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Preservation list replaced by smaller targets

The list of endangered historic sites issued every year by the Preservation Alliance of Greater Philadelphia did not make it through 2014.

The list of endangered historic sites issued every year by the Preservation Alliance of Greater Philadelphia did not make it through 2014.

The alliance has demolished the venerable list.

Replacing it will be a smaller group of threatened places that preservation officials exhort their supporters to save.

Three times a year, the alliance will release a list of four "Places to Save," which will also be featured in a three-times-a-year magazine, Extant.

The first list, just out, features a call for preservation of the Blue Horizon, the venerable boxing venue on North Broad Street now threatened by a hotel development.

The William Penn Inn, built in 1799, one of the oldest surviving structures in Lower Merion Township, is threatened by a proposed housing development. It too made the list, as did the "flying saucer" Welcome Center on JFK Plaza, which faces an uncertain future as the city looks to refurbish the plaza, also known as LOVE Park.

The fourth site on the list is the Mount Moriah Cemetery Gatehouse in Southwest Philadelphia, which the alliance says is so decrepit it might not survive another harsh winter.

The Blue Horizon was also on the 2013 endangered properties list.

Built in 1865 as a private house, the building was sold to the Loyal Order of Moose, which it served as a lodge. In 1961, it was sold again, becoming a boxing arena that November. The ring at the Blue Horizon hosted fights off and on until about 2010.

The current hotel development, which includes about $6 million in public tax credits, calls for a hotel on the site.

The entire 200-plus-acre expanse of Mount Moriah Cemetery along Cobbs Creek was on the 2005 endangered list. Since then, the cemetery has been transferred to the nonprofit Mount Moriah Cemetery Preservation Corp.

But the distinctive 1855 brownstone gateway may not last while the corporation gets itself up and running.

The classic William Penn Inn and the cultish LOVE Park "flying saucer" are making their preservation debuts with the alliance this year.

"We're going to take a more positive approach," said alliance director Caroline E. Boyce, referring to the lists. "We've renamed [the list] 'Places to Save' because that's what we hope to accomplish. We can focus more attention on the particular properties and also be more timely."

Properties won't rotate off the list after their initial appearance, Boyce said.

"Nothing gets rotated off until it's saved or demolished and lost, which is not the outcome we want," she said.