Category Archives: SPECIAL TOPICS

Ruth and Raymond G. Perelman Building (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA)

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Ruth and Raymond G. Perelman Building

The landmark Ruth and Raymond G. Perelman Building, an annex of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, is a focus for learning, connoisseurship, and sheer enjoyment of works of art and an important catalyst for the Philadelphia region’s ongoing cultural renaissance. Its style reflects the moment of transition from early twentieth-century historicism to the geometric Art Deco design of the 1920s and 1930s.

Skylit Walkway

Set within a lively urban neighborhood and occupying a trapezoid-shaped, two-acre site bordered by Pennsylvania and Fairmount Avenues and 25th and 26th Streets, it faces the main building of the Philadelphia Museum of Art across Kelly Drive and is among the most distinctive architectural structures along the Benjamin Franklin Parkway.

Julien Levy Gallery

The Perelman Building, one of the finest Art Deco structures in Philadelphia, was designed by the Philadelphia architectural firm Zantzinger, Borie and Medary (together with architects Horace Trumbauer and Julian Abele, they also designed the Museum’s main building) to be the headquarters for Fidelity Mutual Life Insurance Company which occupied the building until 1972.

The Valley (2006, Kelli Connell) – Julien Levy Gallery

Its color advisor was the scholar Leon Solon who also advised the Philadelphia Museum of Art on the color scheme of its celebrated glazed terra cotta decoration and pediment. Its decorative scheme was created by sculptor Lee Lawrie (1877–1963) whose work also adorns the Rockefeller Center, the Library of Congress and the National Academy of Sciences.

The Mountain Nymph Sweet Liberty (1866, carbon print, Julia Margaret Cameron) – Julien Levy Gallery

Construction of the building began in 1926 and, upon completion in 1928, was called “the Gateway to Fairmount Park.”  The original structure had 125,000 sq. ft. of interior space. In 1973, the structure was listed in the National Register of Historic Places, and in 1980 in the Philadelphia Register of Historic Places.

Call and I Follow, Let Me Die (1867, carbon print, Julia Margaret Cameron) – Julien Levy Gallery

In 1982, the building was acquired and restored by the Reliance Standard Life Insurance Company which, in turn, relocated in 1999. That same year, the Philadelphia Museum of Art acquired the building through the City of Philadelphia. In 2000, in recognition of the US$15 million contributed by the Perelmans, the annex was renamed the Ruth and Raymond G. Perelman Building.

Collab Gallery

In anticipation of the museum’s 125th anniversary in 2001, Gluckman Mayner Architects was selected for the restoration and renovation of the historic building, In October 2004, following a groundbreaking celebration for its donors (US$240 million in donations were collected), the major construction began in earnest and the original building was expanded by a 5,500 m2 (59,000 sq. ft.) addition (a library; a café overlooking a landscaped terrace; a new bookstore; a soaring skylit walkway; etc.).  The Perelman Building was opened on September 15, 2007.

The elaborate polychrome façade, the most elaborately sculpted facade of any twentieth-century building in the city of Philadelphia, is built with Indiana limestone highlighted with color and gilding and lavishly decorated with Egyptian-inspired sculpture of flora and fauna symbolizing attributes of insurance – owl (wisdom), dog (fidelity), pelican (charity), opossum (protection) and the squirrel (frugality). There are also numerous other reliefs such as the Seven Ages of Man and the Perils of Land, Sea, and Air on the Earth’s Four Great Continents. 

Joan Spain Gallery

The building’s north and south pavilions are joined by a soaring, cathedral-like arched main entrance facing the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, a celebrated example of Philadelphia’s inspired urban planning of which the building was designed to be an integral part. It also has gleaming rows of windows and a bright interior.

The Perelman Building has now been dramatically recast in a new role as the gateway to the future for the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the first phase of a master plan to expand and modernize the Museum. The new six galleries, totaling 190 m2 (2,000 sq. ft.) of exhibition space, and study centers showcase some of the Museum’s most comprehensive, colorful, and cutting-edge collections. The galleries are:

  • The Julien Levy Gallery – dedicated to photographs from the museum’s collection of over 150,000 prints, drawings, and photographs.
  • The Joan Spain Gallery – dedicated to exhibition of the museum’s costume and textiles collection, which has over 30,000 works.
  • The Collab Gallery – shows modern and contemporary design art ranging from furniture to ceramics.
  • The Exhibition Gallery – hosts changing special exhibitions.
  • Two study galleries provide resources to art scholars (available to the public by appointment) and an educational resource center for teachers.
  • The museum library – holds collections of art books and periodicals on the first floor and a reading room on the second floor

Monument to Victor Hugo (Auguste Rodin)

Like the main museum building, the Rodin Museum, and two historic houses in Fairmount Park (Mount Pleasant and Cedar Grove), the Ruth and Raymond G. Perelman Building is owned by the City of Philadelphia.

Cafe

Ruth and Raymond G. Perelman Building: Fairmount and Pennsylvania Aves., Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Second Bank of the United States Building (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.A.) 

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Second Bank of the United States Building

The Second Bank of the United States, the second federally authorized Hamiltonian national bank in the United States during its 20-year charter (February 1816 to January 1836), was modeled on Alexander Hamilton‘s First Bank of the United States and was chartered by President James Madison in 1816.

National Historic Site Plaque

The Second Bank of the United States was designed by architect William Strickland (1788–1854), a former student of Benjamin Latrobe (1764–1820), the man who is often called the first professionally trained American architect.

Portrait Gallery in the Second Bank of the United States

Like Latrobe, Strickland was a disciple of the stylistic Greek Revival style, designing this building (in essence based on the Parthenon in Athens, Greece) as well as other American public buildings in this style, including financial structures such as the New Orleans, Dahlonega, Mechanics National Bank (also in Philadelphia) and Charlotte branch mints in the mid-to-late 1830s, as well as the second building for the main U.S. Mint in Philadelphia in 1833.

The hallmarks of this  significant early and monumental example of Greek Revival architecture can be seen immediately in the north and south façades, which use a large set of steps leading up to the stylobate, the main level platform, on top of which Strickland placed 8 severe Doric columns, which are crowned by an entablature containing a triglyph frieze and simple triangular pediment.

In the center of the north façade is an entrance hallway, leading into two central rooms one after the other (spanning the width of the structure east to west), flanked by two rooms on either side. The east and west sides of the first large room are each pierced by large arched fan window.

Carved Pine Statue of George Washington (William Rush, 1814)

Built from 1819 to 1824, Pennsylvania blue marble was used in the building’s exterior.  Due to the manner in which it was cut, the weak parts of the marble has begun to deteriorate from the exposure to the elements, most visible on the Doric columns of the south façade.

Tayendanegea – Joseph Brant (Charles Wilson Peale, Oil on Canvas, 1797)

The bank began operations at its main branch in Philadelphia on January 7, 1817, managing 25 branch offices nationwide by 1832. After the bank closed in 1841, the building changed hands and function.  It eventually became the Custom House in Philadelphia resulting in some changes to the interior and exterior of the building.

John Witherspoon (Charles Wilson Peale, Oil on Canvas, 1783-1784)

Except for the barrel vaulted ceiling, the marble columns in the main banking room and the side flue fireplaces, little remains of the building’s original interior design.  Still, for its architectural and historic significance, the building was designated as a National Historic Landmark in 1987.

Marquis De Lafayette (Thomas Sully, 1825-1826)

The edifice, now part of Independence National Historical Park in Philadelphia, houses the Portrait Gallery, an art gallery housing the large, permanent “People of Independence” exhibit, a collection of over 150 portraits of prominent 18th and 19th century political leaders, military officers, explorers and scientists, all worthy Personages” who, according to noted artist Charles Willson Peale (his more than 100 portraits form the core of the collection), exhibited the republican virtues of public-spiritedness, self-sacrifice, and civic virtue.

George Washington (Rembrandt Peale, Oil on Canvas, 1848)

These portraits, as well as other works by his son Rembrandt and his brother James, were once exhibited in Peale’s Philadelphia Museum, located on the second floor of Independence Hall. Peale died in 1828 and his museum was struggling financially.

Bust of Benjamin Franklin

In 1848, at auction, the City of Philadelphia purchased 86 of Peale’s portraits. Through the years, additional portraits have been added to the collection including a number by British pastel artists James and Ellen Sharples.

James Peale

Second Bank of the United States: Chestnut Street, between 4th and 5th Streets, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.A.  Admission is free.  Through September 3, 2018, open daily 11 AM – 5 PM; September 4 – 30, 2018, open Wednesday – Sunday, 11 AM – 5 PM; October 1 – December 31, 2018, open Saturday – Sunday, 11 AM – 5 PM.

Cathedral Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA)

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Cathedral Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul

The beautiful and historic Cathedral Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul,  the head church of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Philadelphia (raised to the rank of an archdiocese in 1875), was built from 1846-1864. The cathedral was the site of two papal Masses

The grand Palladian facade

Here are some interesting trivia regarding this cathedral:

  • The cathedral is the largest Catholic church in Pennsylvania
  • It is the largest brownstone structure and one of the most architecturally notable structures in the city of Philadelphia.
  • Presented in a Roman–Corinthian style of architecture, the cathedral was modeled after the Lombard Church of St. Charles (San Carlo al Corso) in Rome.
  • It is 250 ft. long, 136 ft. wide and approximately 156 ft. high from the floor to the top of the dome (209 ft. from the floor to the top of the 11-foot gold cross atop the dome and  314 ft. from the pavement).
  • It was designed by Napoleon LeBrun (a native Philadelphian born to French-Catholic parents) from original plans by the Rev. Mariano Muller and the Rev. John B. Tornatore.
  • The brownstone facing, now atmosphere and weather-worn and pinkish in color, originally came from quarries in Connecticut and northern New Jersey.
  • The cathedral’s pipe organ, one of the largest in Philadelphia, has 75 ranks of pipes, 90 stops and 4,648 pipes on 4 manuals and pedals.
  • According to local lore and the parish’s history, the Philadelphia Nativist Riots, which represented the height of Anti-Catholicism and Know-Nothingism in Philadelphia, greatly influenced the design of the building. The light-colored, tinted clerestory  windows were built very high to inhibit vandalism from possible future riots (Legend has it that the architect and construction workers would throw stones into the air to determine the height of where the windows would be placed).

Here’s the historical timeline of the cathedral:

  • On September 6, 1846, it, the cornerstone of the cathedral, a gift of Mr. James McClarnan, was laid in the presence of some 8,000 persons.
  • From 1846 to 1851, LeBrun supervised the project
  • In 1851, by John Notman (noted for his Philadelphia ecclesiastical architecture) took over the supervision of the project
  • In 1857, LeBrun’s again supervised its construction.
  • On November 20, 1864, the cathedral was dedicated and solemnly blessed, with Bishop James Wood officiating.
  • On July 6, 1877, the altars, dedicated to the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary and the Sacred Heart, were blessed.
  • On June 30, 1890, it was solemnly consecrated.
  • From 1914-1915, Arch. Henry D. Dagit completely renovated the cathedral interior under the direction of Archbishop Edmond F. Prendergast, adding the apse behind the High Altar, while D’Ascenzo Studios executed the apse’s stained glass windows and mosaic murals.
  • During the 1955-1957 renovation and expansion, semicircular apse was built to extend the sanctuary to its present depth of 54 ft.; lower stained glass windows were added to the new sanctuary apse (added with a stained glass window, from Conmick of Boston, depicting the Baptism of Jesus by St. John the Baptist and Sts. Peter and Paul baptizing prisoners in the Mamertine prison in Rome with water from a miraculous spring) and baptistery; and cast bronze doors (leading from the main façade into the narthex, or vestibule) and bronze handrails (along with the doors of the Race Street entrance to the cathedral) were installed.
  • On June 24, 1971, the cathedral was listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places.
  • On October 3, 1979, Pope John Paul II celebrated a Papal Mass here.
  • On September 26, 2015, Pope Francis celebrated a Papal Mass here.

The cathedral’s aqua oxidized-copper vaulted dome, rising 156 ft. above the floor, and grand Palladian facade, designed by Notman in the Italian Renaissance manner, were added after 1850.

Commemorative Plaque of Pope John Paul II Visit

The old chapel on the north side of the basilica that was built in 1856 was replaced the Chapel of Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament which was dedicated on October 11, 1955, the Feast of the Maternity of Our Lady.

The cathedral’s doors

The building’s main façade, graced by four massive, 60 ft. high (6 ft. in diameter) Corinthian columns, has niches with bronze statues of the Sacred Heart (to whom the diocese was consecrated by Bishop Wood on October 15, 1873); Mary, the Immaculate Conception (proclaimed patroness of the United States at the First Council of Baltimore in 1846, it was sculpted at the Joseph Sibbel Studios and installed in 1918); and Saints Peter and Paul, (the patrons of the Cathedral Basilica) both sculpted in the Gorham Studios.

The spacious interior

The spacious interior, largely decorated by Constantino Brumidi (a Greek/Italian-American painter best known for his murals in the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C.), features an oversized apse of stained glass and red antique marble in proportions reminiscent of Roman churches. The two large paintings, The Ascension of our Lord and the Adoration of the Kings from the East, decorate the ends of the transept.

Painting of “Adoration of the Kings from the East”

The 50 ft. wide and 192 ft. long great nave, lighted by bronze chandeliers weighing a half ton each, has a vaulted ceiling rising 80 ft. above the floor. The nave and transept are separated from the side aisles by massive pillars (which give way to arched recesses for altars and the baptistery) while a white marble altar rail, with three bronze gates, separate them from the sanctuary.

Painting of “The Ascension of Our Lord”

The Assumption of the Virgin into Heaven (1868), the striking oil on canvas ceiling mural in the dome, the pendentives and the portraits of St. Matthew (Angel), St. Mark (Lion), St. Luke (Winged Ox) and St. John (Eagle) in the medallions on the spandrels at the base of the dome, were painted by Brumidi. At the dome’s next level are panel paintings entitled Angels of The Passion (with each group of angels is an emblem of the Passion).

The dome

The ornate main altar, built with Botticino marble with Mandorlato rose marble trim, and the three altars, on each of the side aisles, point to an Italian Renaissance flavor. The front of the main altar is decorated by 3 gilded bronze discs, the central one bearing the HIS, the Greek inscription of Jesus Christ.

The High Altar

The 38 ft. high baldachin (or canopy) over the altar, of antique Italian marble, is surmounted by a semicircular bronze dome, the underside of which is a marble mosaic whose central figure is a dove, the symbol of the Holy Spirit.

The baldachin

The mosaic carries in Latin an inscription which translates: “In every place there is offered and sacrificed in My Name a clean oblation.” White, 10 ft. high, Italian marble angels, its decorative rosettes of Botticino marble, stand at the corners of the baldachin.

Two side altars are dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary and the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

Shrine of St. Katharine Drexel

The shrines dedicated to St. Katharine Drexel and St. John Neumann have 7-ft. high sculpted marble statues of these recent saints.

St. John Neumann Altar & Shrine

St. Katharine’s shrine retains the original altar donated in the 19th century by St. Katharine herself, along with her sisters, Elizabeth and Louise, as a memorial to their deceased parents, Francis and Emma Drexel.

Memorial altar to Archbishop Ryan

The memorial altar to Archbishop Patrick John Ryan, to the right of the altar dedicated to St. Katharine Drexel, was designed with the ancient Celtic Cross, to the left of which is the statue of St. Patrick while to the right is the statue of St. John the Evangelist.

Altar dedicated to the Holy Souls

The altar on the south side, between the Shrine to Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal and the baptistery, is dedicated to the Holy Souls and was modeled after the Blessed Sacrament altar in St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome. The Shrine to Our Lady of Guadalupe, installed in December 2009, was the thought of Cardinal Justin Francis Rigali.

Shrine to Our Lady of Guadalupe

The choir stalls and the Cardinal’s chair, both of American black walnut, have wooden screens inspired by the famous metal rejería found in many cathedrals in Spain. The octagonal pulpit, opposite the Cardinal’s chair, has a carved walnut canopy and was constructed with marble matching the altar.

Mural of Blessed Mary’s Assumption

The baptistery, enclosed by a bronze screen inspired by a similar one in the Cathedral of Toledo in Spain, has the coat-of-arms of Cardinal John Francis O’Hara (carrying his motto in Latin “If you follow her you shall not go astray”) set into the top center of the screen.

The choir loft

The altar dedicated to the Holy Souls, to the left of the baptistery, is modeled after the Blessed Sacrament Altar in St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome. The main sanctuary and eight side chapels can comfortably seat approximately 1,240 worshippers (1,500 with added temporary chairs) in pews of walnut wood. The confessionals, their privacy secured by red velvet curtains, have a walnut finish while the floor is of white and black marble tiles.

The pipe organ

The choir loft, at the rear of the cathedral, has a richly ornamental organ screen (or casing) designed by Otto R. Eggers (who also designed the Jefferson Memorial, the Mellon Art Gallery, and the National Gallery of Art, all in Washington, D.C.) and built with carved walnut. The casing which encloses the pipes is one of the most outstanding in the country. High above the screen is a majestic stained glass window of the Crucifixion. The case enclosing the organ was most likely built by Edwin Forrest Durang, one of the cathedral architects and builders.

A mural (north), designed by Leandro Velasco, depicts people and events in the Church’s involvement with Pennsylvania history. At the top are the coats of arms of Pope Paul VI and John Cardinal Krol, and the bottom is the symbol of the 41st Eucharistic Congress, Philadelphia, 1976. The historic scenes are of George Washington and members of the Continental Congress at Old St. Mary’s Church; St. Katharine Drexel, Sisters of St. Joseph caring for the wounded on the Gettysburg battlefield; and Commodore Barry, founder of the United States Navy.

The statues of St. Peter (south side/rear) and St. Paul (north side/rear), the patrons of the cathedral, were moved from the now closed Church of the Most Blessed Sacrament and installed inside the cathedral in August 2009.

Another mural (south) by Leandro Velasco

In the bowels of the building, under the main altar of the cathedral, is the compact “Crypt of the Bishops” with the remains of most of the bishops and archbishops, as well as several other clergymen, of Philadelphia. The crypt, reached by stairs behind the main altar, is the final resting place of:

  • Michael Francis Egan, O.S.F. – the first Bishop of Philadelphia, he was consecrated on October 28, 1810 and died in 1814.
  • Henry Conwell – second Bishop of Philadelphia, he was consecrated 1820. He died on April 22, 1842.
  • Francis Patrick Kenrick – the third Bishop of Philadelphia, he was elevated to Archbishop of Baltimore in 1851. He died in 1863.
  • James Frederick Wood – the fifth Bishop, he became the first Archbishop of Philadelphia in 1875. He died on June 20, 1882.
  • Patrick John Ryan the sixth Bishop, he was the second Archbishop of Philadelphia. He died on February 3, 1911.
  • Edmond Prendergast – the seventh Bishop, he was the third Archbishop of Philadelphia. He died on February 26, 1918.
  • Dennis Joseph Dougherty – the eighth Bishop, he was the fourth Archbishop of Philadelphia and the first to be elevated to Cardinal. He died on May 31, 1951.
  • John Krol– the tenth Bishop, he was the sixth Archbishop of Philadelphia and the third to be elevated to Cardinal. He died on March 3, 1996.
  • Anthony Joseph Bevilacqua – the eleventh Bishop, he was the seventh Archbishop of Philadelphia and the fourth to be elevated to Cardinal. He died on January 31, 2012.
  • Ames J. Carroll – bishop who died in 1913.
  • Francis I. Clark – bishop who died in 1918.
  • Cletus Benjamin – bishop who died on May 15, 1961.
  • Gerald P. O’Hara – bishop who died on July 16, 1963
  • Gerald V. McDevitt – bishop who died on September 29, 1980.
  • Francis Patrick O’Neill – pastor of St. James, Philadelphia, 1843–1882, died 1882.
  • Maurice Walsh – pastor of St. Paul’s Philadelphia (1832–1888) who died in 1888.
  • James Corcoran – professor at Saint Charles Seminary who died in 1889.
  • Francis Brennan – Prefect of the Sacred Congregation for the Discipline of the Sacraments,he was the first American to receive an appointment to the Roman Curia. He died on July 2, 1968.
  • John Patrick Foley – President of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications, he was the seventh Philadelphia priest to be elevated to Cardinal. He died on December 11, 2011.

Cathedral Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul: 18th St. & Benjamin Franklin Parkway, (opposite Logan Square) Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19103.  Tel: (215) 561-1313. Open daily, Mondays to Fridays,  7:30 AM to 5 PM; Saturdays, 9 AM to 5:15 PM; Sundays, 8 AM to 5 PM.

Rodin Museum (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.A.)

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Rodin Museum

The Rodin Museum, an art museum containing one of the largest collections of sculptor Auguste Rodin‘s works outside Paris, is administered by the Philadelphia Museum of Art.  Our entrance ticket to the Philadelphia Museum of Art also included entry to this museum but it just so happened to be closed, it being a Tuesday. However, the Dorrance H. Hamilton Garden, just outside the Museum displays eight of Rodin’s works.

Check out “Philadelphia Museum of Art”

The author in front of the Meudon Gate

The only dedicated Rodin Museum outside France, it houses a distinguished  collection of nearly 150 objects containing bronzes, marbles, and plasters by Auguste Rodin, representing every phase of his career.

The elegant Beaux-Arts–style building and garden, nestled between the Philadelphia Museum of Art’s main building the Free Library of Philadelphia (opened its central Logan Square location in 1927), was the gift of founder, entrepreneur and philanthropist Jules E. Mastbaum (1872–1926) to the city of Philadelphia.

This movie-theater magnate began collecting works by Rodin in 1923 with the intent of founding a museum to enrich the lives of his fellow citizens. Within just three years, he had assembled the largest collection of Rodin’s works outside Paris, including bronze castings, plaster studies, drawings, prints, letters and books.

In 1926, Mastbaum commissioned French architect Paul Cret (1876–1945) and French landscape designer Jacques Gréber (1882–1962) to design the unique ensemble of Beaux-Arts building and formal French gardens.  The murals inside the museum were executed by the painter Franklin C. Watkins.

Dorrance H. Hamilton Garden

However, Mastbaum did not live to see his dream realized, but Etta Wedell Mastbaum, his widow, honored his commitment to the city, and the Museum opened on November 29, 1929. It was immediately embraced and celebrated and, in its first year, drew over 390,000 visitors, including poet and dramatist Paul Claudel, the French Ambassador to the U.S..

Adam, a bronze cast of an 1880-81 statue made by Rodin

In 2012, the museum re-opened after a three-year, US$9 million renovation that brought the museum back to its original vision of displaying Rodin’s works. Today, the Rodin Museum is one of the defining icons of Philadelphia.

The Gates of Hell, standing at 6 m. high, 4 m. wide and 1 m. deep (19.7×13.1×3.3 ft.), contains 180 figures, several of which were also cast as independent free-standing statues, and depicts a scene from the Inferno, the first section of Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy.

Visitors once entered through The Gates of Hell, a massive 5.5-m-tall bronze doorway (which is no longer used) that was originally created for the Museum of Decorative Arts (which was to have been located in Paris but never came into existence).

The Thinker. Its pose is one of deep thought and contemplation. The statue is often used as an image to represent philosophy.

From 1880 until his death in 1917, Rodin sculpted more than 100 figures for these doors. This casting is one of the three originals; several others have been made since. Several of his most famous works, including The Thinker (1880–1882), the best-known of Rodin’s worksfirst seen as an independent work in 1883, are actually studies for these doors which were later expanded into separate works.

The Three Shades(Les Trois Ombres) are a sculptural group of three identical figures gathered around a central point, produced in plaster in 1886 for his The Gates of Hell, .

For the first time since 1963, recent advances in conservation, undertaken by the Philadelphia Museum of Art, have permitted the return of Adam and The Shade to their original places within the arches of the Meudon Gate.

Meudon Gate, the museum’s portico, with Adam and The Shade located within the arches.

The Age of Bronze  (Rodin’s breakthrough sculpture) and Eve has also returned to the niches they once occupied on either side of the museum’s portico overlooking the reflecting pool. A version of the monumental The Three Shades, a generous loan from Iris and B. Gerald Cantor, sits on the building’s west side in a space that was vacant for most of the last eighty years.

The Burghers of Calais (1895). This bronze figure group commemorates six merchants of Calais who offered themselves as hostages to Edward III after he besieged the city for almost a year in 1347.

The museum’s several rooms house many more of the artist’s works, including The Kiss (1886), Eternal Springtime, which Rodin had presented to Robert Louis Stevenson in 1885, The Age of Bronze (1875–76), and The Burghers of Calais, a monument commissioned by the City of Calais in 1884.

NOTE:

In 2019, the Rodin Museum mounted a two-year special exhibition titled Rethinking the Modern Monument.  Curated by Alexander Kauffman, it paired 16 works from the Philadelphia Museum of Art with selected Rodin sculptures. The special exhibition featured bronze sculptures by Jean Arp, Barbara Hepworth, Jacques Lipchitz, Marino Marini, Chana Orloff, and Alberto Giacometti, among others.

 

Rodin Museum: 2151 Benjamin Franklin Parkway (at 22nd Street), Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Open Wednesdays –Mondays,, 10 AM.–5 PM. Tel: (215) 763-8100.  Website:
www.rodinmuseum.org.  Coordinates: 39.962°N 75.174°W. 

How to Get There:  SEPTA bus: 7, 32, 38, 48, 49, Philly PHLASH; Suburban Station.

Philadelphia Museum of Art (Pennsylvania, USA)

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Philadelphia Museum of Art

This art museum, originally chartered in 1876 for the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia, has impressive collections containing over 240,000 objects in over 200 galleries spanning 2,000 years. It includes major holdings of European, American and Asian origin, showing the creative achievements of the Western world since the first century BC and those of Asia since the third millennium AD.

The various classes of artwork include sculpture; paintings; prints; drawings; photographs;, arms and armor; and decorative arts.

The author

Standouts include a great Rogier van der Weyden altarpiece, the large The Bathers by Paul Cezanne, a room devoted to Philadelphia’s own realist painter Thomas Eakins, and the notorious mixed-media Bride Stripped Bare by her Bachelors (most often called The Large Glass), exactly as the Dada master Marcel Duchamp installed it.

Prometheus Strangling the Vulture (Bronze, Jacques Lipchitz, cast 1952-53)

Upstairs are over 80 period rooms, from a Medieval cloister to an Indian temple.  In recent years, the museum has helped to organize shows,  from Paul Cezanne and Edgar Degas to Constantin Brancusi and Barnett Newman.

Jandy in front of a choir screen from the chapel of the chateau of Pagny

The main museum building, on Fairmount, a rocky hill topped by the city’s main reservoir located at the northwest end of the Benjamin Franklin Parkway (formerly Fairmount Parkway) at Eakins Oval, was completed in 1928.

Entrance Lobby

The museum administers several annexes including the Rodin Museum, also located on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, and the Ruth and Raymond G. Perelman Building (opened in 2007), which is located across the street just north of the main building.

Check out “Rodin Museum” and “Ruth and Raymond G. Perelman Building“

Botanist Take a Core Sample of a 350 year old Redwood Tree, Redwood National Park, California (2008)

Bright Angel Point, Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona (2008)

The main museum building and its annexes, owned by the City of Philadelphia, are administered by a registered nonprofit corporation.

Allegory of the Schuykill River – Water Nymph and Bittern (William Rush)

La Premiere Pose (Howard Roberts)

The Philadelphia Museum of Art also administers the historic colonial-era houses of Mount Pleasant and Cedar Grove, both located in Fairmount Park.

Dying Centaur (Bronze, William Rimmer, 1967)

Mother and Child II (Bronze, Jacques Lipchitz, 1941)

Every year, several special exhibitions are held in the museum including touring exhibitions arranged with other museums in the United States and abroad.

The Birth of Venus (Nicolas Poussin)

Head of a Woman and Flowers (Oil on canvas, Gustave Courbet, 1871)

The final design of the main building, in the form of three linked Greek temples, is mostly credited to two architects in the architectural firms of Horace Trumbauer and Zantzinger, Borie and Medary – Howell Lewis Shay for the building’s plan and massing, and chief designer Julian Abele for the detail work and perspective drawings.

Virgin and Child in a Landscape (Oil on panel, 1500)

Still Life with a Tortoise (Oil on canvas, possibly by Thomas Black, 1743)

Abele, the first African-American student to graduate (in 1902) from the University of Pennsylvania‘s Department of Architecture (now known as Penn’s School of Design) adapted Classical Greek temple columns for the design of the museum entrances, and was responsible for the colors of both the building stone and the figures added to one of the pediments.

Western Civilization (1933, Paul Jennewein, colored by Leon V. Solon)

In 1919, construction of the main building began when Mayor Thomas B. Smith laid the cornerstone in a Masonic ceremony. The building was constructed with dolomite quarried in Minnesota. Because of shortages caused by World War I and other delays, the new building was not completed until 1928.

Interior.  At the top of the stairs is a statue of Diana (Gilded copper sheets, Augustus Saint Gaudens, 1892-93)

To help assure the continued funding for the completion of the design, the wings were intentionally built first and, once the building’s exterior was completed, 20 second-floor galleries containing English and American art opened to the public on March 26, 1928, though a large amount of interior work was incomplete. The building is also adorned by a collection of bronze griffins, which were adopted as the symbol of the museum in the 1970s.

Apollo (Terra cotta model cast in bronze after 1715, Francois Girardon)

Statue of Summer as Ceres (Jacques-Augustin Pajou)

Here are some interesting trivia regarding this museum:

  • In 2016, 775,043 people visited the museum, ranking it among the top one hundred most-visited art museums in the world.
  • Based on gallery space, the museum is also one of the largest art museums in the world.
  • It is the third-largest art museum in the country.
  • The building’s eight pediments were intended to be adorned with sculpture groups but one, “Western Civilization” (1933) by  Paul Jennewein, and colored by Leon V. Solon, has been completed. This sculpture group, awarded the Medal of Honor of the Architectural League of New York, features polychrome sculptures of painted terra-cotta figures, depicting Greek deities and mythological figures.
  • Due to a partnership, enacted early in the museum’s history, between the museum and the University of Pennsylvania,  the museum does not have any galleries devoted to Egyptian, Roman, or Pre-Columbian art. The university loaned the museum its collection of Chinese porcelain, and the museum loaned a majority of its Roman, Pre-Columbian, and Egyptian pieces to the university. However, the museum still retains a few important pieces for special exhibitions.
  • In recent decades, the Philadelphia Museum of Art has become known due to the role it played in the Rocky films—Rocky (1976) and five of its six sequels, II, III, V, Rocky Balboa and Creed. Rocky Balboa‘s (portrayed by Sylvester Stallone) famous run up the 72 steps of the east entrance stairs (informally nicknamed the Rocky Steps) is often mimicked by  visitors to the museum.  The museum’s stairs has been named by Screen Junkies as the second most famous movie location behind only Grand Central Station in New York.
  • For the filming of Rocky III, a 2.6 m. (8.5 ft.) tall bronze statue of the Rocky Balboa character, created in 1980, was placed at the top of the museum’s front stairs in 1982 (and again for the film Rocky V). After filming was complete, Stallone donated the statue to the city of Philadelphia. In 2006, the statue was relocated, from the now-defunct Spectrum sports arena, to a new display area on the north side of the base of the stairs.

Jandy and the author in front of the bronze statue of the Rock Balboa character

Here’s a historical timeline of the museum’s collections:

  • Its permanent collection began with objects from the 1876 Centennial Exposition (America’s first World’s Fair) and gifts from the public impressed with the exhibition’s ideals of good design and craftsmanship.
  • After the Pennsylvania Museum and School of Industrial Art was opened on May 10, 1877, European and Japanese fine and decorative art objects and books for the museum’s library were among the first donations.
  • Starting in 1882, Clara Jessup Moore donated a remarkable collection of antique furniture, enamels, carved ivory, jewelry, metalwork, glass, ceramics, books, textiles and paintings.
  • In 1893 Anna H. Wilstach bequeathed a large painting collection, including many American paintings, and an endowment of US$500 million for additional purchases.
  • Within a few years, works by James Abbott McNeill Whistler and George Inness were purchased
  • In 1894, the Countess de Brazza’s lace collection was acquired, forming the nucleus of the lace collection.
  • In 1899,Henry Ossawa Tanner‘s The Annunciation was bought.
  • In 1942, E. Gallatin accepted an offer from the Philadelphia Museum of Art to provide a home for his collection. Within a few months 175 works from his collection were moved to Philadelphia.
  • In 1945, the estate of George Grey Barnard sold his second collection to the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
  • On December 27, 1950, after protracted discussions and many visits from Director Fiske Kimball and his wife Marie, Louise and Walter Arensberg presented their collection of over 1000 objects to the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
  • Shortly after her 1956 wedding to Prince Rainier of Monaco, Philadelphian Grace Kelly donated her wedding dress to the museum.
  • Extensive renovation of the building lasted from the 1960s through 1976. Major acquisitions included the Carroll S. Tyson, Jr. and Samuel S. White III and Vera White collections, 71 objects from designer Elsa Schiaparelli, and Marcel Duchamp‘s Étant donnés.
  • In 1980, the museum acquired After the Bath by Edgar Degas.
  • In 1986, the art collection of John D. McIlhenny was bequeathed to museum. It includes masterpieces such as Ingres’s ”Comtesse de Tournon,” Delacroix’s 1844 version of ”The Death of Sardanapalus,” Degas’s ”Interior” of 1888-89,” Mary Cassatt at the Louvre” and ”Woman Drying Herself,” Cezanne’s portrait of his wife, van Gogh’s ”Rain,” Seurat’s ”Trombone Player: Study for ‘La Parade,” Toulouse-Lautrec’s ”At the Moulin Rouge” and Matisse’s ”Still Life on Table – The Pineapple” (1925)
  • In 1989, the museum acquired Fifty Days at Iliam by Cy Twombly.

Death of Sardanapalus (Oil on canvas, Eugene Delacroix, 1844)

Making a Train (Oil on canvas, Seymour Joseph Guy, 1867)

The Asian collection is highlighted by paintings and sculpture from China, Japan and India; furniture and decorative arts (including major collections of Chinese, Japanese and Korean ceramics); a large and distinguished group of Persian and Turkish carpets; and rare and authentic architectural assemblages such as a Chinese palace hall, a Japanese teahouse, and a 16th-century Indian temple hall.

The Bride of Lammermoor (Oil on panel, Sir Edwin Landseer, 1830)

Basket of Fruit (Oil on canvas, Edouard Manet, 1864)

Dating from the medieval era to the present, the European collection encompasses Italian and Flemish early-Renaissance masterworks; strong representations of later European paintings (including French Impressionism and Post-Impressionism); sculpture (with a special concentration in the works of Auguste Rodin); decorative arts; tapestries; furniture; and period rooms and architectural settings ranging from the facade of a medieval church in Burgundy to a superbly decorated English drawing room by Robert Adam.

Arms and Armor.  At center is the Portrait of a Nobleman with Duelling Gauntlet (1562)

The comprehensive arms and armor collection, the second-largest collection in the United States, was acquired from celebrated collector Carl Otto Kretzschmar von Kienbusch in 1976, the Bicentennial Anniversary of the American Revolution.  Spanning several centuries, it includes European and Southwest Asian arms and armor.

Check out “Von Kienbusch Galleries of Arms and Armor“

The Angel of Purity – Maria Mitchell Memorial (Marble, Augustus Saint-Gaudens, 1902)

Diana (marble, 1826, Joseph Gott)

The American collection, among the finest in the United States, surveys more than three centuries of painting, sculpture, and decorative arts, with outstanding strengths in 18th- and 19th-century Philadelphia furniture and silver, Pennsylvania German art, rural Pennsylvania furniture and ceramics, and the paintings of Thomas Eakins (the museum houses the most important Eakins collection in the world).

Sketches of Thomas Eakins

Portrait of Hayes Agnew – Agnew Clinic (Oil on canvas, Thomas Eakins, 1889)

Modern artwork includes works by American Modernists as well as those of Pablo Picasso, Jean Metzinger, Antonio Rotta, Albert Gleizes, Marcel Duchamp, Salvador Dalí and Constantin Brâncuși. The expanding collection of contemporary art includes major works by Cy Twombly, Jasper Johns, and Sol LeWitt, among many others.

The Seesaw (Oil on canvas, Francisco Goya, 1791-92)

Venus and Adonis (Oil on canvas, Charles-Joseph Natoire, 1740)

The museum also houses an encyclopedic holding of costume and textiles, as well as prints, drawings, and photographs. For reasons of preservation, they are displayed in rotation.

Equestrian statue of George Washington on Eakins Oval

In the square in front of the museum is an equestrian statue of George Washington erected by the German sculptor Rudolf Siemering.

The Lion Fighter (1858, Carl Conrad Albert Wolff)

The grandiose flight of steps behind him are flanked on the left The Lion Fighter, by Carl Conrad Albert Wolff, and on the right is The Amazon Attacked by a Panther by August Kiss, both casts from the Rauch School.

Mounted Amazon Attacked by a Panther (August Kiss, 1839, cast 1929)

The one-acre, terraced Anne d’Harnoncourt Sculpture Garden, dedicated to the museum’s late director Anne d’Harnoncourt (1943–2008) and designed by OLIN landscape architects working with Atkin Olshin Schade Architects, extends the Museum’s vast galleries to the outdoors while strengthening its connections to the city of Philadelphia and Fairmount Park.

Social Consciousness (Jacob Epstein)

The garden is divided into five sections: the Upper Terrace, the Lower Terrace, two graveled galleries and a paved plaza. Works here include the iconic Giant Three-Way Plug (Cube Tap) of Claes Oldenburg which was presented to the museum by Geraldine and David N. Pincus; Flukes, the large-scale sculpture of a whale’s tail by Gordon Gund; Steps (Philadelphia) and Pyramid (Philadelphia), two concrete block sculptures by Sol LeWitt; a granite bench and table as well as a marble chair by Scott Burton; Steel Woman II by Thomas Schütte; and Curve I, a remarkable work, from 1973, made of weathering steel by Ellsworth Kelly.

Giant 3-Way Plug – Cube Tap (Claes Oldenburg)

Philadelphia Museum of Art: 2600 Benjamin Franklin Parkway, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19130, USA. Tel: (215) 763-8100 Website: www.philamuseum.org. Open Tuesdays- Sundays, 10 AM – 5 PM. Admission: US$20/adult, children below 12 years old is free.

Ellis Island National Museum of Immigration (New Jersey, U.S.A)

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Ellis Island National Museum of Immigration

Aside from the Statue of Liberty National Monument on Liberty Island, the Statue Cruises round trip ferry transportation tickets we bought at Battery Park also included Ellis Island National Immigration Museum on Ellis Island in Upper New York Bay.

Ellis Island

After our tour of Liberty Island and its iconic Statue of Liberty, we all returned to the pier and queued up to board another Statue Cruise ferry for the short 10-min. (2.1 mile) trip to nearby, much smaller Ellis Island. Since 1808, the island has been owned and administered by the federal government of the United States  and, since 1965, operated by the National Park Service.

Check out “Statue of Liberty National Monument“

Then and now. Crowds such as these were a common sight

Here are some interesting trivia regarding the island:

  • From 1892 to 1954, Ellis Island was the United State’s largest and most active immigration station.
  • The original Ellis Island was the site of Fort Gibson (initially called Crown Fort, it was renamed after Col. James Gibson of the 4th Regiment of Riflemen, killed in the Siege of Fort Erieduring the War of 1812) and, later, a naval magazine.
  • The gateway for over 12 million immigrants to the U.S. processed by the S. Bureau of Immigration, it was the United States’ busiest immigrant inspection station for over 60 years (1892 – 1954).
  • Opened January 1, 1892, the island was, between 1892 and 1934, greatly expanded with land reclamation with the help of excess earth from the construction of New York City’s subway (and other projects). Today, the island has a land area of 11.1 hectares (27.5 acres), most of which is part of New Jersey.   It was long considered part of New York, but a 1998 United States Supreme Court decision found that most of the island is in  New Jersey. A contiguous area of 1.3 hectares (3.3 acres) is part of New York.
  • During and immediately following World War II, was designated as a permanent holding facility and was used to hold German merchant mariners and “enemy aliens” (Axis nationals detained for fear of spying, sabotage, and other fifth column activity). In December 1941, Ellis Island held 279 Japanese, 248 Germans, and 81 Italians removed from the East Coast.  A total of 7,000 Germans, Italians and Japanese would be ultimately detained at Ellis Island. It was also a processing center for returning sick or wounded U.S. soldiers, and a Coast Guard training base.
  • Its U.S. Marine Hospital Number 43, more widely known as the Ellis Island Immigrant Hospital, was the nation’s largest marine hospital. This extensive medical service at the immigrant station was operated here, from early 1902 to 1930, by United States Public Health Service to support the activities of the United States Bureau of Immigration.
  • Over 100 million Americans, about one-third to 40% of the population of the United States, are descendants of those immigrants who arrived in America at Ellis Island before dispersing to points all over the country.
  • Many reasons these immigrants came to the United States included escaping political and economic oppression, as well as persecution, destitution, and violence.
  • Ellis Island has been a source of inspiration or used as a subject in popular culture. Its imagery or representation has been employed in literature (including novels, short stories and poetry), in song, musical composition, dance, theatre, including vaudeville, burlesque, musical comedy, revue, legitimate theatre, motion pictures (silent and sound), newsreels, and in radio and television.

The Grand Hall

The first station, a three-story-tall wooden structure built of Georgia Pine, opened with fanfare on January 1, 1892 but, on June 15, 1897, a fire of unknown origin, possibly caused by faulty wiring, reduced it to ashes. No one was killed but most of the immigration records, dating back to 1855, of about 1.5 million immigrants that had been processed at the first building during its five years of use were destroyed.

The station’s new Main Building, one of the most symbolically important structures in American history, now houses the Ellis Island National Museum of Immigration.  It was designed by Architects Edward Lippincott Tilton and William Alciphron Boring (who both received a gold medal at the 1900 Paris Exposition for the building’s design) and the building was built at a cost of US$1.5 million.

Opened on December 17, 1900, the immigration station closed on November 12, 1954 and the buildings fell into disrepair and were abandoned. Attempts at redeveloping the site were unsuccessful until, on October 15, 1965, Ellis Island was proclaimed a part of Statue of Liberty National Monument and, exactly one year later, it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The design for the significant restoration and adaptive use of the Beaux-Arts Main Building to its 1918 – 1924 appearance was undertaken by the Boston-based architectural firm Finegold Alexander + Associates Inc, together with the New York architectural firm Beyer Blinder Belle. Built with a construction budget of US$150 million (raised by a campaign organized by the political fundraiser Wyatt A. Stewart), the building reopened on September 10, 1990.

Statue of Annie Moore, a 15 year old, rosy-cheeked Irish girl who was one of the 148 steerage passengers landed from the Guion steamship Nevada.  She is now distinguished by being the first registered in the book of the new landing bureau

On May 20, 2015, coinciding with the opening of the new Peopling of America galleries, the Ellis Island Immigration Museum was officially renamed the Ellis Island National Museum of Immigration.

Face of an immigrant

This French Renaissance Revival-style museum, built of red brick with limestone trim, tells the moving tales of the immigrants who entered America through the golden door of Ellis Island.

The Baggage Room

The newly completed Peopling of America Center was architectural designed by Highland Associates, with construction executed by Phelps Construction Group.

As part of the National Park Service’s Centennial Initiative, the entire south side of the island, called by some the “sad side” of the island, is closed to the general public.

Some of the 28 unrestored buildings

It is the object of restoration efforts spearheaded by Save Ellis Island to restore the 28 buildings (including the Ellis Island Immigrant Hospital) that have not yet been rehabilitated.  The New Ferry Building, built in the Art Deco style to replace an earlier one, was renovated in 2008 but remains only partially accessible to the general public.

Ellis Island Immigrant Hospital

In 2008, the museum’s library was officially named the Bob Hope Memorial Library in honor of the late comedian Bob Hope, one the station’s most famous immigrants. The Ellis Island Medal of Honor is awarded annually at ceremonies on the island.

The author and son Jandy at the Grand Hall

The museum’s self-guided exhibits tell the entire story of American immigration, including before and after the Ellis Island era, and chronicles Ellis Island’s role in immigration history.  It includes artifacts, photographs, prints, videos, interactive displays, oral histories and temporary exhibits:

  • The World Migration Globe features a radiant sphere which illustrates migration patterns around the world throughout human history.
  • Journeys: The Peopling of America – 1550s – 1890, located in the historic Railroad Ticket Office, is an exhibit, designed by ESI Design and fabricated by Hadley Exhibits, Inc., dedicated to exploring the earliest arrivals pre-dating the Ellis Island Era (1550-1890).  It bookends the Ellis Island era by chronicling immigration to America before the processing station opened in 1892 and after it closed in 1954, right up to the present. Here, visitors can move through the various galleries displaying each stage of the immigrant journey.
  • The Journey: New Eras of Immigration Exhibit, focusing on immigration from 1954 to present times, uses dynamic media and interactive elements to display the post-war immigration movement and changing demographic trends over the decades.
  • The American Family Immigration History Center is an exciting interactive area where you can access the passenger records of the ships that landed almost 65 million immigrants, crew members and other travelers at the Port of New York and Ellis Island from 1820 to 1957.
  • The American Immigrant Wall of Honor, outside of the main building, is the only place in the United States where an individual can honor his or her family heritage at a National Monument.  This permanent exhibit of individual or family names celebrating the immigrant experience contains a partial list of immigrants processed on the island. Inclusion on the list is made possible by a donation to support the facility..  It overlooks the Statue of Liberty behind a beautiful view of the New York skyline.
  • The American Flag of Faces, at the museum’s main entrance hall, is an interactive, animated display populated with images uploaded by individuals and families, which creates  a montage of the American flag.

A lady park ranger delivering a 5-min. talk before showing of “Island of Hope, Island of Tears” at Theater 2

There are also three theaters used for film and live performances. At Theater 2 (with a maximum limit of 140 people per showing), we watched the 30-min.,  award-winning film documentary “Island of Hope, Island of Tears,”  directed by Charles Guggenheim, which reveals how and why millions of immigrants journeyed across the world to Ellis Island, hoping for a better life for themselves and their descendants.

L-R: Grace, Kyle and Cheska

Ellis Island National Museum of Immigration: Ellis Island, New York City 10004, New York, U.S.A.  Tel: +1 646 356 2150.  Open daily (except December 25), 8:30 AM – 7 PM.

Old Philadelphia City Hall (Pennsylvania, U.S.A.)

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The two-storey Old Philadelphia City Hall, located within the Independence Hall complex of Independence National Historical Park, next to Independence Hall, in Center City, was built with red bricks in the Georgian and  Federal style from 1790 to 1791 by master carpenter David Evans, Jr.

Old Philadelphia City Hall

During the 1790s, Philadelphia was the nation’s temporary capital and, although originally intended as Philadelphia’s City Hall (its second), the building was lent to the federal judiciary, serving as the home of the U.S. Supreme Court from the completion of its construction, from August 1791 until February 1800, when the national capital was moved to Washington, D.C.  The City Council met on the second floor while court convened below.

Here, the U.S. Supreme Court made its first decisions. Three chief justices,  John Rutledge (Rutledge Court),  John Jay (Jay Court), and Oliver Ellsworth (Ellsworth Court), officiated the Supreme Court from this location. The portraits of the latter two (Rutledge did not attend any session in Philadelphia), as well as those of   associate justices William Cushing, Bushrod Washington (nephew of George Washington) and Samuel Chase, can be seen in the Second Bank portrait gallery.

The ground floor area where the Supreme Court met

Also in the Second Bank is a very large painting of Philadelphia’s first City Hall (the one that used to stand on 2nd Street). Naturalization ceremonies for new citizens also took place in this courtroom and the building was the volunteer headquarters in the battle against the Yellow Fever epidemic of 1793.

Afterward, the building continued to serve as Philadelphia’s City Hall until 1901 when the new city hall at Penn Square was completed. A contributing property to Independence National Historical Park, the building is owned by the City of Philadelphia which leases it to the National Park Service. The building was added to National Register of Historic Places on October 15, 1966.

Old Philadelphia City Hall: 501 Chestnut Street at 5th Street, Philadelphia 19106, Pennsylvania. Open daily, 9 AM – 5 PM.  Admission is free but entrance is on a first-come, first-served basis. Capacity is nine visitors at a time.  Coordinates: 39°56′52″N 75°8′53″W.

St. Augustine Catholic Church (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.A.)

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St. Augustine Catholic Church

The historic and pretty ornate St. Augustine Catholic  Church (also called Olde St. Augustine’s), built to replace the Old St. Augustine Church (the first Order of Hermits of St. Augustine church founded in the United States) which was completed in 1801 and burned down in the anti-Catholic Philadelphia Nativist Riots on May 8, 1844  (all that remained was the back wall of the altar), was designed by architect  Napoleon LeBrun who also designed Philadelphia landmarks as the Academy of Music (eventual home of the Philadelphia Orchestra) and the Cathedral Basilica of Sts. Peter and Paul.

The church’s Palladian-style facade

The present church, whose cornerstone was laid on May 27, 1847, was completed in December 1848 and consecrated by Bishop Francis Kenrick and Archbishop John Hughes who presided over High Mass on November 5, 1848.

The main entrance

In 1922, the altar area underwent significant restoration and change, the vestibule of the church was changed significantly and stairs were put in when 4th Street was excavated to pass under the Benjamin Franklin Bridge. The nave of the church is original. The color in the brick facade of the church indicates where the original church brick ends and where the 1922 brick begins. On June 15, 1976, the church was listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The magnificent interior

On December 1992, a severe storm severely damaged the church’s steeple whose debris fell onto the Benjamin Franklin Bridge, closing for three days. The damaged steeple had to be disassembled and removed. A 50-ft. chasm opened in the church roof caused the priceless painting and murals inside to suffer water damage. On October 18, 1995, a new steeple was erected.

Dr. Malcolm Crowe (Bruce Willis) meets the scared Cole Sear (Haley Joel Osment) inside the church in The Sixth Sense

The interior and exterior of St. Augustine’s Church was featured in the 1999 M. Night Shyamalan spooky thriller The Sixth Sense (where Bruce Willis, as Dr. Malcolm Crowe, and Haley Joel Osment, as Cole Sear, meet for the first time) and the 2007 action movie Shooter  (in which the church’s bell tower figures in an assassination plot).

The Shooter

This church is the parish of choice of many Filipino-American Catholics (who increased the congregation’s numbers in the 1990s) from Philadelphia, the city’s suburbs and the tri-state area (Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware). In fact, on January 11, 1992, an exact replica of Santo Niño de Cebú was installed and dedicated here and Filipinos have held a special mass and festivals (also called Sinulog) for the Santo Niño, making it the National Shrine for devotion to Santo Nino in North America.

This Palladian-style (an Italian-Renaissance variant) church, with its non-cruciform plan, has a flat, decorated roof, semicircular arched window, an enormous cleaving balcony and two sets of stained glass windows, each dedicated to a saint. The impressive, ornate foyer, though lower than the church (you need to take another set of stairs to go up into the church), is treated like a part of the interior.

The main arched altar, framed by an archway supported by brown Corinthian columns flanked by flying angels, consists of white marble with shafts of Mexican onyx bordering the tabernacle. Behind the altar is a Crucifixion tableau, painted by Hans Hansen in 1926, crowned by the words “The Lord Seeth.” Above it sits a domed skylight.  The wrap-around, 3-sided gallery essentially divides the space vertically in half.

The main altar

The beautiful ceiling frescoes, depicting scenes from “St. Augustine in Glory,” as well as murals on either side of the altar were painted by Philip Costaggini (who painted part of the frieze on the rotunda of the Capitol in Washington, D.C.) in 1884 and are the oldest in any church in America.

Statue of St. Nicholas Tolentine at the ornate foyer

Statue of St. Thomas of Villanova

St. Augustine Catholic Church: 243 North Lawrence St., Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19106, United States.  Tel: +1 215-627-1838. Fax: 215-627-3911. E-mail: staugustineparish09@gmail.com.  Website: www.st-augustinechurch.com. Mass schedules: Mondays – Fridays: 12:05 PM (10 AM during legal holidays), Saturdays (Vigil – 5:15 PM) and Sundays (9 AM, 11 AM and 7 PM). Novena prayers to Santo Nino are held after the 11 AM Sunday Mass. Open Mondays to Fridays, 9 AM to 5 PM; weekends, 9 AM to the conclusion of the evening masses.

30th Street Station (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.A.)

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30th Street Station

The 52,000 m² (562,000 ft²) 30th Street Station, the main railroad station in Philadelphia and one of the seven stations in Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority‘s (SEPTA) Center City fare zone, sits across from the former United States Post Office-Main Branch. A major stop on Amtrak‘s (National Railroad Passenger Corporation) Northeast and Keystone Corridors, it is Amtrak’s 3rd-busiest station and the busiest of the 24 stations served in Pennsylvania. On an average day in 2013, about 11,300 people boarded or left trains in Philadelphia, nearly twice as many as in the rest of the Pennsylvania stations combined. This was to be our entry point to Philadelphia (from New York City) and exit point from Philadelphia to Baltimore (Maryland).

The main concourse

Originally known as the Pennsylvania Station–30th Street (in accord with the naming style of other Pennsylvania Stations), the enormous, steel-framed structure was designed by the Chicago architectural firm of Graham, Anderson, Probst and White (the successor to D.H. Burnham & Company). Construction began in 1927 and the station opened in 1933, starting with two platform tracks.

The author and son Jandy at the waiting area

From 1988-1991, the building was restored and renovated, at a cost of US$75 million,  by Dan Peter Kopple & Associates, with updated retail amenities added including several shops, a large food court, car rental facilities, Saxby’s Coffee, Dunkin’ Donuts, both in the South Arcade and South Concourse, and others.

Dunkin’ Donut outlet

Above the passenger areas, 280,000 sq. ft. of office space was modernized to house approximately 1,100 Amtrak employees.  The former mail handling facility was converted into an underground parking garage. The 30th Street Station is now listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Train Schedule Display Board

The building’s architecturally interesting exterior, an adaptation and transformation of Neo-Classical elements into a more modern, streamlined Art Deco architectural style, has a pair of soaring, columned porte-cocheres on the west and east façade, its best known features.

Waiting Area

The cavernous, 290 by 135 ft. main passenger concourse, notable for its stylistic and functional elements, has ornate Art Deco décor, with a vast waiting room faced with travertine and a soaring  coffered ceiling, painted gold, red and cream, with beautiful chandeliers.

Ticket offices

Works of art are located throughout the building. Prominently displayed within the waiting area is the Pennsylvania Railroad World War II Memorial, sculpted in 1950 by Walker Hancock. Honoring 1,307 Pennsylvania Railroad employees (listed in alphabetical order on the four sides of the base of that sculpture) killed in World War II (out of the more than 54,000 who served), it consists of a bronze statue of the archangel Michael lifting the body of a dead soldier out of the flames of war.

Pennsylvania Railroad World War II Memorial

The Spirit of Transportation, a bas relief sculpture of Karl Bitter, was executed in 1895 and originally placed in the waiting room of Broad Street Station, Philadelphia. On January, 1955, it was moved to current site in the North Waiting Room. The Spirit of Transportation is represented in triumphal procession of progress. It features a central female figure sitting in a horse-drawn carriage, while children cradle models of a steamship, steam locomotive and dirigible, a prophetic vision of a mode of transportation to come.

Spirit of Transportation bas-relief sculpture

The station was featured in the 1981 film Blow Out, the 1983 film Trading Places, the 1985 film Witness, the 2000 film Unbreakable, the 2010 video game Heavy Rain, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Season 2 Episode 7, and the 2015 film The Visit. It is within walking distance of various attractions in West Philadelphia, notably the University of Pennsylvania, Drexel University, and the University City Science Center, all in University City. 

Kyle, Grace, Cheska and Jandy waiting for our train to Baltimore at the train platform

30th Street Station: 2955 Market Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States

Church of St. Ignatius of Loyola (New York City, U.S.A.)

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The very first mass we attended in the US, on the eve of the Feast of St. John the Baptist, was held at the beautiful Church of St. Ignatius of Loyola, located on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. It was officiated by the very friendly and welcoming Fr. Dennis J. Yesalonia, S.J.

Church of St. Ignatius of Loyola

This Roman Catholic parish church, under the authority of the Archdiocese of New York, is administered by the Society of Jesus (Jesuits). The church is part of a Jesuit complex on the block that includes Wallace Hall, the parish hall (beneath the church), the rectory (at the midblock location on Park Ave.), the grade school of St. Ignatius’s School (on the north midblock location of 84th St., behind the church) and the high school of Loyola School (also 980 Park Ave.) at the northwest corner of Park Ave. and 83rd St. The Regis High School (55 East 84th St.), another Jesuit high school, occupies the midblock location on the north side of 84th St..

Established in 1851 as St. Lawrence O’Toole‘s (a twelfth-century bishop of Dublin) Church, a wooden church was erected in 1852 but was replaced, in 1853, by a modest brick structure. In 1886, it was entrusted to the care of the Society of Jesus  the Jesuits’ first major apostolate in the Yorkville area of New York.  In 1898, it was granted permission by Rome to change the patron saint of the parish to St. Ignatius of Loyola.

The church’s foundation was built from 1884 to 1886 and the present German Baroque-style church, designed by Arch. J. William Schickel of Schickel & Ditmars, was built from 1895 to 1900. On December 11, 1898, it was dedicated by the Most Reverend Michael Corrigan, third Archbishop of New York. On March 4, 1969, the church was declared as a New York City Landmark and, on July 24, 1980, the church was added to the National Register of Historic Places.

The beautiful church interior

Notable people whose funerals were held here include:

This 90 ft. high and 87 ft. wide architectural gem has a Classical Park Avenue exterior that is not static, with the central division raised in slight relief beyond the side divisions.  Its façade has 2 unbroken vertical orders, a Palladian arched window and a tri-part horizontal division which suggest the central nave and side aisles beyond. Directly beneath the pediment are inscribed the words “Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam” (“To the Greater Glory of God”, the motto of the Society of Jesus,  and the Great Seal of the Society (composed of a cross, three nails, and the letters I H S, the first three letters of Jesus’ name in Greek which later became a Latin acronym denoting Jesus the Savior of Humankind).

The altar

The varying intervals between the symmetrically positioned pilasters create a subtly undulating dynamism that introduces a note of syncopated rhythm reminiscent of the exterior of Il Gesù, the Jesuits’ mother church in Rome. Two copper-capped tower bases, on either side of the central pediment, are hints of the abandoned grander scheme of a pair of towers designed to reach 210 ft. above the ground. The church’s intricate marble work, executed by the firm of James G. Batterson, Jr., and John Eisele of New York, includes American (pink Tennessee), European (yellow Siena, veined Pavonazzo and white Carrara) and African (red-veined Numidian and pink Algerian) marble. The soaring ceiling was beautifully crafted and the intricate stained glass windows tells the story of Jesus life, death and resurrection.

The high ceiling

The marble mosaic Stations of the Cross panels were designed by Professor Paoletti for Salviati & Company of Venice.  The great 12-panel bronze doors, located at the sanctuary end of the side aisles, were designed by the Rev. Patrick O’Gorman, S.J. (pastor from 1924 to 1929) and were crafted by the Long Island Bronze Company. The Carrara marble Jesuit statues (including St. Francis Xavier and St. John Francis Regis) were carved by the Joseph Sibbel Studio of New York.  The church organ, built by N.P. Mander of London, was dedicated in 1993 and is New York City’s largest mechanical action (tracker) pipe organ.

The semicircular wrought-iron baptistery screen of gilt flaming swords, in the Chapel of John the Baptist, was wrought by Mr. John Williams to the designs of William Schickel. The Carrara marble baptistery font, set above the marble pavement, was designed “by Heaton, Butler & Bayne of London, with slight modifications made by Mr. John Buck of the Ecclesiastical Department of the Gorham Company of New York (also responsible for the cutting and installing the mosaic’s tesserae – the pieces comprising the mosaic).

The baptistery’s altar and the surrounding curved walls, designed and executed under the direction of Mr. Caryl Coleman of the Ecclesiastical Department of the Tiffany Glass and Decorating Company (who also executed the baptistery’s semi-dome), were made with Pavonazzo marble inlaid with mosaics (composed of that company’s justly famous opalescent Favrile glass, as delicate as the Venetian glass mosaics above are bold).

Church of St. Ignatius of Loyola: 980 Park Ave. cor. East 84th St., New York City, New York 10028.  Tel: +212-288-3588. Website: www.stignatiusloyola.org. Mass Schedule: Mondays-Fridays, 8:30 AM, 12:10 PM and 5:30 PM; Saturdays, 8:30 AM an 5:30 PM; Sundays, 8 AM, 9:30 AM, 11 AM (Solemn Mass) and 7:30 PM.