{"id":6152,"date":"2013-12-24T00:33:12","date_gmt":"2013-12-24T05:33:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/phillyhistory.wpengine.com\/?p=6152"},"modified":"2020-12-21T13:44:27","modified_gmt":"2020-12-21T18:44:27","slug":"bright-lights-beautiful-city-or-a-collision-of-hope-and-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/2013\/12\/bright-lights-beautiful-city-or-a-collision-of-hope-and-history\/","title":{"rendered":"Bright Lights; Beautiful City, or a Collision of Hope and History"},"content":{"rendered":"
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City Hall Illuminated during Founder’s Week (detail). October 1908. (PhillyHistory.org)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Never mind that Philadelphia actually<\/em> dated back to 1682, that its 225th<\/sup> anniversary had come and gone the year before<\/em>. Philadelphians were in the grip of a new and overpowering love affair with the city and it was fine to fudge the details. In 1908, they mounted an over-the-top celebration of the original city and called it “Founders Week.” But it was really more about the bright new century than the dim and dusty past.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a promise in the sky of a new day,\u201d proclaimed Charles Mulford Robinson<\/a> of the 20th century city. \u201cThe tall facades glow as the sun rises; their windows shine as topaz; their pendants of steam, tugging flutteringly from high chimneys, are changed to silvery plumes. Whatever was dingy, coarse, and ugly is either transformed or hidden in shadow. The streets, bathed in the fresh morning light, fairly sparkle, their pavements from upper windows appearing smooth and clean. There seems to be a new city for the work of a new day.\u201d<\/p>\n

“City Beautiful\u201d Philadelphia would be bathed in sunlight during the day. At night, it would be brilliantly illuminated by electric lights. At the center of it all, at the intersection of Broad, Market, past and future, stood City Hall, symbolically lit<\/a>, top to bottom. Founder\u2019s Week producers strung lights along its many rooflines; they aimed searchlights hundreds of feet up to the giant statue of the founder. Down at street level, the building became a billboard for a giant portrait of William Penn ensconced in a welcoming, promising electric sunrise.<\/p>\n

The illuminated promise was that Philadelphia\u2019s founding purpose (whether it had been made 225 or 226 years before) was still very much alive. \u201cPhiladelphia Maneto\u201d the electric sign flashed up and down Broad Street: Let Brotherly Love Endure.<\/em><\/p>\n

During Founders Week<\/a>, the beautiful, hopeful historic city was \u201cchoked with humanity,\u201d residents and visitors jamming parades<\/a>, receptions, unveilings, commemorations, displays, processions, and patriotic exercises. A \u201cRiver Pageant\u201d animated the entire Delaware waterfront, from Fort Mifflin to Allegheny Avenue. At Franklin Field, thousands attended \u201cPhiladelphia,\u201d the Musical Historical Drama. Violet Oakley\u2019 designed a \u201cHistorical Pageant\u201d that featured operatic floats and elaborately costumed actors anticipating Hollywood\u2019s Golden Age. On the celebration\u2019s final day, before the fireworks, the City and the Quaker City Motor Club co-sponsored a 200-mile automobile race<\/a> on a brand new \u201cspeedway\u201d in West Fairmount Park. All in all, gushed The New York Times<\/em><\/a>, it was \u201cprobably the greatest civic celebration ever held in America.\u201d<\/p>\n

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One of the 28 Lamps at City Hall, 1909. (PhillyHistory,org)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

City Hall’s lighting scheme was more than mere wattage, it was civic theater. And it had been brought to life on Saturday, October 3rd<\/sup>, the day before any other Founders Week events. School children from across the city convened to christen a ring of \u201cMemorial Lamp Poles<\/a>,\u201d 28, 22-foot, cast iron lamp standards on the plaza surrounding City Hall, each with 28 glass globes. Why 28? That\u2019s how many districts, townships and boroughs had been consolidated in 1854<\/a> to form a bigger, better, safer and more prosperous metropolis. The public plaza around City Hall was now the civic centerpiece where all citizens could embrace the past and future promise\u2014in the brightly illuminated here and now.<\/p>\n

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“Illumination of Food Sign – North Side of City Hall.” October 4, 1917. (PhillyHistory,org)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Who could take on such a project? That<\/em> would be the next generation the Royers family, the iron founders whose shop<\/a> at 9th <\/sup>and Montgomery had been operating since just after the Civil War. Now, decades later, B. Frank Royer of Smyser-Royer would have a \u201ccomplete drafting and engineering departments, designing studio, pattern shops, two large foundries, extensive machine and fitting shops\u201d manufacturing everything from \u201clamp posts for Country Estates\u201d to \u201cSpiral Stairs and Marquises\u201d in cast iron, bronze or aluminum. Smyser-Royer was understandably proud of their work and illustrated the City Hall lamps<\/a> in their catalogs, bragging that with little more than \u201ca coat of paint\u201d these fixtures could last \u201calmost forever.\u201d<\/p>\n

At City Hall. “almost forever” turned out to be 23 years.<\/p>\n

After symbolic meaning drifted away, the lamps became only so much street furniture. Over the years, they blended into the backdrop of daily life<\/a>. City carpenters built grandstands <\/a>around them; subway contractors<\/a> tolerated their presence. During the Sesquicentennial, the audience of a German oompah band<\/a> crowded around them. And by the early 1930s, they were gone<\/a> and forgotten.<\/p>\n

What stands today on City Hall plaza, more than century later at a time when we take light for granted? A lonely pair of modern facsimiles<\/a>, relatively dim and meaning-free.
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Never mind that Philadelphia actually dated back to 1682, that its 225th anniversary had come and gone the year before. Philadelphians were in the grip of a new and overpowering love affair with the city and it was fine to fudge the details. In 1908, they mounted an over-the-top celebration of the original city and […]<\/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-6152","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6152","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=6152"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6152\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6152"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6152"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6152"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}