Category: Uncategorized

Thomas U. Walter and the Villas of Girard Avenue

November 3, 2021 / / 0 Comments

House of Andrew D. Cash, Girard Ave. & 15th St., c. 1841

Philadelphia Chapter SAH invites you to join us for our next program
by Paula Spilner, PhD
Sunday, November 14 at 2:00 p.m. via Zoom
Open to all, no registration required. See below for Zoom link.

Dr. Paula Spilner will discuss the long-forgotten origins of a near North Philadelphia neighborhood known in the 19th century as Green Hill, bisected by Girard Avenue west of Broad. In the 1840s, the rural 80-acre Green Hill Estate, property of the Stiles family since the late 18th century, was provided with a rectilinear street grid and subdivided into building lots for the construction of houses. Marshalling a wide array of archival sources, Dr. Spilner documents the development process, including the construction of the first houses on Green Hill. These included the splendid mansion designed in 1840 for Benjamin Stiles by Thomas Ustick Walter, perhaps the preeminent architect in Philadelphia. The newly discovered plan of the Stiles mansion will be discussed here for the first time. Dr. Spilner also argues that Walter designed at least five Greek Revival mansions, commissioned for the wealthy businessmen who sponsored the development of Green Hill. These included the founder and president of the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad, and the president of the Bank of the United States.

Paula Spilner, PhD, taught art and architectural history for over 30 years, most recently at Drexel University. Her dissertation is on urban development in late medieval Florence. Her enthusiasm for the 19th century began when she moved to Philadelphia three decades ago and trained as a guide for the Foundation for Architecture. She served as a tour guide for 15 years, and later managed the tour program and lecture series. She has lectured on a variety of topics for the Foundation and its successors, Philadelphia Society for the Preservation of Landmarks and the Preservation Alliance. A lecture on the Betz Building (1892), Philadelphia’s first skyscraper, cemented her interest in 19th century Philadelphia. She is currently working on the pre-Civil War development of a new neighborhood in Spring Garden.

Time: Nov 14, 2021 02:00 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)
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Meeting ID: 959 4953 4663

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Annual Pizza & Pictures Party

November 8, 2016 /

pizza & pix

Tuesday January 24, 2017 at 6:00 p.m.
The Athenaeum of Philadelphia, 219 S. 6th Street

Pizza and beverages will be provided.  Please feel free to bring a dessert to share if you wish.  There is no charge for Philadelphia Chapter SAH members AND each member is invited to bring one guest as a prospective member.  Additional guests are welcome at $15.00 each.

Please RSVP to William V. Kriebel, Phila SAH Treasurer at kriebewv@drexel.edu or 215-735-3697.

If you would like to bring a few digital images to give a short (5 minute/10-15 image) talk on a recent project, current research, or “what I did on my summer vacation,” please contact Bruce Laverty at laverty@PhilaAthenaeum.org or 215-925-2688.  Digital images should be placed on a thumb drive as individual image files or in a Power Point file.

Please join us for an evening of fun and good food!

SNOW DATE THURSDAY, JANUARY 26, 2017

The American Country Club: Architecture For Suburban Sports

November 8, 2016 /

2016-12-04-country-clubs-wilmington-de-cc

by Anne E. Krulikowski, Assistant Professor of History, West Chester University
Sunday, December 4 at 2:00 p.m.
Union League Golf Club at Torresdale
3801 Grant Avenue, Philadelphia, PA 19114

$15 for SAH members, $20 for non-members.
Light refreshments will be served.
Advance registration and pre-payment required.  Space is limited.
Registration and questions by email at info@philachaptersah.org or by phone at 610-566-2342.  Once your registration is confirmed, please mail your check to William V. Kriebel, Phila SAH Treasurer, 1923 Manning Street, Philadelphia, PA 19103

The Golden Age of the American Country Club extended from the 1890s to the Great Crash of 1929.  These suburban institutions originated from several sources, including men’s city clubs and resort casinos.  The great suburban migration beginning in the 1890s increased the popularity of the sporting life for entire families.  Country club design became a notable part of some architectural practices and national architectural journals began featuring clubhouse designs and plans.   Clubhouse exteriors represented mainly traditional styles, while floor plans reflected gender roles, class hierarchies, and social values.

While not as formal as the Union League on Broad Street, the Golf Club requests that you wear business casual.

Louise duPont Crowninshield: Historic Preservation Pioneer

January 28, 2016 /

2016-02-24 Kim Burdick Louise at Saugus cropped

Wednesday, February 24, 6:00 p.m.
Athenaeum of Philadelphia, 219 S 6th St
Free for Philadelphia Chapter SAH & Athenaeum members,
$10 for all others, payable on site.
Registration requested at info@philachaptersah.org

The Louise duPont Crowninshield Award is the highest honor given by the National Trust for excellence in historic preservation.  Yet many of the current generation of preservation professionals knows very little about the woman for whom this award is named.  Sister to Winterthur ‘s Henry Francis du Pont, Mrs. Crowninshield was actively involved in the creation of the historic preservation movement in Delaware, Massachusetts, Virginia, and Washington, D.C.  She worked tirelessly on behalf of the National Council of Historic Sites and Buildings as it struggled to establish what later became the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

Join us for this presentation by Kim Burdick, advisor emeritus to the National Trust for Historic Preservation and site manager at the Hale Byrnes House in Newark, DE.  Kim is an award-winning public historian and educator.  Her work on Delaware history and folklife can be found in the University of Delaware’s Special Collections at Morris Library, the Delaware Historical Society, and at Hagley Museum & Library.

This is the first program in the Philadelphia Chapter SAH’s 2016 commemoration of both the 50th anniversary of the National Historic Preservation Act and the Centennial of the National Park Service.

 

 

 

 

Feats of Clay: Philadelphia Brick & Terra Cotta

April 20, 2015 /

Feats of Clay
Opening reception & remarks: Wednesday, April 29 | 5:30 pm
Exhibition on view April 29 – August 29, 2015
Harvey and Irwin Kroiz Gallery
The Architectural Archives, University of Pennsylvania
220 South 34th Street
Philadelphia, PA 19104

Learn more: https://www.design.upenn.edu/historic-preservation/events/feats-clay-philadelphia-brick-and-terra-cotta

Given this unique context, this exhibition will trace the rise of the brick and terra cotta industry in Philadelphia and its far reaching influences on American architecture and building technology. The exhibition also seeks to raise the awareness and appreciation of the region’s wealth of historic brick and terra cotta architecture and long craft tradition, as well as their relevance to contemporary sustainable design.

This exhibition has been made possible through the generous support of the International Masonry Institute, Bricklayers and Allied Craftworkers Local 1 PA/DE, the Association for Preservation Technology – Delaware Valley Chapter, the Georgia Hencken Perkins Endowment, and the Friends of the Architectural Archives.

Vinyl, Plexiglas & Neon: Venturi, Scott Brown’s Transformation of St. Francis de Sales – a revealing history & conversation

April 14, 2015 /

2015-05-07 St Francis 03 bw

Thursday, May 7, 2015 @ 6:00 p.m.
Auditorium of St. Francis de Sales Roman Catholic Church
4625 Springfield Ave., University City, Philadelphia
Free and open to the public.  No registration required.

In 1969, the Church of St. Francis de Sales – a landmark church in the Byzantine Revival style (Henry Dagit; 1907-08) – reopened after alterations that addressed changes to the Catholic Mass. Comprising elements built of vinyl, Plexiglas, and neon, the design by Robert Venturi & Denise Scott Brown was radical, controversial, and removed within a year by the parish. Now, after over 45 years, join us for a revealing conversation and tour about the project’s conception, execution, and the firestorm that ensued.

Landscape architect, Sue Weiler, will provide an introductory tour of the architecture of St. Francis de Sales, including its magnificent Guastavino dome; William Whitaker, curator of the Venturi, Scott Brown Collection at Penn’s Architectural Archives, will talk about the VSB design and the architecture of the period; and Father John McNamee, parish priest at the time of the change, will recall his role as pastor and client during a time of social change.

SAVE THE DATE FOR PHILA SAH SPRING PROGRAMS

April 12, 2015 /

The next Phila Chapter SAH program will be on the evening of Thursday, May 7.  A tour of the Church of Saint Francis de Sales at 46th & Springfield Avenue with a discussion of the controversial “neon halo” and other renovations designed by Venturi Scott Brown.  Chapter President Bill Whitaker is putting the finishing touches on the details which will be sent to Chapter members as soon as possible.

Also mark Thursday, June 11, on your calendar for a program at an amazing Victorian house, Oakbourne, in Westtown Twp, Chester County.  We’ll have a reception followed by a talk on the home’s architect T. Roney Williamson.  Details and registration information will be sent to Chapter members in early May.