{"id":5806,"date":"2013-10-14T00:14:48","date_gmt":"2013-10-14T04:14:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/phillyhistory.wpengine.com\/?p=5806"},"modified":"2014-05-01T17:04:42","modified_gmt":"2014-05-01T21:04:42","slug":"hungry-for-authenticity-at-second-and-walnut","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/2013\/10\/hungry-for-authenticity-at-second-and-walnut\/","title":{"rendered":"Hungry for Authenticity at Second and Walnut"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
John Krider’s Gun Shop, Southeast corner of Walnut and Second Streets, Photograph by John Moran, ca. 1869. (PhillyHistory.org\/Free Library of Philadelphia).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Back when big fish like Frank Sinatra, Elisabeth Taylor, Joe DiMaggio or John Wayne dined at Bookbinders, Philadelphia was still a W.C. Fields joke, rich in history and starved of self-esteem. The restaurant was more about fine spin than fine cuisine, but there weren\u2019t many choices back then. So, again and again, from the 50s through the 80s, Bookbinders got to call the shots when it came to its many expansions, often at the expense of the very history it claimed to serve up as a side dish.<\/p>\n

The first example: the 200-year-old Drinker-Krider building at 2nd<\/sup> and Walnut Streets. Soon after Bookbinders bought it, they demolished it.<\/p>\n

Legend has it, John Drinker built this house in 1751, many years after having been born in a log cabin on the same site. (Legend also has it that Drinker witnessed William Penn\u2019s arrival in the 1680s.) In the middle of the 19th<\/sup> century, a gunsmith named John Krider bought the place and operated what became a famous gun shop and taxidermy business there. Hunters and fisherman found everything there, \u00a0from Krider’s hand-crafted guns<\/a> and bamboo rods to his hunting books<\/a> and dog biscuits. The building at 2nd<\/sup> and Walnut became one of those anecdote-rich, go-to sites for artists<\/a>, documentarians<\/a>, and, of course, tourists.<\/p>\n

Now, with a new owner in July 1952, this historic building itself was about to fall prey.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
2nd Street South: Northeast Corner Walnut, John Drinker House Kreider’s Gun Store. Book #5, Survey of Philadelphia (1930). Photograph by Carollo R. Widdop. (PhillyHistory.org)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cNowhere in the country is there a comparable collection of early buildings, wrote architect Grant Miles Simon<\/a> in 1953, noting losses from \u201cruthless destruction\u2026in the name of modern progress.\u201d \u00a0These survivors, wrote Simon, \u201cconstitute an invaluable part of the documentation of American history. They were lived in by, and were familiar sights to, the many great figures of the Revolutionary and the Federal eras. Their days are few unless a tardy appreciation makes a permanent place for them in the City plan.\u201d<\/p>\n

When push came to shove, would Simon stand up for the lowly Drinker-Krider place? We\u2019d like to think he saw it bordering the grand, Beaux-Arts, shrine-studded greensward he proposed eastward from Independence Hall in 1947. We\u2019d like<\/em> to think he imagined a role for near-shrines and even for non-shrines.<\/p>\n

But the Drinker-Krider building was found to be flawed. A report<\/a>\u00a0by the Historic American Building Survey (HABS) found \u201cthe brick bearing walls…in poor structural condition\u2026the south end of the party wall was extremely weak\u2026the timber framing was badly deteriorated in spots and was in a generally weakened condition.\u201d But instead of strengthening the walls and the framing, the building\u2019s new owners chose to have the building condemned. They allowed HABS in for thorough documentation, then they pulled it down.<\/a><\/p>\n

Wanting to have history both ways<\/a>, Bookbinders hired Simon, who in 1956 was freshly appointed to chair the Philadelphia Historical Commission, to design a \u201cmeticulous copy\u201d of the Drinker-Krider building, one that would allow them to expand their restaurant. On December 20, 1960, Mayor Richardson Dilworth, Mrs. Bookbinder and another official used a three-handled shovel to break ground for the new wing. With a new presence on this historic corner, across from the new Independence Historical National park, the restaurant would be able to open two new venues: the \u201cSigners\u2019 Dining Room\u201d and the \u201cHall of Patriots Banquet Room\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Northeast Corner of 2nd & Walnut Streets, November 29, 1961. Photograph Carollo R. Widdop. (PhillyHistory,org)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As it turned out, the reconstruction wasn\u2019t<\/em> meticulous. The new brick color lacked the hue and richness of the original; its fresh patina wasn\u2019t anything <\/em>\u00a0like what had been demolished. By comparison, the plaster cove cornice wasn\u2019t as gutsy (HABS documented the orignal<\/a>) and the shutters seemed soulless. Character and authenticity were gone. The reconstruction introduced a sad whiff of mid-20th<\/sup>century uncertainty to the heart of Philadelphia\u2019s historic district.<\/p>\n

The past isn\u2019t about great shrines or grand vistas. Real historic cities grow over time, and they grow unpredictably. They can\u2019t be intentionally made, and they certainly<\/em> can\u2019t be remade. At its fleeting best, Philadelphia is always about its many modest, authentic gems. Each has its own story, texture, character, and distinctiveness. Kind of like a great meal.<\/p>\n

So far as authentic history was concerned, Philadelphians would go hungry at 2nd and Walnut. That banquet would have to be found elsewhere.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Back when big fish like Frank Sinatra, Elisabeth Taylor, Joe DiMaggio or John Wayne dined at Bookbinders, Philadelphia was still a W.C. Fields joke, rich in history and starved of self-esteem. The restaurant was more about fine spin than fine cuisine, but there weren\u2019t many choices back then. So, again and again, from the 50s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5806","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5806","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\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5806"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5806\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5806"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5806"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5806"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}