A developer's plan for 48 new townhomes on vacant land surrounding an historic property in Whitemarsh known as Abolition Hall remains on hold after a zoning hearing Tuesday.
The project is opposed by a group of nearby residents, even though the developer's lawyer says the plan calls for leaving both the antislavery meeting hall and a nearby building known as the Hovenden House intact.
A lawyer for the seven neighbors challenging the development plan successfully argued at the meeting for a delay in the Whitemarsh zoning board's vote, according to one of the residents, Sydelle Zove.
The board will hold another hearing March 16, Zove said.
The residents are challenging the project based on a particular part of the plan having to do with parking. The township zoning officer has already approved the project, Zove said.
A lawyer for K. Hovnanian Homes, which would buy the property and historic buildings on it if development plans are approved, said she didn't want to discuss too much about the current objection by residents.
She did say the site would maintain its historic significance.
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"The historic buildings will remain as is," attorney Julie Von Spreckelsen, of the law firm Eastburn and Gray, said. "Untouched. Unaltered."
Abolition Hall, at 4006 Butler Pike, dates to 1856 and was a gathering place for up to 200 people in the years leading up to the Civil War. The antislavery roots of the homestead dates all the way back to the 1760s when the Corson family established it as a stop on the Underground Railroad.
The nearby Hovenden House at the corner of Butler and Germantown pikes gets its name from a son-in-law of the Corson family, who worked as an artist in the 1800s at the site.
K. Hovnanian's plans date to late 2015 when the project was first publicly announced. The current owners of the hall and house are descendants of the Corsons, according to published reports.
