{"id":8728,"date":"2015-04-10T09:53:42","date_gmt":"2015-04-10T13:53:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/phillyhistory.wpengine.com\/?p=8728"},"modified":"2015-04-12T15:53:48","modified_gmt":"2015-04-12T19:53:48","slug":"debt-and-consequence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/2015\/04\/debt-and-consequence\/","title":{"rendered":"Debt and Consequence"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Broad<\/a>
Broad Street – North of Spruce Street, December 21, 1915. (PhillyHistory.org)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It\u2019s a classic story. Behind a noble and refined fa\u00e7ade, (thanks to the designs of Frank Miles Day and Louis Comfort Tiffany) Horticultural Hall on Broad Street was really a house of cards, a palace built on credit.<\/p>\n

After an earlier hall on the same site burned in 1893, insurance kicked in $25,000 for a new building. At the start of 1894, according to the History of the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society<\/i><\/a>, only $26.25 was in the bank.\u00a0 But Society president, Clarence H. Clark (whose mansion at 42nd<\/sup> and Locust<\/a> cost $300,000 two decades before) didn\u2019t see a problem; he saw an opportunity. Clark, a banker, engineered a fix in the form of a $200,000 mortgage.<\/p>\n

And so with borrowed money \u201ca fine example of Italian Renaissance architecture\u201d as we told last time<\/a>, rose on Broad Street. Its bronze gates welcomed, its emerald glass awed, its \u201cdeep overhanging eaves\u201d impressed. Above those eaves were the finest Spanish tiles. Below them was to be a pi\u00e8ce de r\u00e9sistance of public art, a giant, wraparound mural\u2014one of the largest ever.<\/p>\n

The last thing on muralist Joseph Lindon Smith\u2019s<\/a> mind was his client\u2019s staggering debt. As he planned the job, Smith, faced his own<\/em> daunting challenges. The up-and-coming artist had recently finished a modest mural<\/a> in an alcove of the Boston Public Library, and had never taken on a commission this massive\u2014308 feet long and 6 feet high. Nor had Smith ever taken on anything this risky. \u201cIt will be executed directly upon plaster and it will be out-of-doors,\u201d worried an art critic at the Inquirer, <\/i>on April 19, 1896, \u201ctwo conditions seldom met with in modern wall-painting.\u201d<\/p>\n

Plus, Smith wasn\u2019t entirely certain what<\/em> he wanted to paint. In an interview in the Spring of 1896, he admitted \u201cworking upon his design for nearly a year\u201d and still unclear how his mural would play out. There\u2019d be \u201callegorical and mythological characters, the months, or the seasons and the signs of the zodiac, all having some bearing\u2026upon the building and its use.\u201d There’d be a decorative scheme featuring “the harvest gods, Ceres and Bacchus” and \u201can almost endless use of garlands\u201d and wreaths. But how would it all come together?<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"
Detail of proposed mural on Horticultural Hall, ca. 1896. ( McLean Library, Pennsylvania Horticultural Society)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As Smith sat at his drawing board feeling the panic rise, he learned the plaster below the eaves wouldn\u2019t be ready for his brush until Fall. What a relief! More time to think! Smith could go on \u201ca special trip to Italy during the summer to renew his acquaintance with the works of the early Italian fresco painters.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ah, the life of a struggling artist (with a commission).<\/p>\n

Smith did<\/em> master the challenge and depicted in his own frescoes \u201cthe evolution of the vegetable kingdom through four seasons\u201d as Asa M. Steele related in Harper\u2019s Weekly<\/a> a few years later. \u201cA great scroll also appears in the centre of the main fa\u00e7ade, bearing the words \u201cHorticulture\u201d and \u201cAgriculture,\u201d \u201cSylviculture,\u201d \u201cViticulture,\u201d and Floriculture.\u201d Between the many small windows \u201che painted\u2026small panels depicting boys with agricultural tools, and conventional wreaths, and groupings of fruits, flowers, nuts, evergreens and holly.\u201d Smith\u2019s \u201cprincipal groups depict twelve women typifying the months of the year, each holding in her lap the appropriate sign of the zodiac and accompanied by the patron deity of the season, and arrangements of foliage, fruits and flowers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Starting on the south side of the building, Smith\u2019s figures for January and February were accompanied by Janus, the god of new starts, \u201cwho received the prayers and husbandmen at the beginning of seed time.\u201d Then came Triptolemus, the demi-god of agriculture, \u201cin his winged chariot drawn by serpents, rides through an awakening landscape, scattering his barley seed on either hand.\u201d March arrived \u201cin wind-tossed draperies;\u201d April \u201cin the tender hues of early spring, carried an inverted vase to symbolize the descent of rain upon the earth.\u201d In between was the figure of Proserpina, daughter of Ceres.<\/p>\n

\"Hort<\/a>
Horticultural Hall, ca. 1900 detail. (The Free Library of Philadelphia)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Steele continued: \u201cMay is decked in vivid green, against a background of blossoms. June sits wreathed in roses and the bloom of early summer, with garlands strewn about. Flora, the deity of horticulture, and Amor, with drawn bow, formed the remainder of the group. In the center of the front fa\u00e7ade Phoebus Apollo sits enthroned in a glory of golden sunbeams, a lyre in his hands. July and August, arrayed in the gorgeous hues of midsummer, and surrounded by fruits and flowers, have Ceres as protectress. The goddess is robed in crimson and gold, and holds a sheaf of wheat. September and October, with Pomona, goddess of fruits, enthroned between them, are surrounded with the rich browns, reds, and yellows of autumn, with a bearing fruit tree in the background, and garlands of corn and grapes. The next panel depicts Bacchus, holding the thyrsus with a wreath of ivy on his head. In the background is the sea, with a marble screen of vines and grapes. The adjacent sky shines with Ariadne\u2019s crown of seven stars; a satyr dances in the foreground. November, looking back toward her system months, and December, lingering in desolation with bowed head, and Boreas [the god of the north wind] blowing winter blasts, complete the series.\u201d<\/p>\n

As great a work as it may have been, Smith\u2019s giant mural seemed unphotographable. And for all its wall power, for all its ability for to provide civic ulplift for paraders<\/a> and boulevardiers on Broad Street, it represented a giant, crushing debt for the directors of the Horticultural Society that wasn\u2019t going away.<\/p>\n

So in 1909, three years after the death of Clarence Clark, when a cash offer of \u201cat least $500,000\u201d came in over the transom, the directors saw the light at the end of the tunnel. This offer appeared more appealing than anything designed, built or painted. The buyer would demolish the building but no matter. Finally<\/em>, the debt would be retired.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s a classic story. Behind a noble and refined fa\u00e7ade, (thanks to the designs of Frank Miles Day and Louis Comfort Tiffany) Horticultural Hall on Broad Street was really a house of cards, a palace built on credit. After an earlier hall on the same site burned in 1893, insurance kicked in $25,000 for a […]<\/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-8728","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8728","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=8728"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8728\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8728"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8728"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8728"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}