Musical Fund Hall | |
Location | 808 Locust Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S. |
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Coordinates | 39°56′49″N75°9′18.3″W / 39.94694°N 75.155083°W |
Built | 1824 |
Architect | Multiple |
NRHP reference No. | 71000730 [1] |
Added to NRHP | March 11, 1971 |
The Musical Fund Hall is a landmark building of both architectural and historic significance located at 808 Locust Street in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The hall has hosted many notable speakers and events, including the first Republican National Convention from June 17 to 19, 1856.
In 1971, in recognition of the building's historical notability, it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
The building initially housed the First Presbyterian Church; it was converted into the largest musical auditorium in Philadelphia by William Strickland and opened in December 1824.
Noted for its fine acoustics, the Hall was described in a newspaper review of the first concert: "The room is exceedingly neat, and its decoration does honor to the taste of Mr. Strickland, an architect of whom Philadelphia may be justly proud. It is one hundred and six feet long, sixty feet wide, and twenty-six feet high, and is admirably calculated for the conveyance of sound..." [2] As it continued to serve as the leading concert hall in the city, the building was renovated in 1847 by Napoleon LeBrun and expanded by architect Addison Hutton in 1891.
Internationally notable musical artists, authors, and lecturers have appeared at Musical Fund Hall, including:
Renowned pianists such as Louis Gottschalk, Kossowski, Sigismond Thalberg, and Wolfsohn also appeared at the Hall.
In 1856, the first National Republican Convention was held at the Musical Fund Hall. John C. Frémont was nominated on the second ballot. William L. Dayton of New Jersey was the vice-presidential nominee.
With its busy and notable schedule of events, 1856 was the banner year for the Musical Fund Hall. By the end of the year, the 3,000-seat Philadelphia Academy of Music opened and immediately supplanted the Musical Fund Hall as the premier venue for concerts and lectures in the city. The Musical Fund Society moved its concerts to the Academy of Music in 1868.
After seeing use as (among other things) a boxing arena and a tobacco warehouse, the Hall was abandoned, then was converted into condominiums. As a result of the conversion, the auditorium no longer exists. The building was removed from the list of National Historic Landmarks but it retains a position on the National Register of Historic Places.
Around 1900, the society was a main proponent in creating the Philadelphia Orchestra. [3] In 1982, The Musical Fund Society's document collection including manuscripts of European music as well as music by Pennsylvania composers, went to the library of the University of Pennsylvania. [4] [5]
William Strickland was a noted architect and civil engineer in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and Nashville, Tennessee. A student of Benjamin Latrobe and mentor to Thomas Ustick Walter, Strickland helped establish the Greek Revival movement in the United States. A pioneering engineer, he wrote a seminal book on railroad construction, helped build several early American railroads, and designed the first ocean breakwater in the Western Hemisphere. He was elected as a member of the American Philosophical Society in 1820.
The Wagner Free Institute of Science is a natural history museum at 1700 West Montgomery Avenue in north Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Founded in 1855, it is a rare surviving example of a Victorian era scientific society, with a museum, research center, library, and educational facilities. Its buildings, developed between 1859 and 1901, present the collections of founder William Wagner in the style of the period, and have been designated a National Historic Landmark for their architecture and state of preservation.
The Academy of Music, also known as American Academy of Music, is a concert hall and opera house located at 240 S. Broad Street in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Despite its name, the Academy has never contained a music school. It is located between Locust and Manning Streets in the Avenue of the Arts area of Center City.
DAR Constitution Hall is a concert hall located at 1776 D Street NW, near the White House in Washington, D.C. It was built in 1929 by the Daughters of the American Revolution to house its annual convention when membership delegations outgrew Memorial Continental Hall. Later, the two buildings were connected by a third structure housing the DAR Museum, administrative offices, and genealogical library. DAR Constitution Hall is still owned and operated by the National Society of Daughters of the American Revolution. It was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1985. It has been a major cultural center of the city since its construction, and houses its largest auditorium.
The Stephen Collins Foster Memorial is a performing arts center and museum which houses the Stephen Foster Archives at the University of Pittsburgh in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA. It is dedicated to the life and works of American songwriter Stephen Foster.
John Notman was a Scottish-born American architect and landscape architect based in Philadelphia. He designed buildings, cemeteries, churches and country estates in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States and helped popularize Italianate architecture in the United States.
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.
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.
College Hall is the oldest building on the West Philadelphia campus of the University of Pennsylvania. Prior to its construction, the university was located on Ninth Street in Center City, Philadelphia. The building was designed by Thomas Webb Richards and completed in 1873. The characteristic green color of the building is due to its composition of green serpentine stone.
The First Unitarian Church of Philadelphia is a Unitarian Universalist congregation located at 2125 Chestnut Street in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. As a regional Community Center it sponsors cultural, educational, civic, wellness and spiritual activities.
St. Augustine Catholic Church, also called Olde St. Augustine's, is a historic Catholic church in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Consecrated in 1848, the Palladian-style church was designed by Napoleon LeBrun. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
The Fisher Fine Arts Library was the primary library of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia from 1891 to 1962. The red sandstone, brick-and-terra-cotta Venetian Gothic giant, part fortress and part cathedral, was designed by Philadelphia architect Frank Furness (1839–1912).
The Wyck house, also known as the Haines house or Hans Millan house, is a historic mansion, museum, garden, and urban farm in the Germantown neighborhood of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was recognized as a National Historic Landmark in 1971 for its well-preserved condition and its documentary records, which span nine generations of a single family.
The John Coltrane House is a historic house at 1511 North 33rd Street in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. A National Historic Landmark, it was the home of American saxophonist and jazz pioneer John Coltrane from 1952 until 1958. On his death in 1967 the house passed to his cousin, who sold it in 2004. Efforts for restoration and reuse as a jazz venue are struggling. In 2022, two of Coltrane's sons filed a lawsuit contesting the ownership of the home.
The Merchants' Exchange Building is an historic building which is located on the triangular site bounded by Dock, 3rd and Walnut Streets in the Old City neighborhood of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was designed by architect William Strickland, in the Greek Revival style, the first national American architectural style and built between 1832 and 1834. It operated as a brokerage house in the nineteenth century, but by 1875 the Philadelphia Stock Exchange had taken the place of the Merchants' Exchange.
The Musical Fund Society is one of the oldest musical societies in the United States founded in February 1820 by Benjamin Carr, Raynor Taylor, George Schetky and Benjamin Cross, and the painter Thomas Sully. Its first public concert on April 22, 1821 and featured Beethoven’s 2nd Symphony.
Addison Hutton (1834–1916) was a Philadelphia architect who designed prominent residences in Philadelphia and its suburbs, plus courthouses, hospitals, and libraries, including the Ridgway Library, now Philadelphia High School for the Creative and Performing Arts, and the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. He made major additions to the campuses of Westtown School, George School, Swarthmore College, Bryn Mawr College, Haverford College, and Lehigh University.
The College of Physicians of Philadelphia is the oldest private medical society in the United States. Founded in 1787 by 24 Philadelphia physicians "to advance the Science of Medicine, and thereby lessen human misery, by investigating the diseases and remedies which are peculiar to our country" and to promote "order and uniformity in the practice of Physick," it has made important contributions to medical education and research. The College hosts the Mütter Museum, a gallery of 19th-century specimens, teaching models, instruments, and photographs, as well as the Historical Medical Library, which is one of the country's oldest medical libraries.
Locust Street is a major historic street in Center City Philadelphia. The street is the location of several prominent Philadelphia-based buildings, historic sights, and high-rise residential locations. It is an east–west street throughout Center City Philadelphia and runs largely parallel to Chestnut Street, another major Center City Philadelphia street.