{"id":14054,"date":"2020-04-02T11:23:38","date_gmt":"2020-04-02T15:23:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/phillyhistory.wpengine.com\/?p=14054"},"modified":"2020-04-02T11:23:38","modified_gmt":"2020-04-02T15:23:38","slug":"the-persian-building-at-the-1926-sesquicentennial-international-exposition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/2020\/04\/the-persian-building-at-the-1926-sesquicentennial-international-exposition\/","title":{"rendered":"The Persian Building at the 1926 Sesquicentennial International Exposition"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
The dedication of the Persian Building, October 6, 1926. 20th and Pattison.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The 1926 Sesquicentennial Exposition’s most iconic image is the oversized replica of the Liberty Bell, illuminated by hundreds of incandescent bulbs. \u00a0However, there was another structure that captured the imagination of the fairgoers: the Persian Building, designed by Philadelphia architect Carl Augustus Ziegler. \u00a0Situated on the banks of Edgewater Lake, the mosque-like dome and towers rose above the squat rowhouses of South Philadelphia like a shimmering apparition. \u00a0Inside, visitors could admire ancient manuscripts, tapestries, and other priceless art and artifacts.<\/p>\n

One would expect that the Persian government would have selected one of its own to design its pavilion, but Carl Ziegler had a track record of designing intricately detailed, historically inspired structures. \u00a0Born in 1878, Ziegler attended the University of Pennsylvania, where he received his certificate in proficiency in architecture. \u00a0He then worked in the offices of several prominent architects who masterfully blended impeccable historical detailing with modern needs, most notably Cope & Stewardson (designer of dormitories at Princeton and Penn) and Frank Miles Day (designer of the Jacob Reed building). \u00a0In 1898, he joined up with architects Louis Duhring and R. Brognard Okie to form the firm of Duhring, Okie & Ziegler. This team became most famous for their Pennsylvania “farmhouse” revival country homes. Their rough-hewn simplicty was a stark contrast to the stiff Gilded Age palaces previously so in vogue with the city’s elite.<\/p>\n

In 1924, Ziegler broke from the Duhring firm and struck out on his own as a historical consultant, where he helped supervise the restoration of Independence Hall and Carpenter\u2019s Hall. \u00a0The 1920s marked resurgence in the popularity of the Colonial Revival and Georgian modes. \u00a0 Yet Ziegler showed himself to be quite adept at learning other historical styles, and the polychrome Persian Building was truly beguiling, standing out in quality and detail from the fairground kitsch that surrounded it. He continued to practice until the 1940s, by which time his encyclopedia knowledge of historical styles (including Persian) had fallen out of favor.<\/p>\n

Sadly, the Exposition proved to be a failure, attracting only about 4.6 million paid attendees rather than the 30 million the organizers preducted. Like almost every other structure at the Sesquicentennial Exposition, the Persian Building met the wrecker’s ball. \u00a0 Today, the fairground is the site of Franklin Delano Roosevelt Park and the Sports Complex.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
The Franklin Delano Roosevelt Park golf course, 20th and Pattison, John McWhorter, photographer. March 29, 1954.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Sources:\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

James D. Ristine, Philadelphia<\/em>\u2019<\/em>s 1926 Sesqui-Centennial International Exposition<\/em>(Charleston: Arcadia Publishing, 2009), pp.70-71.<\/p>\n

Sandra Tatman, \u201cZiegler, Carl (or Charles) Augustus (1878-1952),\u201dPhiladelphia Architects and Buildings, The Athenaeum of Philadelphia, 2020, https:\/\/www.philadelphiabuildings.org\/pab\/app\/ar_display.cfm\/23435<\/a>, accessed<\/p>\n

Martin W. Wilson, \u201cSesquicentennial International Exposition (1926),\u201dThe Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia, Rutgers University, 2012, https:\/\/philadelphiaencyclopedia.org\/archive\/sesquicentennial-international-exposition\/<\/a>, accessed April 2, 2020.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The 1926 Sesquicentennial Exposition’s most iconic image is the oversized replica of the Liberty Bell, illuminated by hundreds of incandescent bulbs. \u00a0However, there was another structure that captured the imagination of the fairgoers: the Persian Building, designed by Philadelphia architect Carl Augustus Ziegler. \u00a0Situated on the banks of Edgewater Lake, the mosque-like dome and towers […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14054","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14054","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14054"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14054\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14054"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14054"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14054"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}