Memorial Hall is a Beaux-Arts style building in the Centennial District of West

Fairmount Park Fairmount Park is the largest municipal park in Philadelphia and the historic name for a group of parks located throughout the city. Fairmount Park consists of two park sections named East Park and West Park, divided by the Schuylkill River, with ...

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 Pennsylvania (; (Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, Ma ...

. Built as the art gallery for the

1876 Events January–March * January 1 ** The Reichsbank opens in Berlin. ** The Bass Brewery Red Triangle becomes the world's first registered trademark symbol. * February 2 – The National League, National League of Professional Ba ...

Centennial Exposition The Centennial International Exhibition of 1876, the first official World's Fair to be held in the United States, was held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, from May 10 to November 10, 1876, to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the signing of the ...

, it is the only major structure from that exhibition to survive. It subsequently housed the Pennsylvania Museum of Industrial Art (now the

Philadelphia Museum of Art The Philadelphia Museum of Art (PMoA) is an art museum originally chartered in 1876 for the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. The main museum building was completed in 1928 on Fairmount, a hill located at the northwest end of the Benjamin F ...

). Since October 18, 2008, the Hall has served as home to the Please Touch Museum. It was designated a

National Historic Landmark A National Historic Landmark (NHL) is a building, district, object, site, or structure that is officially recognized by the United States government for its outstanding historical significance. Only some 2,500 (~3%) of over 90,000 places listed ...

in 1976. The building is located west of the

Schuylkill River The Schuylkill River ( , ) is a river running northwest to southeast in eastern Pennsylvania. The river was improved by navigations into the Schuylkill Canal, and several of its tributaries drain major parts of Pennsylvania's Coal Region. It ...

, at the corner of East Memorial Hall Drive and the Avenue of the Republic.

History

Memorial Hall was designed by Herman J. Schwarzman, and is an early example of monumental

Beaux-Arts architecture Beaux-Arts architecture ( , ) was the academic architectural style taught at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, particularly from the 1830s to the end of the 19th century. It drew upon the principles of French neoclassicism, but also incorporat ...

in the United States. Schwarzman, the chief engineer of the Fairmount Park Commission, also designed the temporary Horticultural Hall for the Exposition. The building cost $1.5 million to construct and was made without wood, making it fireproof, which was innovative for the time. The exterior is finished with granite and the interior is decorated with marble and

ornamental Ornamental may refer to: *Ornamental grass, a type of grass grown as a decoration *Ornamental iron, mild steel that has been formed into decorative shapes, similar to wrought iron work *Ornamental plant, a plant that is grown for its ornamental qua ...

plaster. The building is by with basement and ground floor, and tall at the top of the building's most distinctive feature, an iron and glass

dome A dome () is an architectural element similar to the hollow upper half of a sphere. There is significant overlap with the term cupola, which may also refer to a dome or a structure on top of a dome. The precise definition of a dome has been a ...

. Surmounting the dome is the statue of

Columbia Columbia may refer to: * Columbia (personification), the historical female national personification of the United States, and a poetic name for America Places North America Natural features * Columbia Plateau, a geologic and geographic region in ...

(the poetic symbol of the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five ma ...

) holding a laurel branch. At the corners of the dome stand four statues symbolizing industry, commerce, agriculture and mining. Memorial Hall was the inspiration for the

Reichstag building The Reichstag (, ; officially: – ; en, Parliament) is a historic government building in Berlin which houses the Bundestag, the lower house of Germany's parliament. It was constructed to house the Imperial Diet (german: Reichstag) of the ...

Berlin Berlin is Capital of Germany, the capital and largest city of Germany, both by area and List of cities in Germany by population, by population. Its more than 3.85 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European U ...

Vestibule, Memorial Hall, by Centennial Photographic Co

Centennial Exposition

Construction of the hall began on 6 July 1874 and was completed for the opening ceremonies on 10 May 1876. President Ulysses S. Grant dedicated the building with a

ribbon-cutting ceremony An opening ceremony, grand opening, or ribbon-cutting ceremony marks the official opening of a newly-constructed location or the start of an event.

. The President was joined by both Houses of Congress, and Supreme Court, and the Emperor Pedro II of Brazil to kick off the event. Nearly 10 million visitors walked through Memorial Hall during the exhibition that lasted from May to November. Memorial Hall was designed to house the Centennial Exposition's art exhibits. The exposition received so many art contributions that a separate annex was built to house them all. Another building was built for the display of

photography Photography is the visual art, art, application, and practice of creating durable images by recording light, either electronically by means of an image sensor, or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film. It i ...

. The hall was one of over two hundred buildings constructed on the property of

to display exhibits.

After the Exposition

Memorial Hall reopened in 1877 as the museum portion of the Pennsylvania Museum and School of Industrial Art. The building closed in 1928 when the

opened on the

Benjamin Franklin Parkway Benjamin Franklin Parkway, commonly abbreviated to Ben Franklin Parkway and colloquially called the Parkway, is a boulevard that runs through the cultural heart of Philadelphia. Named for founding father Benjamin Franklin, the mile-long Parkway c ...

. The Fairmount Park Commission took over the building in 1958 where it made its offices. The hall was used as a police station for a period of time and has also housed a gymnasium and a

swimming pool A swimming pool, swimming bath, wading pool, paddling pool, or simply pool, is a structure designed to hold water to enable Human swimming, swimming or other leisure activities. Pools can be built into the ground (in-ground pools) or built ...

in its wings. The building was added to 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 artist ...

on December 8, 1976. The building had fallen into great disrepair by 2000 and was used mainly for art storage. 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 and began extensive renovations.

Key Events and Usage

Philadelphia Orchestra recordings

In the 1980s and 1990s, the

Philadelphia Orchestra The Philadelphia Orchestra is an American symphony orchestra, based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. One of the " Big Five" American orchestras, the orchestra is based at the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, where it performs its subscripti ...

made a number of recordings in a basketball court in Memorial Hall under the batons of Riccardo Muti and

Wolfgang Sawallisch Wolfgang Sawallisch (26 August 1923 – 22 February 2013) was a German conductor and pianist. Biography Wolfgang Sawallisch was born in Munich, the son of Maria and Wilhelm Sawallisch. His father was director of the Hamburg-Bremer-Feuerversich ...

. Memorial Hall was used because the Academy of Music, the orchestra's home at the time, was considered not resonant enough.

Richie Ashburn viewing

In September 1997, a viewing for former

Philadelphia Phillies The Philadelphia Phillies are an American professional baseball team based in Philadelphia. They compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member of the National League (NL) East division. Since 2004, the team's home stadium has been Citize ...

baseball player and long-time broadcaster Richie Ashburn was held shortly after his death from a heart attack in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the U ...

. Several hundred thousand people mourned his death as they walked by his casket in the Grand Hall.

Please Touch Museum

In 2005, the Please Touch Museum began an $85-million renovation to convert it into its new home. The museum opened its doors to the public on October 18, 2008. Memorial Hall's eastern lawn serves as the home field for Athletic Base Ball Club of Philadelphia, a

vintage base ball Vintage base ball is baseball presented as if being played by rules and customs from an earlier period in the sport's history. Games are typically played using rules and uniforms from the 19th century. Vintage base ball is not only a competiti ...

team which plays by 1864 rules.

Gallery

File:Memorial hall and annex ground floor plan.jpg, Ground plan of Art Gallery and Annex (1876). File:Art Gallery and Memorial Hall, March 7, by Centennial Photographic Co..jpg, Nearing completion (March 7, 1876). Image:Memorial Hall%2C Phila new.jpg, East facade File:HABS PA,51-PHILA,265B-20.jpg, Southwest vestibule File:Memorial Hall rotunda.jpg, Rotunda File:L winged horse Philly.jpg, Statue near entrance File:Beaux-arts doorway at memorial hall.jpg, Beaux-Arts doorway

References

Notes

External links

*
Memorial Hall
- a walking tour by the Independence Hall Association *\
International Exhibition of 1876 Memorial Hall
at the Philadelphia Architects and Buildings Project, The

Athenaeum of Philadelphia The Athenaeum of Philadelphia, located at 219 S. 6th Street between St. James Place and Locust Street in the Society Hill neighborhood of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, is a special collections library and museum founded in 1814 to collect material ...

Fairmount Park Commission page (archive)
{{Authority control Historic American Buildings Survey in Philadelphia Buildings and structures completed in 1876 Beaux-Arts architecture in Pennsylvania Buildings and structures on the National Register of Historic Places in Philadelphia National Historic Landmarks in Pennsylvania World's fair architecture in Pennsylvania Centennial Exposition Philadelphia Register of Historic Places Art galleries established in 1876 West Fairmount Park West Philadelphia 1876 establishments in Pennsylvania