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LMHS.25: Lower Merion Historical Society collection of Lower Merion and Narberth buildings photographs

Notifications

Held at: Lower Merion Historical Society [Contact Us]506 Bryn Mawr Avenue, Box 2602, Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania, 19004

This is a finding aid. It is a description of archival material held at the Lower Merion 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 central objective of the Lower Merion Historical Society's Lower Merion/Narberth Building Photographs Project is to record all the buildings that are to be torn down, before the demolition. This focus was begun in 2005 when the number of teardowns increased sharply, fueled by low interest rates and a scarcity of empty land for new building. An earlier project began in 2000 with photographs of all the buildings on Rock Hill Road in Bala Cynwyd, well in advance of the area's being designated as the Gateway to Lower Merion and then the Rock Hill Overlay District.

This collection consists primarily of photographs taken by Lower Merion Historical Society members Max Buten and Ted Goldsborough of buildings soon before they were torn down. Beside the teardown buildings (and sometimes their replacements), there are many buildings that are not teardowns: historic buildings, buildings pictured before zoning change or substantial renovation, entire sections -- all the buildings in the Ardmore Business District, every building on Sibley Ave and on Bala Ave -- and other ordinary and special buildings. There are also older photographs of buildings from the Pennsylvania Room Collection at the Gladwyne Free Library and other sources.

The photographs in this collection only exist in digital form. They can be found on the Lower Merion Historical Society's website at http://lowermerionhistory.org/buildings/.

The buildings are sorted by street, compass direction (N,E,S,W) and then by address number.

Most of the photographs in this collection were taken by Max Buten or Ted Goldsborough, 2005-2012.

Publisher
Lower Merion Historical Society
Finding Aid Author
Finding aid prepared by Celia Caust-Ellenbogen and Michael Gubicza 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

Contact Lower Merion Historical Society for information about accessing this collection.

Collection Inventory

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