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Chester Redevelopment Authority records
Notifications
Held at: Delaware County Historical Society [Contact Us]408 Avenue of the States, Chester, Pennsylvania, 19013
This is a finding aid. It is a description of archival material held at the Delaware County Historical Society. Unless otherwise noted, the materials described below are physically available in their reading room, and not digitally available through the web.
Overview and metadata sections
The Chester Redevelopment Authority (CRA) was the administrative agent for most economic and community development programs and activities in the City of Chester, Delaware County, Pennsylvania. Amidst controversy that grant programs had not adequately been administered--particularly federal funds from the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development--the Redevelopment Authority board created a new agency, the Chester Economic Development Authority (CEDA), in 1995. Soon after, City Council transferred all community-development money to CEDA, leading to the layoff of CRA's employees. As of 2013, the Chester Redevelopment Authority's unpaid board remains in place although CEDA is responsible for implementing most of Chester's economic and community development programs.
Bibliography:
Hardy, Dan. "Funds Are Frozen in Fallout of Feud: The Dispute Between Chester's Mayor and City Council Is Holding up Millions of Dollars." Philadelphia Inquirer, May 11, 1995. Accessed July 8, 2013.http://articles.philly.com/1995-05-11/news/25672567_1_block-grant-redevelopment-authority-board-fund-transfer
Hardy, Dan. "Chester Transferring Millions In Block Funds To New Agency." Philadelphia Inquirer, March 10, 1995. Accessed July 8, 2013. http://articles.philly.com/1995-03-10/news/25698386_1_new-federal-funding-redevelopment-authority-community-development-block-grant.
The bulk of this collection is newspaper clippings scrapbooks, 1963-1975, and loose newspaper clippings, 1955-1995, about the Chester Redevelopment Authority (CRA), the City of Chester (Delaware County, Pennsylvania), and economic development. There is also a large quantity of case files relating to the Emergency Rehabilitation Program, 1986-1991. The collection also includes some files on additional CRA projects, such as the Comprehensive Plan for Economic Development, Chester Plan Contract Files, "Chester Group," and Smedley Project Area. There are a few photographs and contact sheets in the collection.
Gift of the Chester Redevelopment Authority, 2013.
Summary descriptive information on this collection was compiled in 2012-2014 as part of a project conducted by the Historical Society of Pennsylvania to make better known and more accessible the largely hidden collections of small, primarily volunteer run repositories in the Philadelphia area. The Hidden Collections Initiative for Pennsylvania Small Archival Repositories (HCI-PSAR) was funded by a grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
This is a preliminary finding aid. No physical processing, rehousing, reorganizing, or folder listing was accomplished during the HCI-PSAR project.
In some cases, more detailed inventories or finding aids may be available on-site at the repository where this collection is held; please contact Delaware County Historical Society directly for more information.
Organization
Subject
- Block grants
- City planning
- Community development
- Economic assistance, Domestic
- Economic development
- Grants-in-aid
- Housing development
- Shrinking cities
Place
- Publisher
- Delaware County Historical Society
- Finding Aid Author
- Finding aid prepared by Celia Caust-Ellenbogen and Faith Charlton through the Historical Society of Pennsylvania's Hidden Collections Initiative for Pennsylvania Small Archival Repositories
- Sponsor
- This preliminary finding aid was created as part of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania's Hidden Collections Initiative for Pennsylvania Small Archival Repositories. The HCI-PSAR project was made possible by a grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
- Access Restrictions
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Some materials may be restricted due to privacy concerns. Contact Delaware County Historical Society for information about accessing this collection.