Celebrating National Historic Preservation Month

May is National Historic Preservation Month. To celebrate, the Preservation Alliance asked 31 historic preservation leaders in Philadelphia to name a building that has inspired them and why. We invite you to watch this space daily and hear from leaders in the local preservation movement as they reveal the historic buildings that have inspired them.

Lori Salganicoff Memorial Hall 4231 Avenue of the Republic, Philadelphia

In 1990, Parkside Avenue held a dramatic display of gorgeous, substantial rowhouses so deteriorated that sky was visible through many of the front windows via the open roofs above. As an intern working on a tax credit application to help fund rowhouse renovation, I could not help but notice the imposing Memorial Hall across some streets and wide expanses of lawn. My casual interest in the underappreciated Memorial Hall quickly developed into a decades-long fascination with the Centennial Exhibition of 1876, for which Memorial Hall was built as one of two planned permanent buildings. For me, the aptly named Memorial Hall represents how discovering invisible layers of history can transform and enliven even the most familiar spaces.

249 structures were constructed within the Fair’s boundaries on a 285-acre tract within Fairmount Park. Most of these were temporary, as the exhibition was meant to alter Fairmount Park as little as possible. Memorial Hall, Ohio House, and two small outbuildings that now adorn Shofuso Japanese House and Garden are all that remain of the buildings, along with Centennial Lake and several other elements that linger quietly in the landscape.

The Exhibition was transformative, ushering in an unprecedented era of invention, preparing Americans for a wider international role, and altering US-international trade from a substantial trade deficit in 1875 to growing trade surpluses in 1876 and thereafter. This exhibition of goods and inventions from around the world initiated Americans into the consumer culture – creating a mindset of desire for previously unimagined commodities through attractive displays and demonstrations. It also sparked and advanced the development of inventions that greatly impacted the world. With a 1.5-acre footprint, Memorial Hall was by far the smallest of the five main buildings and the only to survive to this day. By comparison, the neighboring Main Building occupied 21 acres on one of the great lawns.

An early example of monumental Beaux-Arts architecture, the Hall was one of 34 buildings designed by Exhibition engineer Hermann Schwartzmann. After serving as gallery space for the collections of many nations during the Exhibition, Memorial Hall reopened in 1877 as the museum portion of the Pennsylvania Museum and School of Industrial Art. The building closed it 1928 when the Philadelphia Museum of Art opened on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway. The Fairmount Park Commission took over the building in 1958 for its offices, and the hall was also used as a police station and has also housed a gymnasium and a swimming pool in its wings. Having fallen into great disrepair by 2000 it was used mainly for art storage until the Fairmount Park Commission sought a new tenant to help restore the building to its former glory. The Please Touch Museum signed an eighty year lease for the building in 2005.

Lori Salganicoff Executive Director, Chestnut Hill Conservancy

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Tonight! Tuesday, May 26, 6:00 PM to 7:30 PM Penn Square, City Hall, and the Emergence of Modern Philadelphia Presented by Paul Steinke ,   Executive Director,  Preservation Alliance for Greater Philadelphia The building of Philadelphia City Hall at Center Square in the late 19th century was not only a monumental feat of art, architecture and engineering. It was also a powerful catalyst for city building, and for the forging of a civic identity. Preservation Alliance executive director Paul Steinke discusses the forces that led our municipal headquarters to be located where it is, as well as the forces it unleashed to transform the surrounding neighborhood.

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Tuesday, June 2, 6:00 PM to 7:30 PM Saving Neon and Rowhouse Culture Presented by Len Davidson ,   Founder,  Neon Museum of Philadelphia For over 40 years Len Davidson has produced new neon and collected the old, both in sign and story. His 1999 book "Vintage Neon" is an essential photo archive and cultural history for sign lovers. Len’s interactive talk will examine Philly neon history including his establishment of the Neon Museum of Philadelphia in lower Kensington.

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