By William Kenny

Times Staff Writer

Landmarks have been known to disappear quickly in certain parts of Northeast Philadelphia. In fact, they can vanish with little or no public notice, preventing even local preservationists from having a say in the demolition until it's too late.

In the late 1960s, the 300-year-old birth house of Dr. Benjamin Rush near Keswick and Rayland roads in the Far Northeast's present-day Chalfont section was bulldozed to make room for a housing development.

In November 2007, the remains of the 158-year-old Eden Hall Chapel in Torresdale's Fluehr Park were razed 16 months after a devastating arson fire there left a fledgling preservation effort in ruins.

While it's difficult to say whether the presence of an active and strong preservation group could have impacted the fates of the Rush house and the chapel, several history-minded folks in Torresdale figure that such a group couldn't hurt.

That's why they took the first step last weekend in reorganizing the long-idle Torresdale Historical Society.

About two dozen men and women met at the Glen Foerd estate on Saturday to hear a lecture by Northeast historian Frank Hollingsworth and to gauge interest in reconstituting the society's executive board. According to former president Bill English, the society has been essentially inactive for several years.

English served a decade as president. He resigned five years ago when he moved out of the Northeast and to Jim Thorpe, Pa.

He believes that it takes community involvement to identify historical sites and to protect them from threats such as real estate development, commercialism and pure neglect.

"If you get these people involved ... if you get the community together, you can ward off these things," English said.

AN AREA RICH IN HISTORY

Torresdale has a lot of history to protect and to preserve, most agree.

While Saturday's meeting-goers did not determine a geographic territory to be covered by the group, the boundaries of the East Torresdale Civic Association were mentioned as a starting point. The ETCA covers the area bordered by the Delaware River on the east, the Poquessing Creek on the north, Frankford Avenue on the west and the Academy Road interchange of Interstate 95 on the south.

Glen Foerd is within that area, as are Fluehr Park at Eden Hall, Holy Family University, Nazareth Academy, All Saints Church and Pleasant Hill Beach.

Nearby sites include the former Drexel family estate (now the Aria Health-Torresdale hospital campus) and the former Biddle family estate in Andalusia, Bucks County.

Patrick Hotard, director of the Glen Foerd on the Delaware site, believes that the Northeast's historical assets are "undervalued, not by the locals, but maybe by people in the larger region. This area may be undervalued by the historical preservation community in the Philadelphia to Trenton region."

Likewise, many local residents may not have the full story.

"There are a lot of people who are new to the area who aren't familiar with the history," said Hollingsworth, whose family ancestors arrived in the area now known as the Northeast in the 1840s.

PLENTY OF LOCAL INTEREST

Hollingsworth has collaborated with noted Northeast historian Dr. Harry Silcox and is a member of the Historical Society of Frankford, the Commodore Barry Memorial Library and the County Wexford Society.

He notes that Tacony also has a strong historical society, while folks in Holmesburg are starting up a society of their own. An umbrella organization of sorts, the Center for Northeast Philadelphia History, has also been meeting regularly.

In addition, the new Northeast Philadelphia Hall of Fame last month celebrated its first induction ceremony.

"There's an energy going on right now," Hollingsworth said. "Hopefully, that will continue."

Among those attending Saturday's meeting were Jack McCarthy, archivist of the Historical Society of Frankford and project director for the Northeast Hall of Fame; as well as Tony Radwanski, president of the Glen Foerd board of directors and director of communications for City Council.

"This day is the beginning of a new era for people who are interested in the history of the area," Radwanski said. "It's people like you who keep things alive. Tell your friends who have (historical) items that if they donate them to us, they'll be safe on public display and they'll get tax advantages."

Plans are to operate the society under the Glen Foerd umbrella so those who donate items of value to the society can claim tax deductions because of Glen Foerd's 501(c)(3) non-profit status.

The society is interested in collecting or merely seeing photographs, deeds, letters, historical accounts, other documents and any other artifacts of significance.

Meeting-goers agreed that future gatherings should be scheduled for weekday evenings, rather than weekends, for the general convenience of participants. A second meeting will be held in 2010 but a date has not been set.

"We view this as part of our efforts to increase our programming (at Glen Foerd), to increase people's knowledge of the history in the area and to increase people's connections to the mansion," Hotard said.

"I think (the meeting) was very good. We had over twenty people. They seem to be interested in the area. Many grew up in the Torresdale region. We view this as the first brick in the rebuilding process."

They believe that it's never too late, nor too early, to organize a historical preservation group.

"We've already lost quite a bit," English said. "This area was mostly farming, but a lot of influential people had homes up here. There aren't a lot of structural landmarks. Most of what we lost was open ground. But the Benjamin Rush house was demolished. We lost Eden Hall. A lot of times, you can't get people involved, then things like that happen."

For information about the Torresdale Historical Society, visit www.glenfoerd.org, e-mail to info@glenfoerd.org or call 215-632-5330.

Reporter William Kenny can be reached at 215-354-3031 or bkenny@phillynews.com