The National Historic Preservation Act was signed into law on October 15, 1966. With Section 106 of the NHPA under attack by the Trump administration, preservationists are not popping bottles. Instead, they are mobilizing and taking action to protect historic places.
As a community preservationist, I used the Section 106 review process to block the Philadelphia Housing Authority from demolishing 2125 Ridge Avenue, the former location of the Checker Café and one of the few extant buildings associated with Philadelphia’s golden age of jazz.
2125 Ridge Avenue is one of the four Philadelphia Section 106 success stories on the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s map.
The Ridge on the Rise Mural at Checker Café is a “community-submitted Section 106 success story”:
The Ridge on the Rise mural on the south-facing wall of the Checker Café is a visual history of Ridge Avenue’s African American cultural, entertainment, and civil rights heritage. In addition to depicting the Pearl Theater, Pearl Bailey and John Coltrane, the mural addresses community protests against Girard College’s segregationist policies. The mural recalls the era when Ridge Avenue functioned as a self-contained commercial and cultural district, with shops, hotel, farmers market, restaurants, theaters, and jazz venues serving the Black community.
For nearly 90 years, 2125 Ridge Avenue has served as a visual anchor for the Ridge Avenue commercial corridor in Sharswood. In the wake of the Great Migration, the demographics of the Sharswood neighborhood changed.
Ridge Avenue became a safe haven for African Americans. 2125 Ridge Avenue was home to the Checker Café, an afterhours jazz club. In the 1930s to the 1950s, the Checker Café was the place to be and be seen. It was popular with entertainers, celebrities, and political figures. Pearl Bailey worked as a singing waitress at the Checker Café in the mid-1930s. The Checker Café was about intersectionality and diversity.