Alfred E. Burk House | |
---|---|
Location | 1500 N Broad Street, Philadelphia 19121 |
Coordinates | 39°58′34″N75°09′32″W / 39.976110°N 75.158795°W Coordinates: 39°58′34″N75°09′32″W / 39.976110°N 75.158795°W |
Built | 1907-1909 |
Architectural style(s) | Renaissance Revival Architecture |
Owner | Alfred E. Burk (original), Temple University (current) |
Official name | Alfred Edward Burk Mansion, Temple University [1] |
Designated | January 26, 1971 [1] |
The Alfred E. Burk House, colloquially known as the Burk Mansion, is a Gilded Age late Victorian Italian Renaissance style house located at 1500 North Broad Street in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania now owned by Temple University. [2] Designed by architects Edward P. Simon & David B. Basset and constructed between 1907 and 1909, the building was later altered and enlarged by Louis A. Manfredi first in 1949 and later in 1953. The house was initially commissioned and inhabited by industrialist and leather manufacturer Alfred E. Burk from 1909 until his death in 1921. From 1945-1970, the house served as the headquarters for the Upholsterers International Union of North America, an AFL-affiliated labor union of upholsters and textile workers, among others. In 1971, it was acquired by Temple University’s School of Social Administration. Temple University used the property as a daycare for faculty, staff, and students until its closure in 1995. [3] The building currently sits unoccupied. [4]
The Burk Family originated from Knittlingen, Württemberg, Germany. The parents of Alfred E. Burk were David and Charlotte Reinman Burk who had eight children. The family emigrated to the United States in 1854 and settled in Philadelphia, PA. Alfred E. Burk, along with his two brothers Henry and Charles, started the Burk Brothers Company which specialized in the production of glazed-kid leather. Their factory complex was located at 919-961 North 3rd Street in Philadelphia in the old leather district and was sold after the death of Henry Burk in 1903. The complex consisted of 12 interconnected brick and reinforced concrete buildings and continued to produce leather products until it was demolished in the mid-20th century. [5] It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1985. Alfred E. Burk was a prominent industrialist and politician. Along with his shared company Burk Brothers, he also developed and owned the Garden Pier in Atlantic City, New Jersey with his brother Louis. Burk was a delegate to Republican National Convention from Pennsylvania in 1920. He was also a Freemason. He died in Philadelphia, Philadelphia County, Pa., May 13, 1921 (age 56 years, 189 days). [6]
Between 1945 and 1971, the Alfred E. Burk house served as the headquarters of the Upholsters' International Union (UIU).[ citation needed ] Founded in 1892, the UIU represented workers within industries such as caskets, mattress and bedding, furniture, window trimming and display installation. [7] In the late 19th century North Broad Street in Philadelphia developed into a boulevard for the industrial wealthy. It was a convenient location for two reasons. First, many of their production places were located in adjoining industrial areas; a North Broad Street residence gave its entrepreneurial owner access to his thriving business, as well as the comforts of a rich social life.
Temple University bought the 27-room Alfred E. Burk House in 1970 – the year before the building was added to the Philadelphia Register of Historic Places. [8] The university purchased the building from the Upholsters’ International Union of North America for $375,000. Within one year of its acquisition, the building became the home of the recently created School of Social Administration. [9] In 1975, the university moved its daycare program into the mansion’s carriage house. This daycare served the children of Temple students and employees for nearly twenty years until a July 1993 mechanical fire in the house forced the relocation of both the daycare program and the School of Social Administration. The fire caused an estimated $2.8 million worth of damages, and coupled with the declining state of appropriations from the Commonwealth for the upkeep of the mansion, led to Temple officials closing the house in 1995. [10] The building has remained empty ever since.
The Burk House currently stands empty and unused, vacant since 1995. [10] [11] Temple University released a Master Plan that makes no mention of the Burk House property, so speculation continues as to its future. Shortly before the 2008 economic crisis, Temple planned to use the building to house its Honors program, according to Ray Betzner, Temple’s assistant vice president of university communications. The economic crash put an end to the $44 million project before it began. [12] [10] In 2015, an image circulated of a proposed hotel at the site, sparking further questions as to Temple’s plans for the building. Temple architect Margaret Carney refuted the rumor that Temple planned to demolish, noting that over a million dollars had recently been invested in stabilizing the mansion’s roof, and that new lights, heating, and ventilation had been installed. [8] According to Philadelphia Historical Commission executive director Jon Farnham, as of 2015 Temple University had not submitted a demolition application for the site.
North Philadelphia, nicknamed North Philly, is a section of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in the United States. It is immediately north of Center City. Though the full extent of the region is somewhat vague, "North Philadelphia" is regarded as everything north of either Vine Street or Spring Garden Street, between Northwest Philadelphia and Northeast Philadelphia. It is bordered to the north by Cheltenham Township along Cheltenham Avenue, Spring Garden Street to the south, 35th Street to the west and Adams Avenue to the east. The Philadelphia Police Department patrols five districts located within North Philadelphia: the 22nd, 25th, 26th, 35th and 39th districts. There are fifteen ZIP codes for North Philadelphia: 19120, 19121, 19122, 19123, 19125, 19126, 19130, 19132, 19133, 19134, 19137, 19138, 19140, 19141, and 19150. The city government views this sprawling chunk of Philadelphia more precisely as three smaller districts, drawn up by the Redevelopment Authority in 1964. These regions are Olney-Oak Lane, Upper North Philadelphia and Lower North Philadelphia. Other sections of North Philadelphia include Brewerytown, Fairhill, Fairmount, Fishtown, Francisville, Franklinville, Glenwood, Hartranft, Koreatown, Northern Liberties, Poplar, Sharswood, Strawberry Mansion and Yorktown.
North Broad station, known as North Broad Street until 1992, is a SEPTA Regional Rail station in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is located at 2601 North Broad Street in the Cecil B. Moore section of Lower North Philadelphia, and serves the Lansdale/Doylestown Line and the Manayunk/Norristown Line. The station has low-level platforms on the outside tracks, with "mini-high" platforms for wheelchair and ADA accessibility.
Broad Street is a major arterial street in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It runs for approximately 13 miles (21 km) beginning at the intersection of Cheltenham Avenue on the border of Cheltenham Township and the West/East Oak Lane neighborhoods of North Philadelphia to the Philadelphia Navy Yard in South Philadelphia. It is Pennsylvania Route 611 along its entire length with the exception of its northernmost part between Old York Road and Pennsylvania Route 309 and the southernmost part south of Interstate 95.
Tacony is a historic neighborhood in Northeast Philadelphia, about 8 miles (13 km) from downtown Philadelphia. It is bounded by the east side of Frankford Avenue on the northwest, the south side of Cottman Avenue on the northeast, the north side of Robbins Street on the southwest, and the Delaware River and Interstate 95 on the southeast.
The Woodlands is a National Historic Landmark District on the west bank of the Schuylkill River in Philadelphia. It includes a Federal-style mansion, a matching carriage house and stable, and a garden landscape that in 1840 was transformed into a Victorian rural cemetery with an arboretum of over 1,000 trees. More than 30,000 people are buried at the cemetery.
Henry Burk was a Republican member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Pennsylvania and Philadelphia businessman.
Horace Trumbauer was a prominent American architect of the Gilded Age, known for designing residential manors for the wealthy. Later in his career he also designed hotels, office buildings, and much of the campus of Duke University. Trumbauer's massive palaces flattered the egos of his "robber baron" clients, but were dismissed by his professional peers. His work made him a wealthy man, but his buildings rarely received positive critical recognition. Today, however, he is hailed as one of America's premier architects, with his buildings drawing critical acclaim even to this day.
Samuel Sloan was a Philadelphia-based architect and best-selling author of architecture books in the mid-19th century. He specialized in Italianate villas and country houses, churches, and institutional buildings. His most famous building—the octagonal mansion "Longwood" in Natchez, Mississippi—is unfinished; construction was abandoned during the American Civil War.
G. W. & W. D. Hewitt was a prominent architectural firm in the eastern United States at the turn of the twentieth century. It was founded in Philadelphia in 1878, by brothers George Wattson Hewitt (1841–1916) and William Dempster Hewitt (1847–1924), both members of the American Institute of Architects. The firm specialized in churches, hotels and palatial residences, especially crenelated mansions such as Maybrook (1881), Druim Moir (1885–86) and Boldt Castle (1900–04). The last was built for George C. Boldt, owner of Philadelphia's Bellevue-Stratford Hotel (1902–04), G.W. & W.D. Hewitt's most well-known building.
Theophilus Parsons Chandler Jr. was an American architect of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He spent his career at Philadelphia, and is best remembered for his churches and country houses. He founded the Department of Architecture at the University of Pennsylvania (1890), and served as its first head.
Wilson Eyre, Jr. was an American architect, teacher and writer who practiced in the Philadelphia area. He is known for his deliberately informal and welcoming country houses, and for being an innovator in the Shingle Style.
North Philadelphia station is an intercity rail and regional rail station on the Northeast Corridor, located on North Broad Street in the North Philadelphia neighborhood of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. The Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority's (SEPTA) Regional Rail Trenton Line and Chestnut Hill West Line account for most of the station's service. Five Amtrak trains – three southbound and two northbound – stop on weekdays only.
The Edwin Forrest House is a historic house and arts building at 1346 North Broad Street in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Built in 1853–54, it was from 1880 until 1960 home to the Philadelphia School of Design for Women, at one time one of the nation's largest art schools for women. The house was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1993 for this association.
Wilson Brothers & Company was a prominent Victorian-era architecture and engineering firm established in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, that was especially noted for its structural expertise. The brothers designed or contributed engineering work to hundreds of bridges, railroad stations and industrial buildings, including the principal buildings at the 1876 Centennial Exposition. They also designed churches, hospitals, schools, hotels and private residences. Among their surviving major works are the Pennsylvania Railroad, Connecting Railway Bridge over the Schuylkill River (1866–67), the main building of Drexel University (1888–91), and the train shed of Reading Terminal (1891–93), all in Philadelphia.
James Hamilton Windrim was a Philadelphia architect who specialized in public buildings.
Willis Gaylord Hale was a late-19th century architect who worked primarily in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His flamboyant, highly-ornate style was popular in the 1880s and 1890s, but quickly fell out of fashion at the dawn of the 20th century.
30th Street Station, officially William H. Gray III 30th Street Station, is an intermodal transit station in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is the metropolitan area's main railroad station, and is a major stop on Amtrak's Northeast and Keystone corridors. It doubles as a major commuter rail station; it is served by all Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA) Regional Rail lines, and is the western terminus for NJ Transit's Atlantic City Line. It is also served by several SEPTA city and suburban buses, as well as buses operated by NJ Transit, Amtrak Thruway, and intercity operators.
George Herzog was an American interior designer and decorative painter, best known for his work on Philadelphia Masonic Temple.
The Upholsterers International Union of North America was a North American labor union of upholsterers. It was founded in 1892 when eight small met at a conference in Chicago and agreed to combine. It affiliated with the American Federation of Labor in 1900. In 1929, a convention voted to change the name to Upholsterers, Carpet and Linoleum Mechanics' International Union of North America but the other name remained in common use. Their official organ was the Upholsters' Journal; as of 1936, it was estimated that they had 11,500 members.
{{cite journal}}
: Cite journal requires |journal=
(help)