WHO WE ARE

Chair - Sam Pickard

Sam Pickard was first appointed to the Heritage Commission in 2021. He was born and raised in the Lawrence Park section of Marple Township and now lives in the St. Albans neighborhood of Newtown Square. He serves as the president of the Marple Historical Society and sits on the board of the 1696 Thomas Massey House. Since 2020, he has researched and authored a blog on Marple Township history. He is a preservation planner in AECOM’s Cultural Resources group, where he works alongside archaeologists and architectural historians. Sam has BA in history from La Salle University, an MS in city & regional planning from Temple University, and a certificate in historic preservation from Bucks County Community College.

Vice Chair - Karen Micka

Karen Micka has been a lover of American and local history since grade school. In high school, history was a favorite subject. She went to the monthly World Affairs Council Meetings in Philadelphia when in high school.
She has never lost her love of history which lead her to be a board member of the Delaware County Historical Society (Chair, co-Vice Chair, Lecture Chair), a board member for close to 20 years with the Friends of the Swedish Cabin, a longtime board member of the Aston Historical Society (President, Vice President, Treasurer and now Recording Sec.), founding member of DCHPN, co-founder of the Western Delaware County Historic Tour group, and a member of the Delaware County Heritage Commission. She loves visiting historical sites and finding out new information about history. “To me, history is very exciting!”

Secretary - Beth McCarrick

Beth McCarrick has been a resident of Delaware County all of her life and has lived in Bethel Township for over 30 years. She is currently the Chairman of the Bethel Township Preservation Society. She and her daughter Faith wrote "Images in America - Bethel Township, Delaware County," for Arcadia Publishing with the help of the Bethel Township Preservation Society. She has also been a presenter at Delaware County Community College's Elder Week focusing on history.

Robin Craren

Robin has been a resident of Drexel Hill for the past 6 years but moved to the Philadelphia area in 2010. She grew up in New England and moved here to attend graduate school at Temple University for art history. She currently works at the Barnes Foundation where she manages and performs research of its art collection. She has a particular interest in the ownership history of works of art as it shows how a work of art moved through history and place. She has always held an interest in local and cultural history and is interested in engaging with and preserving Delaware County’s history.

Emma Leuschner

Emma Leuschner grew up across the United States as part of an Air Force family. She is a board member and volunteer at the Concord Township Historical Society and serves on their Research Committee. Emma compiled the National Register nomination for the Pennock E. Sharpless House which was designated in 2024. She maintains several public history websites related to Concord Township. She also volunteers at the American Helicopter Museum and Education Center as part of their Education Committee. Emma lives in Glen Mills with her husband and two little boys.

Maura O'Brien

Maura O’Brien was appointed to the Delaware County Heritage Commission in 2026. Maura was born and raised in the Greater Philadelphia area and lived here her entire life, except for the fourteen years she spent in the US Foreign Service. Working for the US Agency for International Development, she served in Ghana, South Sudan, Morocco, Iraq, and Pakistan. Now Maura lives in Ardmore. She attended the University of Pennsylvania for and Haverford College, where she now works. Maura also volunteers with the Pennsylvania Immigration Coalition.

Joshua Phillips

Josh Phillips currently lives in Glen Mills and has been a Delaware County resident for 9 years. He is a Professor of Communication Arts and Sciences at Penn State Brandywine with a particular interest in researching cultural narratives: The stories that we tell and retell influence how we understand and shape our world. In 2016, he published his book “Homeless: Narratives from the Street” documenting the stories of the homeless. He has also been coaching wrestling at Strath Haven High School since 2015. He received his PhD from Southern Illinois University in 2014.

Twyla Simpkins

Twyla ‘Ms. T’ Simpkins taught in the Chester Upland School District for 35 years before retiring in 2008 and becoming the Founding Director of the Yes We Can Achievement and Cultural Center (formerly the YWCA Chester), a Chester-based 501(c)3 organization dedicated to the elimination of racism, empowering women and promoting peace, justice, freedom and dignity. She plays an active role in the Chester community, participating in many events as an archivistorian and storyteller. A graduate of the Pennsylvania State University, holding a BS in Secondary English Education, her hobby has become a passion. Nicknamed "Chester's modern-day historian", Ms. T brings to many projects the institutional memory as well as a profound understanding of both the local history of Chester and its place in the larger history of the region and country. She regularly contributes to the humanities-based, community revitalization efforts of Chester Made and the Pennsylvania Humanities Council, assisting with the delivery of local history programming for events as well as her on-going work with students from Widener University, Swarthmore College and other area educational institutions. She also continues to enjoy adding to her extensive black memorabilia collection and completing historical documentaries of 'Precious Places' in the Chester vicinity.

Rev. Alexis Washington

Rev. Alexis L. Washington was appointed to the Delaware County Heritage Commission in 2025. She is the pastor of Campbell African Methodist Episcopal Church in Media, the county’s oldest African American congregation, where she also founded the Campbell Community Center to support youth, families, and neighborhood revitalization. She helped secure a Preserving Black Churches Grant from the National Trust for Historic Preservation to advance the church’s restoration and preservation. She also serves on the Young Friends of the Preservation Alliance of Greater Philadelphia Steering Committee and the Media Archives Commission, working to preserve and share the region’s diverse history. In addition to her preservation work, Rev. Washington is an elementary school counselor in the William Penn School District and a Holmes Scholar pursuing her Doctor of Education in Educational Leadership, Organizational Change, and Policy at Temple University. She serves on the First Episcopal District African Methodist Episcopal Church Women in Ministry Executive Board as Treasurer, the Executive Board of the Media Area NAACP as Chaplain and Chair of Religious Affairs, and is active with the League of Women Voters and the National Congress of Black Women Delaware County Chapter, where she contributes nationally through the Committee on Youth Development.

Carla Welsh

Carla Welsh is a self-taught researcher, writer, genealogist, and historian with a passion for uncovering Delaware County’s earliest stories. She has been published in historical journals in New Jersey, and her research is archived in repositories in both Pennsylvania and New Jersey. In 2025, she published The Push of Power: Reexamining the Pennsylvania Witchcraft Trial of Margaret Matson. Her work has earned her a Delaware County Preservation Award, coverage by WHYY, and inclusion in the upcoming documentary For the Common Good: The Women Who Shaped Our Nation. A lifelong resident of the area and a descendant of early New Sweden settlers, she is committed to preserving local history and strengthening community pride.

Kelli Wilson

Kelli was raised in the Germantown/Mt. Airy section of Philadelphia and moved to Yeadon in 2009. She is the Chair of the Yeadon Borough Historical Commission. Since childhood, she has enjoyed visiting historic neighborhoods. More recently, she spends her time enjoying historic lectures and taking courses in Historic Preservation at the University of Pennsylvania.

HERITAGE COMMISSION OF DELAWARE COUNTY

WHAT WE DO

UPCOMING EVENTS

The Delaware County Planning can help you understand and implement protective regulations for historic resources.

The Planning Department can help you find the right tools to find and preserve historic resources in your community. Each municipality should evaluate their current preservation efforts and consider which of the regulatory tools which best suit your needs.

We’re happy to help you in the process, but the information below includes some background on the most common historic preservation tools. The Planning Department has examples of both historical commission ordinances and Act 167 historic district ordinances. The Department provides assistance to any municipality with an interest in forming an historic commission.

Questions about finding the right preservation tools for your community? Contact the Planning Department at 610-891-5200 or Planning_Department@co.delaware.pa.us.

Legal Background

The Pennsylvania Municipalities Planning Code (MPC) is the legal framework that enables local municipalities to legislate zoning and regulate the use of land. This includes local government’s authority to “provide for protection of natural and historic features and resources.”

Where historic districts are concerned, Pennsylvania Act 167 (1961 PL 282) is the most important legislative tool. It allows for the creation of a district that, after certification by Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission (PHMC), provides local review of changes in the district.

The National Register of Historic Places is a well know tool that we can help you understand. Though National Register listing is a prestigious status, it has little regulatory power. Conversely, municipal regulation is the best way to ensure a municipality identifies and protects their most valued resources.

Overlay Ordinances

The Municipalities Planning Code (MPC), specifically Article IV, allows the municipality to use zoning and/or subdivision/land development ordinances to protect historic resources. This can be accomplished by including historic preservation language in amendments to the existing codes.

Whether the surveyed historic resources in a municipality are clustered or widely scattered, a zoning overlay that includes identified resources can be adopted into the zoning ordinance. This overlay can apply regulations and incentives in addition to those of the base zoning. These regulations can address such issues as:

• Demolition of historic resources
• Review of alterations
• Design guidelines
• Buffering or visual protection
• Protection for archaeological sites
• Additional or conditional uses
• Assessment of impact during the land development process

The review body for activities that take place within an historic overlay district is generally an historical commission. This is an appointed advisory board, but its general responsibilities can consist of more than its review function.

Local Historical Districts (Act 167 Historic District Ordinances)

Act 167 historic district ordinance was established to protect clusters of historic resources in a municipality. It places additional regulations beyond zoning. The district need not be on the National Register. Act 167 (1961 P.L. 282) authorizes the local government to:

• Delineate an historic district
• Establish an Historical and Architectural Review Board (HARB) which is advisory to the municipal governing officials
• Determine guidelines to regulate physical changes within the district
• Create a review process leading to granting or not granting a Certificate of Appropriateness for changes within the district

Historical Commissions

The core of all preservation activities within a municipality should be the citizens -- residents who have an interest in and knowledge of local history and preservation. They can provide the expertise needed by officials to make the most knowledgeable decisions on preservation techniques best suited to their communities. To use this local know-how, we recommend that each municipality create an historical commission.

An historical commission is an advisory board to the elected officials and is created by an ordinance or resolution that describes its functions. These may vary widely from municipality to municipality. Some of these may be to:

• Create, maintain, and update local historic resource surveys.
• Advise on historical matters within the municipality.
• Research and help guide officials on the best tools for preservation and help them develop expertise in using these tools.
• Educate the residents about local history and the community’s historic resources, working in tandem with the historical society.
• Recommend and develop walking tours, local history narratives, and commemorative markers.
• Act as a review body for any historic overlay ordinance or demolition delay ordinance other than those in an historic district.
• Comment on subdivision/land development plans with regard to their effect on historic resources.

An historical commission is different from an historical society. The commission members work closely with an historical society, but they are concerned not only with the history of a community but also with the architecture, the “built form.” They use the historical knowledge and information generated by the society to create a context for the community’s historic resources and to help local officials develop strategies for preserving the most significant resources.

The Planning Department has many resources to help municipalities and residents research their history.

Understanding historic resources is the first step to preserving them. The Planning Department can help you find out more about a specific historic resource or resources in your community.

The Planning Department has extensive files on historic resources and maintains a database on the potential archaeologically sensitive areas in the County. The Planning Department houses several municipal historic resource surveys, which are described in more detail on our Historic Resource Survey page. The Department houses a collection of several historic maps.

We’re happy to help you get started on researching the history of your community. For additional help researching Delaware County’s historic resources, contact the Planning Department at 610-891-5200 or Planning_Department@co.delaware.pa.us.

Other Research Resources

In addition to resources the Planning Department hosts, there are also several outside resources that are regularly helpful in finding out about historic resources. The Planning Department can assist you in researching using the following tools. They are provided here for a reference, but please contact the Planning Department at 610-891-5200 or Planning_Department@co.delaware.pa.us with any questions.

PA-SHARE: Pennsylvania’s Historic & Archaeological Resource Exchange

Provides a searchable database for landmarks, properties, and sites throughout Pennsylvania that are listed in the National Register of Historic Places and other archaeological and historic sites stored in the files of the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission.

Delaware County Archives

Makes County records available through online indexes and provides information on doing research at the Archives. 

Delaware County Heritage Commission

Coordinates and promotes the cultural heritage of Delaware County.

Delaware County Historical Society

Collects, protects, and preserves the history of Delaware County, PA, making it accessible to all by providing strong educational outreach. The three pillars of DCHS are the Museum Gallery, Research Library and Children’s Education Center, as well as providing programming on local history and promoting historical preservation.

Delaware County History Website

Offers information for historical research by municipality: tax and census records, historical maps, and photos. Managed by historian Keith Lockhart.

National Trust for Historic Preservation

Provides national leadership, education, and advocacy to save America’s diverse historic places and revitalize our communities.

Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission

Administers all aspects of the Commonwealth’s history, from maintaining collections, advocating and assisting in preservation, to providing interpretation for its many historical sites.

Preservation Pennsylvania

Assists PA communities protect and utilize historic resources through education and advisory assistance.

The Philadelphia Architects and Buildings Project

Offers information and historic status for many buildings and architects throughout the region.

Delaware County Planning can advise communities who wish to begin or update a survey of their historic resources.

To preserve historic resources, a municipality must first know what resources it has. The Delaware County Planning Department can help you understand the process and conduct an historic preservation survey. Municipal historic resource surveys are a valuable tool for those seeking information on the built environment of a municipality. The Planning Department has extensive files on historic resources and maintains a database on the potential archaeologically sensitive areas in the County.

Establishing an inventory or survey is an important step toward building regulatory protection for historic resources in a community. A simple inventory, otherwise known as a “windshield survey," consists of a listing all of the historic resources within a municipality. A more complete survey includes the historic significance of each resource and is an important tool for determining the type and level of protection that is needed. Surveys and inventories must be kept up to date to protect those resources that become "historic," after they reach fifty (50) years or older.

Questions about Historic Resource Surveys? Contact the Planning Department at 610-891-5200 or Planning_Department@co.delaware.pa.us.

The Delaware County Historic Preservation Plan guides preservation initiatives in the County. 

The Historic Preservation Plan intends to capture the essence of the variety of historic resources in the County and seeks to better understand how to best identify, prioritize, and protect them. The Plan incorporates information on known historic resources and countywide history, shares preservation planning strategies, and identifies actions that will further the role of the County and its municipalities as good stewards of our rich heritage, and help to incorporate historic resources into what makes our communities thrive. It is a component of Delaware County 2035, the County’s comprehensive plan.

Questions about the Historic Preservation Plan? Contact the Planning Department at 610-891-5200 or Planning_Department@co.delaware.pa.us.

View the Historic Preservation Plan

Executive Summary

Historic Preservation Plan

Delaware County Planning assists the PA Historical and Museum Commission in reviewing federally funded projects on historic sites.

All projects that receive funding from the federal government, such as Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funds, are required to first undergo the Section 106 review – a “federal review process designed to ensure that historic properties are considered during the planning and execution of Federal undertakings.”  This prerequisite is required under the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966.   Delaware County Planning Department has been designated as certified staff for review of federally funded projects in these cases, through a Programmatic Agreement with the PA Historical and Museum Commission (PHMC), the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation, and the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).

Questions about Section 106 Reviews? Contact the Planning Department at 610-891-5200 or Planning_Department@co.delaware.pa.us.

The Planning Department can help connect citizens to Preservation organizations throughout the County.

There are a variety of preservation organizations throughout Delaware County and the Planning Department can help you connect with them. Please contact us to find out which organizations are active in your community or related to your area of interest.

DELAWARE COUNTY HISTORIC & PRESERVATION NETWORK

The Delaware County Historic & Preservation Network (DCHPN) is an excellent resource for connecting with historic organizations. The Network was created after the publication of the Delaware County Public History and Feasibility Study, which recognized a need for greater coordination between the County’s varied historic organizations. A historic preservation  Facebook Group  was also created to communicate events and post questions, which anyone is welcome to join.

A website is also available with a blog, events calendar, useful links and a forum.

Throughout the year, the Network hosts lectures to provide technical assistance on a variety of topics, which are announced on the listserv. The Network uses the Public History Study as a guide on lecture topics and on what other projects they should pursue.

For more information on historic preservation organizations in Delaware County, contact the Planning Department at 610-891-5200 or Planning_Department@co.delaware.pa.us.

The Planning Department assists with obtaining National Register recognition and understanding eligibility requirements.

The National Register is the official source for federally recognized historic resources of value. Eligibility of buildings, sites, districts or objects is based on specific criteria defined by the National Register. More information is available from the National Park Service.

A list of those resources in Delaware County listed in the National Register of Historic Places is available through PHMC.

Though National Register listing is a prestigious status, it has little regulatory power. Conversely, municipal regulation is the best way to ensure a municipality identifies and protects their most valued resources. The Planning Department can help explain and facilitate the use of many other tools that can protect a municipality’s heritage. For more information on protected historic resources, click here.

The Planning Department can assist with obtaining the National Register of Historic Places recognition and understanding eligibility requirements. Questions about the National Register of Historic Places? Contact the Planning Department at 610-891-5200 or Planning_Department@co.delaware.pa.us.

In February 2017, PennDOT announced one of its latest planning initiatives: PennDOT Connects. The process facilitates coordination with local governments and Metropolitan Planning Organizations on PennDOT projects.

 

In February 2017, PennDOT announced one of its latest planning initiatives: PennDOT Connects. The initiative requires PennDOT project managers to meet with local governments and the Metropolitan Planning Organization (DVRPC) early in the transportation project planning process. PennDOT Connects meeting requirements are being implemented on new projects on the state’s Transportation Improvement Program (TIP). Along with these meetings, the new PennDOT Connects Project Initiation Form allows community needs to be documented. The revised process considers local planning studies, comprehensive plans, and other local government input at the onset. In this way, PennDOT can implement projects that not only improve the efficiency of the statewide transportation network but also address local community transportation needs where possible.

Questions about PennDOT Connects? Contact the Planning Department at 610-891-5200 or Planning_Department@co.delaware.pa.us.

Delaware County can assist you in finding road ownership or subscribing to construction and traffic alerts through PennDOT.

Delaware County does not own any roadways. To find out if a roadway is owned by the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT), visit PennDot’s General Highway Map. Public roads on this map not labeled as a PennDOT road are owned by the municipality in which they are located. Municipal contact information is available here.

PennDOT provides Personal Travel Alerts. You can subscribe to stay up to date on local road closures, delays, and detours.

Questions about Roadways? Contact the Planning Department at 610-891-5200 or Planning_Department@co.delaware.pa.us.