30 October 2017

sweet gem of a building

robert wanted to go to the Mutter Museum, which we did --- the garden of medicinal herbs was good, but after 5 minutes of skulls and body parts, i had to leave --- but across the street at 32 s. 22nd street was one of the more wonderful buildings i've seen --- St. Anthony Club, built for Delta Psi fraternity at Univ. of Pennsylvania in 1888 --- the google turned up a rendering of the building published in american architect and building news, 21 march 1896, and a photograph from 1907 --- the exterior appears to have been very little altered, but the interior was probably gutted when it was turned into three condominiums earlier this century ---



the building was designed by Wilson Eyre Jr (1858-1944), a prominent Philadelphia architect, teacher, and writer --- he also supervised installation of Whistler's "peacock room" in Charles Lang Freer's Detroit home in 1904 and designed the basin and water jets for Alexander Stirling Calder's 1924 sculpture at Logan Square in Philadelphia ---






we couldn't get or see inside but i snagged these images from real-estate ads --- a lot has been lost, but the mantels are there --- and the most excellent balcony, with first unitarian church, the rush medicinal herb garden, the mutter, and a contemporaneous house next door in the foreground of the viewshed --- the balcony has clearly not been appreciated of late, given that the realtor posted a photo of its interior, decorated only by the big plastic recycling bin

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