It’s just a week away! Starting Friday, October 9, the Chestnut Hill Conservancy presents the fourth annual Night of Lights. This year’s Night of Lights takes the form of an extended public art installation activating Germantown Avenue and transforming Chestnut Hill’s familiar commercial corridor into an interactive exhibition of local history and architecture.

From October 9-25, historical images and films from the Chestnut Hill Conservancy’s Archives are projected through storefront windows along Germantown Avenue, with neighboring historic buildings are illuminated by colored lights. An expanded virtual experience—accessible on site and at home—allows for socially distanced explorations of community history, while offering a platform for you to share your stories.

With just one week until the start of this magical event, let’s take a peek at more of the historical images that are helping us bring our community’s history to light! And don’t miss the feature article on Night of Lights in this week’s Chestnut Hill Local!

Every evening October 9-25, 7PM – 10PM

Don’t forget to RSVP on Facebook for even more sneak peeks and updates!

Germantown Avenue, Before and After

Lloyd Wells’s program to create a “horizontal department store” by “colonializing,” or visually unifying, the businesses on Germantown Avenue started in the early 1950s. This slideshow shows some of these façades before and after they were altered, as part of an ongoing continuum of change on the Avenue.

The image above is of 8616-8618 Germantown Avenue, built circa 1870, with its front façade faced with a greenish stone called Serpentinite. As the banner indicates, it became the 46^th storefront to be “colonialized” as part of the Chestnut Hill Development Group’s program.

Germantown Avenue, Before and After is presented by Night of Lights and Conservancy Sponsor Millan Architects.

 A Tour of Germantown Avenue, From Wayne Junction to Cresheim Valley

Developed by the Germantown Historical Society and drawing from their archives, A Tour of Germantown Avenue explores celebrates some of the places which have helped to make the communities of Germantown and Mt. Airy so special.

Before SEPTA’s Route 23 was a bus route, it was a trolley line. Pictured in the 1894 photograph above, workers lay new tracks for the Route 23 trolley in the 5400 block of Germantown Avenue, near Church Lane.

A Tour of Germantown Avenue, From Wayne Junction to Cresheim Valley, is presented by Night of Lights and Conservancy Sponsor Elfant Wissahickon Realtors.

Community Champions

Why Our Sponsors Support Night of Lights

2020 Lead Sponsor Bryn Mawr Trust is proud to sponsor the Chestnut Hill Conservancy’s Night of Lights. It’s a great opportunity for people to get outside and view these magical images exploring Chestnut Hill’s community history and architecture.

Millan Architects supports the Chestnut Hill Conservancy for its mission-driven work in respecting, protecting and celebrating the historical natural and built environment of Chestnut Hill and the northwest section of Philadelphia. The Night of Lights event is a wonderful celebration of our shared history and showcases archival photos and stories in a way that allows us all to see our community with new appreciation and understanding.

At Elfant Wissahickon Realtors, we care about the value of community. We’re proud to support the Chestnut Hill Conservancy and Night of Lights, for the opportunity to learn about and celebrate the communities where we live, work and play. We thank the Chestnut Hill Conservancy for this opportunity and we send along best wishes for another successful Night Of Lights.

2020 CHESTNUT HILL CONSERVANCY LEAD SPONSOR

2020 CHESTNUT HILL CONSERVANCY GENERAL SPONSORS

2020 NIGHT OF LIGHTS MEDIA SPONSOR

2020 NIGHT OF LIGHTS PARTNERS AND SPONSORS