{"id":9343,"date":"2015-08-31T22:56:47","date_gmt":"2015-09-01T02:56:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/phillyhistory.wpengine.com\/?p=9343"},"modified":"2015-12-17T16:19:19","modified_gmt":"2015-12-17T21:19:19","slug":"philadelphia-architects-on-firehouses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/2015\/08\/philadelphia-architects-on-firehouses\/","title":{"rendered":"Philadelphia Architects on Fire(houses)"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"CAPTION<\/a>
Fire Engine Company No. 47. 3035-37 Grays Ferry Avenue. Charles E. Oelschlager, architect, ca. 1899. (PhillyHistory.org)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As the city heated up, pushing outward in all directions, so did its fire department. As we\u2019ve seen in more<\/a> than one<\/a>\u00a0post, architect John Windrim stepped in and supplied an array of new and eclectic designs for the expanded municipal footprint, making up for lost time. Director of Public Works Windrim had a natural advantage getting commissions, but there was more work, and a broader appetite for design diversity, than any one office could handle. Projects went to bid, many other architects and contractors responded. What resulted might be called Philadelphia\u2019s Fin-de-si\u00e8cle Firehouse Boom.<\/p>\n

This post introduces a six-pack of additional architects and handful of their firehouses, as well as a spattering of their kin, police stations. In all, the city put an estimated 50 or so fire houses and police stations on the streets between 1890 and the 1910, a prodigious display of design finesse.<\/p>\n

Have we ever heard of such a demonstration in municipal architecture? We have<\/i>, in a way. On NPR<\/a> a few years back, Susan Stamberg presented the case of Columbus, Indiana. In the mid-20th century, Columbus commissioned more than 60 buildings<\/a> \u201cby a veritable who’s who of modern masters\u201d including I.M. Pei, Eero and Eliel Saarinen, Cesar Pelli, Richard Meier, Harry Weese, and Philadelphia\u2019s Robert Venturi (who, in 1967, created Fire Station No. 4).<\/p>\n

The Philadelphia\u2019s six are not big names, but the civic design frenzy that took place at the turn of the 20th century, long before Indiana\u2019s, occurred at the intersection of demand and indigenous talent. Where Columbus lured starchitects from far and wide and funded their arrival with philanthropy, Philadelphia\u2019s homegrown creative burst took place in its own space, on its own time\u2014on its own terms.<\/p>\n

\"Firehouse,<\/a>
Firehouse (Engine 50; Latter 12) 1325 West Cambria Street. Charles E. Oeschlager, architect, 1900. (Google)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

So who\u2019s rushing out for a Philadelphia firehouse tour? Unfortunately, much of this work got lost in the shuffle over the last century. In truth, we barely even know the extent of what once was. A few private efforts at compilation hope to fill the yawning information gap. (See Mike Legeros\u2019s <\/span>List of Historic and Former Philadelphia Firehouses<\/a>.) You can\u2019t just dip a toe in the complicated and (early on) <\/span>violent<\/a> history of the Philly firefighting, certainly not in a few blog posts. It\u2019s a steep, slippery and, so far, largely silent slope. But who and what you\u2019d encounter makes it a ride well worth the price of admission.<\/span><\/p>\n

Here are a few of the architects and buildings you\u2019d see along the way:<\/p>\n

Charles E. Oelschlager’s<\/a>\u00a0listed projects<\/a> include churches, theatres (both moving picture and vaudeville) and even early gas stations. His \u201cnew three story fire house\u2026at 31st and Grays Ferry Road,\u201d from 1899 (illustrated here) didn\u2019t survive. What did is still in use: his three-bay-wide firehouse<\/a> from 1900 on Cambria east of Broad (also illustrated). Behind its terra cotta, red brick fa\u00e7ade, beneath its green, slate-covered mansard roof were nine horse stalls, sleeping quarters, four sliding poles and all the latest \u201cappliances\u2026electric bells and buzzers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Joseph M. Huston<\/a> (1866-1940) generated more impressive projects<\/a>, like the Pennsylvania State Capitol, but that job proved to be a show stopper. Scandal and conviction led to a residency at Eastern State Penitentiary. Before all that, in 1899 and 1900, Huston designed several firehouses that have yet to be documented and none of which survive.\u00a0 In addition, his stationhouse for the Sixth Police District at 11th and Winter Streets was a lovely, long gone, Georgian Revival design.<\/p>\n

\"Engine<\/a>
Engine Company #13, 1529-39 Parrish Street. Phillip H. Johnson, architect, 1901. Photographed by Vincent D. Feldman in 2001.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

E. V. Seeler<\/a> (1867-1929) is known for 65 projects<\/a> including Curtis Publishing Company on Washington Square, the nearby Penn Mutual Life Insurance Building and the Philadelphia Bulletin Building on Filbert Street, once just to the northeast of City Hall. His<\/i> breakthrough took place with the First Baptist Church in 1901, at the corner of 17th and Sansom Streets. It\u2019s not far from the extant fire house<\/a> at 1528- 1530 Sansom, which he completed two years before that.<\/p>\n

Hazelhurst & Huckel<\/a> \u2013 Way back in the early 1880s \u00a0Edward P. Hazlehurst<\/a> and\u00a0William Samuel Huckel, Jr.<\/a> started a long and prolific partnership generating 326 projects<\/a>. Their combination police station, patrol station and fire house stood at the northwest corner of Seventh and Carpenter Streets until it was demolished<\/a> in 1962.<\/p>\n

W. Bleddyn Powell\u2019s<\/a> (1854-1910) projects<\/a> include the completion of City Hall. His combined fire\/patrol houses including one at 4th and Snyder, now long gone. He also turned out a police station at 19th and Oxford that later served as the first Opportunities Industrialization Center.<\/p>\n

Phillip H. Johnson<\/a> (1868-1933) is not to be confused with another architect: <\/span>Philip Johnson<\/a>. The Philadelphian was more notorious than famous. Through some skill and sheer connectedness he landed a lifetime contract with the City Health Department that earned his office more than $2 million in fees over three decades. Johnson\u2019s <\/span>projects<\/a> include the Philadelphia General Hospital, <\/span>Philadelphia Hospital for Contagious Diseases<\/a> and buildings at the <\/span>Philadelphia Hospital for Mental Diseases<\/a> aka Byberry. He also designed <\/span>City Hall Annex<\/a>. \u00a0Johnson cut his teeth on several firehouse projects: at 1016-1018 South Street, 50<\/a><\/span>th<\/sup><\/a> and Baltimore Avenue<\/a>, 1529-39 Parrish Street (illustrated here from Vince Feldman\u2019s aptly named book, <\/span>City Abandoned<\/a>) and 2936-38 Ridge Avenue. All of these survive except the last, which was demolished in 1994.<\/span><\/p>\n

No, we\u2019re not quite ready yet for the Philadelphia\u2019s Fin-de-si\u00e8cle Firehouse Boom tour. Heck, we\u2019re not even sure what we have\u2014or if we really even want to keep it.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As the city heated up, pushing outward in all directions, so did its fire department. As we\u2019ve seen in more than one\u00a0post, architect John Windrim stepped in and supplied an array of new and eclectic designs for the expanded municipal footprint, making up for lost time. Director of Public Works Windrim had a natural advantage […]<\/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-9343","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9343","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=9343"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9343\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9343"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9343"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9343"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}