The Drake Hotel, a historic 375-foot-tall, 33-story luxury hotel located at 1512–1514 Spruce Street at the corner of S. Hicks Street between S. 15th and S. 16th Streets in the
Rittenhouse Square neighborhood of
Philadelphia
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...
, Pennsylvania was built in 1928–29 by the Murphy, Quigley Company and was designed by the architectural firm of Ritter and Shay in the
Art Deco
Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unite ...
style with
Spanish Baroque terra cotta
Terracotta, terra cotta, or terra-cotta (; ; ), in its material sense as an earthenware substrate, is a clay-based unglazed or glazed ceramic where the fired body is porous.
In applied art, craft, construction, and architecture, terracotta ...
ornamentation on themes surrounding
Sir Francis Drake
Sir Francis Drake ( – 28 January 1596) was an English explorer, sea captain, privateer, slave trader, naval officer, and politician. Drake is best known for his circumnavigation of the world in a single expedition, from 1577 to 1580 (t ...
, including "dolphins, shells, sailing vessels and globes." The building is topped by a terra cotta dome.
[, p.106]
The building was listed on the
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...
on September 18, 1978. It was added to the Philadelphia Register of Historic Places on October 6, 1977.
In 1998, the building was extensively renovated and converted to condominiums as "The Drake".
See also
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References
Notes
External links
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Listingat emporis.com
Listing and photographsat Philadelphia Architects and Buildings
{{Authority control
Hotel buildings completed in 1928
Hotel buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Pennsylvania
Philadelphia Register of Historic Places
Residential buildings in Philadelphia
Rittenhouse Square, Philadelphia
1928 establishments in Pennsylvania
National Register of Historic Places in Philadelphia