pavement provides "visual, aural, and physical cues" to drive more slowly.  

Ideally, residential streets would be so paved, as well as streets abutting transit stations, within commercial districts, and parks, libraries, and schools. 

The Belgian block in Philadelphia that SEPTA is ripping out of South 40th Street is a perfect example of how "old pavement" is still relevant to today's transportation needs.