The Chestnut Hill Historical Society is located in an 1870s Victorian house at the “top of the Hill” along Germantown Avenue in historic Chestnut Hill. The organization leads the effort to protect the architectural heritage of a Philadelphia community that is home to one of the best collections of 19th and early 20th-century residential buildings in the country.
Nearly every notable architect practicing in Philadelphia over the past 150+ years is represented in Chestnut Hill — from the early Italianate Victorian designs of Samuel Sloan, to the exuberant Queen Anne buildings of the G.W. & W.D. Hewitt firm; from the ground-breaking, European influenced work of Wilson Eyre to the exquisitely designed country houses of Mellor Meigs and Howe; and from the ornate classical design of Horace Trumbauer to the early modern works of Louis I. Kahn and Robert Venturi.
Through lively programs, exhibits and tours, through the establishment of an innovative easement program and through direct intervention in the preservation of buildings, CHHS helps to keep the past alive for future generations.