Celebrating National Historic Preservation Month
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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.
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Nancy Moses
Academy of Music
240 South Broad Street, Philadelphia
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The Academy of Music is quintessentially Philadelphia: brick and brownstone on the exterior, lavishly baroque inside. I first visited soon after my husband and I moved to the city in 1976, and was captivated by its elaborate gilt carvings, plush red seating, ethereal ceiling mural, and spectacular crystal chandelier.
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Designed by
Napoleon LeBrun and built between
1855 and 1857, it is the oldest opera house in America still used for its original purpose -- but it may not have survived at all if it hadn’t been for the unstoppable Frances Ann Wister. In 1920, while serving on the Philadelphia Orchestra board and chairing its Women’s Committee, she was able to halt efforts to move the Orchestra to a new building on Benjamin Franklin Parkway and turn the Academy into a movie house.
Over the next twenty years, Wister used her organizing savvy and old Philadelphia family connections to save many cherished landmarks including the Powell House, Grumblethorpe, Second Bank of the United States, Deshler-Morris House, Uppsala, and Elfreth’s Alley. As Philadelphia’s first preservation activist, she and her women friends founded the Philadelphia Society for the Preservation of Landmarks, and she coined the term “Society Hill” to draw attention to this derelict area with its remarkable Colonial and Federal buildings.
Many don’t realize it was women like Frances Anne Wister who pioneered historic preservation -- decades before others stepped in. The Academy of Music reminds me of her story, and it’s a story that deserves to be told.
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Nancy Moses
Chair, Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission
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NEW VIRTUAL LECTURES
Watch from the safety and
comfort of your own home!
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Tuesday, May 19, 6:00 PM to 7:30 PM
Art Deco in Philadelphia
Presented by Dr. David Brownlee
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Frances Shapiro-Weitzenhoffer Professor of 19th Century European Art,
University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia contributed an exhilarating chapter to the history of "Art Deco," the colorful, invented modern style that offered an exciting alternative to the austere functionalism in the 1920s and 30s. The quintessential style of the Jazz Age, Art Deco brought brilliant color to the decoration of the Art Museum, introduced exotic motifs (including Mayan and Spanish Colonial) to the city's new skyscrapers, and contributed zig-zagging ornament to our radio stations and "automat" restaurants. It was also one of the components of the brilliant stylistic synthesis created by George Howe and William Lescaze in the era's greatest landmark, the PSFS Building.
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Tuesday, May 26, 6:00 PM to 7:30 PM
Penn Square, City Hall, and the Emergence of Modern Philadelphia
Presented by Paul Steinke
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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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Boathouse Row Walking Tour
While it is vital to practice social distancing right now, it's still important to get outside for fresh air and exercise.
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If you enjoy the tour, please take a photo or two and tag us on Facebook @preservationalliance or Instagram @presalliancephl.
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