Newsletters provide quarterly updates about YFPA events and initiatives. For more up-to-date notifications, please remember to follow YFPA on Facebook and Instagram.

Checking out the Ryerss Mansion

On Friday, March 15, Tyler Schumacher of the Steering Committee met with Theresa Stuhlman, the Preservation and Development Administrator for Philadelphia Parks and Recreation, for a private tour of the Ryerss Mansion in Burholme Park, Fox Chase. Ryerss Mansion is a historic house and museum built in 1859 with an eclectic collection of art and artifacts from China, Japan, and India, as well as a pet cemetery. Originally a summer retreat for Joseph Waln Ryerss, Tyler reports that Ryerrs remains a Victorian gem with a spectacular cupola view. Following Tyler's visit, YFPA hopes to help raise awareness for the site and support new fundraising efforts that are necessary to complete critical building repairs.

Upcoming YFPA Events

Follow along with us on Instagram @yfpaphilly for updates!

Keep your eyes peeled for additional events this spring! We've got some fun (and practical) events in the works as the weather warms up!

Steering Committee Applications Open

YFPA is led by a volunteer Steering Committee of self-driven young professionals who are committed to advancing PAGP’s mission through public programming, tours, advocacy projects, and social events. Our work advocates for projects that positively impact cultural heritage and celebrates a vast community dedicated to protecting the built environment throughout the region. We are now accepting applications for new Steering Committee members! 

The Steering Committee meets monthly, and members contribute to one or several subcommittees. The only prerequisites for serving on the Steering Committee are a passion for preservation and the ability to collaborate well!

Apply here by Friday, April 5 at 5 PM!

Preservation Achievement Awards- YFPA Special Recognition Award

Each year at the Preservation Alliance’s Achievement Awards, the YFPA Steering Committee presents special recognition awards to a young project or professional to recognize the latest generation of preservation achievement. 

This year, we will be recognizing the 1838 Black Metropolis. By 1838, 400,000 free Black people were living in the United States. With 16 churches, 23 schools, 300 businesses, and 80 Beneficial societies, the Black population of Philadelphia in 1838 was its own influential metropolis. Surrounded by free Black towns in Southern New Jersey and Pennsylvania, the Black Metropolis stretched into a region, a zone of emancipation. The mission of the 1838 Black Metropolis is to "Ensure this history is never forgotten again." 

Using the 1838 Census funded by the Pennsylvania Abolitionist Society as its foundation, co-founders Morgan Lloyd and Michiko Quinones created an interactive, historically rich website filled with primary sources and maps, and a walking tour series on the community of nearly 20,000 Black people living in Philadelphia at the time, about one-fifth of the city’s population.

The 1838 Black Metropolis exemplifies preservation leadership in their innovative stewardship and sharing of Philadelphia's Black history. 

Join us at the awards on June 5 to celebrate their achievement! A special rate is available for YFPA members.

You can hear from last year’s YFPA award winner, Christopher Rogers, on April 22 as part of this year’s PAGP Spring Speaker Series.

Event Recaps

CoA Tour for Black History Month

On February 24th, the YFPA hosted a tour of the Church of the Advocate, an architectural marvel as well as a beacon of social justice located in the Diamond Street Historic District. Originally designed to be Philadelphia’s Episcopal Cathedral by architect Charles M. Burns, the church complex, centering on a French Gothic-style cloister, suggests a medieval cathedral compound.

YFPA Steering Committee member, Tyler Ray, led attendees on a tour of the church’s impressive history and its connection to Black Philadelphia. The church became a pioneer in providing social services to its North Philadelphia community and an important center of civil rights activism. Between 1973 and 1976, Rev. Paul Washington commissioned 14 large-scale murals depicting vignettes of the Black experience in America. The tour highlighted how the Gothic Revival architecture and the modern murals powerfully express the church’s contemporary religious and social mission.

Raymond Farm Work Day

On March 24, members of YFPA’s steering committee assisted with a spring clean-up day at the Raymond Farm, an art and design center in New Hope at the former home of architect Antonin Raymond and designer Noémi Raymond. 

The Raymonds worked between Japan and New York from the 1910s through the 1970s. Antonin would eventually become known as the “Father of Modern Architecture" in Japan. In 1937, the Raymonds set up a summer studio and home on an 18th-century Quaker farm, infusing it with traditional Japanese architectural elements. Dubbed “the New Hope Experiment,” the Raymond Farm served as a live/work atelier that taught practical design solutions to up-and-coming architects. 

Volunteers got the house ready for its upcoming spring programming by dusting, washing windows, waxing wood elements, and even repairing shoji screens! It was extremely rewarding to lend a hand to this remarkable site. 

Learn more: Raymond Farm Center

Member News

Introducing Lindsay Bates, Member of the YFPA SC

With over 15 years in the design and construction fields, Lindsay joined YFPA in 2022. After completing her bachelor's degree in Architecture from The Catholic University of America, Lindsay began her career with a preservation firm, focusing on the restoration and documentation of military housing, including the Chief of Naval Operation's residence in the D.C. Navy Yard. Lindsay continued her education at the University of Pennsylvania, where she received her MSHP in Historic Preservation. She also received an award for her thesis on graffiti as cultural heritage, and it remains one of the most downloaded theses in the MSHP's repository.

Lindsay currently serves as the Deputy Design Manager for Amtrak's ADA Stations Program, which is tasked with bringing all train stations nationwide into compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990.

Preservation News Roundup

For the curious preservationist: an eclectic assortment of ten recent news stories and online content from Philadelphia and around the world. If you come across an interesting story that you think others would enjoy, let us know via social media  IG:@yfpaphilly or at philly.yfpa@gmail.com. 

The New York Times / From New England to Notre-Dame, a U.S. Carpenter Tends to a French Icon

The New York Times / Holding Onto Korea’s Past, a Tile at a Time

The Philadelphia Inquirer / Philadelphia’s John Coltrane House may be saved from demolition 

Artnet News / Brooklyn Museum’s Period Rooms Sale More Than Doubles Estimates

Hidden City / Preservationists and Developers Say Pennsylvania Needs to Boost its Historic Tax Credits

KYW Newsradio / After decades in the dark, historic Lansdowne Theater set to reopen as a concert venue this fall

BBC / Battersea power station and The Piece Hall among landmarks given new life

Artnet News / A New Digital Archive Will Preserve Historically Significant Street Art

Bloomberg / Europe’s 11 Historical Sites Most at Risk, From Famed Greek Islands to an Ancient Armenian Fort

Architectural Digest / The Story Behind the Many Ghost Towns of Abandoned Mansions Across China