Hawthorne Hall (Photo from grayareaphilly.org)

Down every street, and around every corner, we see Philadelphia’s history chronicled in the old brick roads, the abandoned trolley tracks, and every lot overrun by foliage.

Most of all, we see the city’s history in the timeworn foundations of its older buildings. Be it the imposing Provident Mutual Life Insurance building or the grandiose Divine Lorraine Hotel, Philadelphia’s antiquity is forever sealed in their unique brickwork and beguiling design.

But how we preserve the architecture of that history has become uninspired, if not non-existent. Instead, Philly’s historic buildings are bulldozed to make way for shopping centers and luxurious townhouses. Or they’re left abandoned—nothing more than waning icons relegated to the pronoun of “I wonder what that used to be.”

That’s where GRAY AREA comes in. Supported by the Pew Center for Arts & Heritage, GRAY AREA is an experimental project launched by the University of the Arts and DesignPhiladelphia of the Center for Architecture that looks at “historic preservation in the modern city.” Currently in its third phase, GRAY AREA aims to engage both design and development experts and the public at large in envisaging creative ways to maintain and repurpose the city’s older buildings so they’re moments of revitalization in their communities.

As part of its third phase, known as GRAY AREA 3, a multi-disciplinary cohort of experts and community partners spent most of last year studying two historic buildings: Hawthorne Hall (3849 Lancaster Avenue) in Powelton Village/Mantua, and the Max Levy building (212-220 Roberts Avenue) in Germantown. Armed with a series of questions raised during GRAY AREA’s first two phases—a panel discussion and a facilitated conversation, respectively—the team researched the buildings’ history and their cultural significance in an effort to cultivate ideas for “eventual interpretation, reuse and design.”

This Wed, May 28, the GRAY AREA 3 team will gather at the Catalyst for Change Church (3727 Baring Street) to share their findings on Hawthorne Hall with the West Philly community. The event, which begins at 6 p.m., will serve as the third phase’s final community meeting in which they will test a preservation toolkit developed for “encouraging meaningful dialogue, making unexpected and new connections, and generating ideas,” GRAY AREA Project Director Elise Vider told West Philly Local.

“Our conclusion at both [sites] has been that it is a great challenge for communities to brainstorm and think creatively about historic buildings in their midst,” Vider said. “We hope [the toolkit] will be useful as a way for communities to brainstorm and also to evaluate actual development proposals.”

Inside Hawthorne Hall (Photo from grayareaphilly.org)

The toolkit in question is a set of playing cards in which five or six “players” will use as “prompts to discuss what a particular building or site means to them and to their neighborhood, and how it can promote closely held values and needs,” said Vider. In addition to Hawthorne Hall, the toolkit has also been customized for four area sites in the interest of assessing its practicality, and whether it can be replicated on a wider scale. The additional areas to be tested are the proposed Mantua Greenway (31st and Spring Garden Streets to 40th and Parrish Streets), the former Gosnell Clinic (3801 Lancaster Ave), the Drew School (3724 Warren Street), and Lombard Central Presbyterian Church (4201 Powelton Ave).

Built in 1895, Hawthorne Hall is a curved, three-story Victorian building that serves as a landmark for the Powelton Village/Mantua neighborhood. Once home to a drug store and post office, the 9,000 square-foot vacant space houses a rundown theater and commercial plots used for shows, meetings, congregations, and dances over the years.

At one point, fraternal organizations like the Order of the Odd Fellows and the Irish National Foresters Benefit Society also called Hawthorne Hall home.

Now listed on the Philadelphia Register of Historic Places, Hawthorne Hall was bought by the People’s Emergency Center (PEC) in July 2012 for $385,000. The local homeless services and community development agency plans to revitalize the historic building, which opened its doors to the public as part of the 2013 Hidden City Festival. For the festival, Rabid Hands Art Collective built a walk-through art installation in Hawthorne Hall that incorporated materials left behind in the site, like theater chairs and a vintage piano.

The GRAY AREA is asking attendees of Wednesday’s meeting to offer feedback and ideas about the toolkit and the sites. Once the toolkit is finalized, Vider said, they will post it to the GRAY AREA website. The team also expects to keep GRAY AREA’s “website and social media presence alive while, in conjunction with our steering committee, we consider next steps for a possible GRAY AREA 4,” she told West Philly Local.

Registration is requested for Wednesday’s final community meeting. To register, click here.

–Annamarya Scaccia