City Hall and the Masonic Temple with moon
Broad St. at JFK Blvd.
Nikon FM2
12/16/99 5:20pm
Historical Tidbits:
Broad and Market Sts.
John McArthur, Jr., with Thomas U. Walter; Alexander Milne Calder, sculptor
Penn set aside Center Square as a site for public buildings, but it was not used as such until the city expanded westward, Justifying the relocation of the city hall from Independence Square. City Hall is the largest municipal building in the country and the finest example of the Second Empire style. It contains 141/2 acres of floor space, occupied by city and county offices, courtrooms and several ornately detailed public spaces.
The building is organized around a central public courtyard, which is reached through monumental arched portals on all four sides. Second Empire motifs are combined with an abundance of sculpture to give the exterior a rich yet intimately scaled appearance. Among the most prominent features are the projecting corner pavilions; the towered pavilions over the entrance portals; the mansard roof with dormers, connected to one another by curved frames; and the large-scale paired columns, which help to make the building's eight stories look like three. Solid granite, 22 feet thick in some portions, forms the first floor and supports a brick structure faced with white marble.
Calder created all the sculpture on the building. There are groups of figures representing the seasons, continents, arts and science, as well as allegorical figures, heads and masks. Calder also designed the 27-ton cast-iron statue of Penn atop the tower, which is the largest single piece of sculpture on any building in the world. The 548-foot tower is the world's tallest masonry structure without a steel frame. It is granite up to the clock, then cast iron painted to look like stone.
Public spaces within the building are among the most lavish in the city. The City Council chamber is larger than the House of Lords in London; it is ornately detailed and uses such expensive materials as alabaster on the walls. The Mayor's Reception Room is extremely handsome; it has a blue and gold ceiling, beautiful woodwork and red Egyptian marble columns. Conversation Hall, restored to its original elegance by Day and Zimmermann Associates in 1982, is dominated by a magnificent chandelier. John Ord, chief architect from 1890-94, is thought to have been responsible for much of the interior detailing. Other notable features are the octagonal cut-stone staircases in each of the four corners and the Supreme Court Room, which was designed by George Herzog.
The tower is open to the public and affords a wonderful view of the city.*
Masonic Temple, 1868-73/1890s
1 North Broad Street
James Windrim/Geaorge Herzog
Freemasonry prospered in Philadelphia from colonial times, despite the rise of anti-Masonic sentiment during the early 19th century. Several temples were built, culminating in this magnificent structure, one of the worlds greatest Masonic temples.
The Masons held a competition and selected Brother James Windrim, a 27 year-old freemason, as the winner. Windrim's design was modeled on a medieval style known as Norman. This is reflected in the massive carved doorway that projects from the wall; the ashlar stone work; the fortresslike towers; and the corbel tables, a round-arch decorated cornice under the roofline. Many of the granite blocks for the temple weighed as much as six tons.
The temple took five years to build. The interior design was begun 14 years later and took 15 more years to complete. George Herzog [see City Hall, above], who had trained in the royal workshops of Ludwig I of Munich, was the primary designer. The spectacular interior spaces include seven lodge halls, each lavishly decorated in a specific style. The most renowned is the Egyptian Hall, replete with accurate hieroglyphics. The temple was one of the first buildings in the city to be lighted by electricity.*
Broad Street:
The "wide (or broad) Avenue midway between the rivers" was one of the major arteries of Philadelphia as determined by William Penn. Penn's initial interest in Philadelphia streets was limited to the city, so Broad Street existed in the early days as a road from Cedar (now South Street) to Vine.
After the Revolution, Broad Street grew. First to the north: The road jury confirmed the extension of the street to Ridge Road in 1811, and six years later, from Ridge to Callowhill. Then to the south: In 1819, the road was confirmed from South Street to Dickinson. By the middle of the Nineteenth century, Broad extended along it's present track from Government Avenue to Butler Street. It's northernmost extentions were created between 1903 and 1923.
For the most part, Philadelphians will state without reservation that Broad Street's twelve-mile length makes it "the longest strait street in the world." Unfortunetly, even if the street didn't jog around City Hall, the longest strait street in the world would still be Chicago's Western Avenue-a 231/2-mile straitaway.**
* from Philadelphia Architecture: A guide to the city
©1994 by the Foundation for Architecture
** from Mermaids, Monasteries, Cherokees and Custer: the stories behind Philadelphia street names by Robert I. Alotta
Bonus Books, Inc. ©Robert I. Alotta, 1990