Tag: architecture

WILLIAM RAU’S PHILADELPHIA

October 29, 2018 / / 0 Comments

“Old store Race St. Wharf, Phila.” Race Street at Delaware Avenue, ca. 1880-1900. Library of Congress.

The Oliver Evans Society for Industrial Archeology, the Philadelphia Chapter Society of Architectural Historians and the Wagner Free Institute of Science invite you to

A Glass Lantern Slide presentation by Martha Capwell Fox, Historian and Archives Coordinator for the National Canal Museum, a program of the Delaware & Lehigh National Heritage Corridor

Wednesday, December 5 at 6:00 p.m.
The Wagner Free Institute of Science, 1700 W Montgomery Avenue, Philadelphia

Reception to follow.

$15 per person for members of The Oliver Evans Society for Industrial Archeology, the Philadelphia Chapter Society of Architectural Historians and the Wagner Free Institute of Science and their guests, $20 for all others.

ALL TICKETS MUST BE PURCHASED IN ADVANCE, NO ADMISSIONS AT THE DOOR.  Select ticket from drop down menu below, then click Add to Cart button.


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Using the Wagner’s vintage glass lantern slide projector Martha will present a program featuring 19th-C views of Philadelphia by famed photographer William H. Rau, (January 19, 1855 – November 19, 1920).  Born in Philadelphia, at the age of 13, he started doing photographic work for his future father-in-law, William Bell, a medical and survey photographer for the federal government. In 1874, with Bell’s recommendation, Rau joined an expedition to Chatham Island in the South Pacific to photograph the Transit of Venus. After returning, Rau worked for the Centennial Photographic Company, the official photographers of Philadelphia’s 1876 Centennial Exposition. After the exposition, he joined his father-in-law’s stereo card studio, which he purchased in 1878. He operated this studio in partnership with his brother, George, until 1880. From that point into the 20th-C he traveled the world making photographs on commission for numerous groups.  He spent a significant portion of the 1890s doing photographic work for both the Lehigh Valley Railroad and the Pennsylvania Railroad, and published collections of his railroad photos in 1892 and 1900.  He was the official photographer for the St. Louis World’s Fair in 1904 and the Lewis and Clark Centennial Exposition in Portland the following year.  His work is now included in the collections of several prominent museums, libraries and archives around the world.

The National Canal Museum’s collection of Rau glass lantern slides was a gift from Professor Charles Best, who was chair of the engineering department at Lafayette College.  There are over 1200 slides in his collection, but we will see about 80 of the best of Philadelphia.

Martha Capwell Fox has been with the National Canal Museum for six years, but has a three decades-long relationship with the Museum through former Director Lance Metz. She graduated from American University with a dual degree in International Relations and History.  She spent most of her career in publishing; working at National Geographic and was a senior editor at Rodale Press.  She has published seven books, four Arcadia books on local  Lehigh Valley history, and YA histories of swimming, auto racing and Vatican City.  Her latest book, “Geography, Geology, and Genius:  The Industrial History of the Delaware & Lehigh National Heritage Corridor” is in production and should be out by the end of the year.

The talk will take place in the historic Lecture Hall of the Wagner Free Institute of Science and is followed by a reception in the Museum.

About the Wagner: Founded in 1855, the Wagner Free Institute of Science is dedicated to providing free public education in science. Its programs serve all ages and include evening science courses—the oldest free adult education program in the country—lectures, field trips and children’s lessons. The Wagner is also committed to preserving and interpreting its National Historic Landmark building, designed by John McArthur, which opened in 1865. The building houses a Victorian-era lecture hall, a library, and three-story exhibition hall displaying more than 100,000 natural history specimens. The site is virtually unchanged since the 1890s. The Wagner today is both an educational institution that teaches contemporary science, and a historic site that presents a time capsule of Victorian science. It is open to visitors Tuesdays – Fridays, 9 AM to 4 PM, year-round, and offers an array of evening and weekend programs throughout the year. It is located at 1700 W. Montgomery Avenue, a few blocks from Temple University’s main campus and the Temple-Cecil B. Moore Broad Street Line station.

Skyline Spectacular: Outdoor Advertising Structures and American Architecture

September 3, 2018 / / 0 Comments

Image Credit: Jack E. Boucher, photographer. EAST FACADE AS SEEN FROM EIGTH AND MARKET STREETS – Philadelphia Saving Fund Society, Twelfth & Market Streets, Philadelphia, Philadelphia County, PA. 1985. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540

Presented by Craig Lee, art history Ph.D. candidate at the University of Delaware and Philadelphia Chapter SAH 2018 George B. Tatum Annual International Conference Fellow

Tuesday, October 2 at 6:00 p.m.

The Athenaeum of Philadelphia, 219 S 6th St,

For Philadelphia Chapter SAH Members and their guests only, please register at info@philachaptersah.org

Initially dismissed as a visual blight, outdoor advertising structures rose with the twentieth-century’s new skyscrapers in the United States and soon came to overlook the urban realm, provoking intense public and professional debate about the changing nature of the American cityscape. Their transformational effect led to a range of responses across the country from new restrictive building codes and civic lawsuits to their embrace in architectural designs and urban depictions. Please join Craig to explore the history of rooftop billboards, illuminated spectaculars, and other forms of commercial signage on top of buildings in relation to the aesthetic politics of the American skyline

Annual Members Meeting & Program 05/16/2018

April 15, 2018 / / 0 Comments

Please join the Philadelphia Chapter SAH for our annual meeting of the Members and program.

The “Lady Architect”: (Re)Discovering the Career
and Clientele of Minerva Parker Nichols (1862-1949)

by Margaret (Molly) Lester, Research Associate for PennPraxis and creator
of the Preserving Minerva website, www.minervaparkernichols.com

Wednesday, May 16 at 6:00 p.m.
at The Athenaeum of Philadelphia,
219 S. 6th Street

The program will begin following the annual meeting of the Members.

Free for Phila Chapter SAH members.
$15.00 for non-members, payable on site.
Registration requested at info@philachaptersah.org

Although her formal independent practice lasted just eight years and was concentrated in the Philadelphia area, Minerva Parker Nichols (1862-1949) built a career and clientele of architectural and social significance in the late nineteenth-century’s professionalizing field of architecture. Trained as an apprentice, Nichols designed over 60 commissions nationwide, earning plaudits and extensive press coverage from her peers. Yet, she is rarely recognized today for her contributions to the field of architecture—in particular, on behalf of female clients and women’s clubs in an era of growing economic independence for women. This oversight neglects one of the earliest case studies of a woman successfully contributing dozens of structures to the American built environment—including spaces explicitly for women—and creating a business model as an independent female architect where there was none. This talk is based on research that began 7 years ago for a Master’s thesis, and continues today.

Margaret (Molly) Lester is a Research Associate for PennPraxis, the center for applied research, outreach, and practice at PennDesign.  Her portfolio includes research, documentation, and field survey projects related to historic buildings and landscapes, ranging from eighteenth-century historic sacred places to twentieth-century public golf courses. Previously, she worked as a freelance architectural historian and preservation planner, a national program director for Partners for Sacred Places, and an architectural historian/historic tax credit consultant for Heritage Consulting Group. She holds a Master of Science in Historic Preservation from the University of Pennsylvania and a Bachelor of Architectural History from the University of Virginia.

A TRIPLE TOUR IN TRAPPE PLUS THE BERMAN MUSEUM OF ART

March 4, 2018 / / 0 Comments

Henry Melchior Muhlenberg House, Trappe, PA

Please join us on Saturday, March 17

10:00 a.m, to approximately 1:30 p.m.
$15 for Philadelphia Chapter SAH members and their guests, $20 for non-members, payable on site.
Registration required, please email your name and the names of your guests to info@philachaptersah.org

We will be guided through three historic properties: The Speaker’s House was the home of Frederick Muhlenberg (1750-1801), the First and Third Speaker of the United States House of Representatives from 1781-1791.  The house is currently being restored to its late 18th-C appearance. The Augustus Lutheran Church, a National Historic Landmark built in 1743, was where the Reverend Henry Melchior Muhlenberg (1711-1787), Frederick’ father, preached and became known as the patriarch of the Lutheran Church in the United States. And the Henry Muhlenberg House, a fully restored house museum furnished with many original family artifacts where Henry and his wife Anna Maria raised their large family, several of whom had a significant impact on colonial life in North America as pastors, military officers, and politicians. (www.speakershouse.org — www.augustustrappe.org — www.trappehistoricalsociety.org)

Then we will go to The Philip & Muriel Berman Museum of Art at Ursinus College for a special tour of the exhibit Real Estate: Dwelling in Contemporary Art with Museum Director, Charlie Stainback.  Named by the Philadelphia Inquirer as one of “Fall’s 13 must-see art exhibits” it features the work of contemporary artists working with or responding to the varying aspects of real estate vernacular—buildings, rooms, structures, monuments, properties and houses.  From the monumental to ubiquitous building, the ordinary, or derelict piece of property to the historic site, architectural details or the room itself, the artists presented in Real Estate consider an array of norms that fall under the much broader term of “architecture”. (www.ursinus.edu/berman).

We will begin at the Augustus Lutheran Church, 717 W. Main Street Collegeville (Trappe), PA, at 10:00 a.m. and tour the three properties through noon, then we’ll gather at the Berman Museum, 601 E Main Street, Collegeville, PA, at 12:30 p.m.

All of these sites are within 1.5 miles along Main Street.

 

Phila Archaeological Forum Historic Burial Places Map and Database

February 24, 2018 / / 0 Comments

The location of more than 200 historical period burial grounds in Philadelphia can now be viewed on the Philadelphia Archaeological Forum’s Historic Burial Places Map and Database  – and the GIS data set can be downloaded as a shapefile at http://www.phillyarchaeology.net/paf-activities/burial-places-forum/historic-philadelphia-burial-places-map/

As longtime advocates for those who can no longer speak for themselves, PAF is lobbying for clearer municipal laws that compel developers to handle burial remains respectfully. We have therefore created this extensive geographical database (GIS).

It is PAF’s intention that, in addition to being useful to historians, archaeologists, and other researchers, consulting the database of known cemeteries and private family plots will become a starting point in the process of due diligence of both developers and the city of Philadelphia when considering new projects.

The database, originally the personal research of archaeologist Kimberly Morrell, has been assembled from historic maps, newspapers, academic theses and other sources. Research is ongoing, but the database is the most comprehensive such resource to date.

Learn more about how this resource was made and how to use it at http://www.phillyarchaeology.net/paf-activities/burial-places-forum/historic-philadelphia-burial-places-map/

Little Flower Manor Park Master Site Plan

February 23, 2018 / / 0 Comments

This Mon., Feb. 26, 2018, the Delaware County Planning Department will be hosting a public meeting to discuss the master plan for Little Flower Manor, a 33-acre open space site located on Springfield Road in Darby Borough and Upper Darby Township.

The meeting is at 7:00 p.m. at  the Darby Borough Community Center, 1022 Ridge Avenue, Darby, PA.  No registration is required.


The site is slated to become the largest County-owned park among eastern Delaware County municipalities and features Woodburne, a stately residence designed by Horace Trumbauer in 1906. In the 1930s it was home to the Little Flower Institute, a girls orphanage operated by Sisters of the Divine Redeemer.  In the 1970s it became a nursing home, Little Flower Manor, closing in 2005. Currently the fate of the historic property remains uncertain. Project overseers invite public comment on desired uses of Woodburne and its adjacent open space.

For more information visit http://www.co.delaware.pa.us/planning/currentprojects/LFMPublicMeetingNotice2.html
and
http://www.co.delaware.pa.us/planning/currentprojects/LittleFlowerManorMasterSiteDevelopmentPlan.html

Save the Dates for Collegeville 3/10 or 3/11

February 23, 2018 / / 0 Comments

We are working on a guided tour of the exhibit “Real Estate: Dwelling in Contemporary Art” on view at the The Philip & Muriel Berman Museum of Art at Ursinus College in Collegeville, PA, on either Saturday, March 10 or Sunday, March 11 at 12:30 p.m.
https://www.ursinus.edu/live/profiles/3083-real-estate-dwelling-in-contemporary-art/berman/exhibition.php

We are also hoping to set up a tour of the Speaker’s House less than a mile away in Trappe, PA, following the Berman Museum at about 2:00 p.m.  The home of Frederick Muhlenberg, the First and Third Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, is currently being restored to its 1790s appearance.

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Real Philadelphia: Selections from the Robert M. Skaler Postcard Collection

November 16, 2017 / / 0 Comments

Join us for a special tour with Bruce Laverty, Curator of Architecture

Monday, December 4th at 6:00 p.m.
The Athenaeum of Philadelphia
219 S. 6th Street
Free, but registration required. Please email us at info@philachaptersah.org

More than 250 examples of “real photo postcards” are on display from the a popular and wide-spread type that were produced by professional and amateur photographers alike between 1904 and 1918. These extraordinary images depict Philadelphia at the zenith of its industrial prosperity. Of particular note are the scores of pictures of children who played on the streets of the ever-growing row-house neighborhoods of the Workshop of the World.

Bob Skaler began collecting postcard views of Philadelphia in the 1960s at flea markets, yard sales and antique shops. His collection has appeared in the several books he has written for Arcadia Publishing including Society Hill and Old City, West Philadelphia and Philadelphia’s Broad Street. He felt The Athenaeum would be the best repository for his collection of 1,899 postcards making them available to historians and researchers.

The exhibit is free and runs through January 26, 2018.

Exhibition Tour with curator Bruce Laverty

April 22, 2017 /

2017-05-11 Laying Tracks poster

Thursday, May 11 at 6:00 p.m.
The Athenaeum of Philadelphia, 219 S. 6th Street
Cost: Free, but space is limited.  Open to SAH Phila Chapter members and their guests only. Registration required at ffaphila@hotmail.com

The introduction of railroads in the 1830s initiated a revolution in the development of American industry, land use, and social patterns. The new technology challenged the nascent American professions of architecture and engineering to create entirely new building and structural types to meet railroad needs— passenger waiting stations, bridges, train sheds, repair shops, grand downtown depots, and even bedroom suburbs. For more than 100 years, Philadelphia’s most important designers met this challenge, including William Strickland, Thomas U. Walter, John Notman, Theophilus P. Chandler, the Wilson Brothers, Frank Furness, Horace Trumbauer and Paul P. Cret. This exhibit features drawings, prints, photographs, and manuscripts that document how these Philadelphia architects and engineers transformed not only their own city, but much of the American landscape.

The exhibition is on view February 13 through May 12, 2017.  http://www.philaathenaeum.org/

 

PALAZZOS OF POWER: CENTRAL STATIONS OF THE PHILADELPHIA ELECTRIC COMPANY, 1900-1930

March 31, 2017 /

2017-04-13 PECO Allegheny Ave District Off

An exhibition and book talk by by Joseph E. B. Elliott and Aaron V. Wunsch
Harvey and Irwin Kroiz Gallery, Architectural Archives
Lower Level of the Fisher Fine Arts Library
220 South 34th Street, University of Pennsylvania
Exhibition: March 20 – June 14, 2017
Reception and Book Talk: Thursday, April 13, 6:00 .p.m.
Free and open to the public.  No registration required.

This exhibition explores a series of colossal neoclassical power stations erected by The Philadelphia Electric Company between 1900 and 1930.  Presented through the photographs of Joseph E. B. Elliott (Professor of Art, Muhlenberg College) and scholarship of Aaron V. Wunsch (Assistant Professor of Historic Preservation, University of Pennsylvania), the show accompanies their recently released book, Palazzos of Power (Princeton Architectural Press): https://www.amazon.com/Palazzos-Power-Stations-Philadelphia-1900-1930/dp/1616895004