Front Parlor Much like Kimball, the methods that he employed at the Powel House could bought the house in 1931, Kimball eventually supported her efforts by be problematic. However, it is important to remember that because of his presenting Landmarks with the original woodwork taken from this room (as it As you enter the front parlor, take a moment to examine the furniture in the training and experience, Kimball believed he was doing what was necessary was not being used by the Museum) and loaning her some of the furniture. room and the architecture above the fireplace. All of these pieces have been and right to save the legacy of the Powel House. His method involved Due to the return of the room’s moldings and trim, it is one of the only rooms preserved and maintained so that they could be seen and studied today. While purchasing the key architectural pieces of the house, such as the woodwork, in the house that is original and not a reconstruction. In this room then, it is this room is the simplest architecturally because it was the only room the and reconstructing them at the Art Museum to be displayed as period rooms important to think about how history is remembered and preserved. It is not general public had access to when conducting business with Samuel and later along with contemporary furniture and paintings. Today, such invasive enough to just save the physical pieces but preservation must also engage with Elizabeth Powel, it has been preserved for the sake of the stories it can tell. techniques would not be used but, rather, there would be greater effort to and interpret the space. It is also necessary to examine why a piece is saved Preservation is the key to saving the past for future generations and the Powel preserve the entire building not just the architecturally significant pieces. The since one can learn not only about the time it is from but also of the time in House is an important example of the different methods used over the years to difference between the methods is that today there is an emphasis on the place which it was saved. preserve it. The reason you are able to experience this historic house is itself as a means of telling history while in Kimball’s time the focus was because of the efforts made by Frances Wister in the 1930’s to save the house mainly on the artistic value of the architecture itself. Kimball felt compelled to Ballroom from demolition. remove the interior of the house to increase the prestige of the museum and to save the architecture from damage as the house was used as an active You are now entering in the main However, earlier attempts to warehouse. Thus while his actions would be questioned by modern day entertaining room of the house: the preserve the significance of the preservationists that focus on saving the entire structure to maintain the ballroom. As the most elegant room in Powel House began in earnest historic character and environment, Kimball would have seen himself as the house, this was where the Powels in the 1920’s with Fiske saving important historic artifacts that might have otherwise been lost. would host large dinner parties that Kimball’s work to remove the included many of the founding fathers interior architectural designs. Dining Room like George Washington and John Kimball studied architecture at Adams. Fiske Kimball and the Harvard University and taught This room is historically significant because it is believed to be the first room Philadelphia Museum of Art removed at both the University of in America to be designed solely as a dining room. The Philadelphia Museum most of the woodwork and Rococo Michigan and the University of of Art purchased and removed elements of the dining room, such as the architecture by 1927. Kimball’s interest Virginia. He wrote countless books and articles Kimball on left woodwork above the fireplace, along with many of the other rooms in the in the Rococo plaster ceiling arose because it is one of the few examples of on American and European architectural designs house. After removing the rooms’ interiors, many in the fields of art and English Rococo in America, since the extravagant Baroque style was used of the 18th century and in 1923 became chairman of the restoration committee architecture did not see any value in preserving the rest of the Powel House mainly in France and Italy. Kimball’s goal was to remove all of the for Thomas Jefferson’s estate, Monticello. Kimball’s success in the field of from the damaging effects of being used as a warehouse. Indeed, when talk of architecturally significant pieces, from the ceiling to the mantelpiece, and architecture landed him the role of director for the Philadelphia Museum of its destruction arose in 1930, Joseph Downs, the Curator of Decorative Arts at recreate it at the Museum in order to display American colonial architecture. Art in 1925 when it was expanding to its new location on the Benjamin the Philadelphia Museum of Art wrote in a letter to a descendent of the Powel Originally, he did not plan to purchase this room because the room was Franklin Parkway. While Kimball had a strong reputation as an expert in the family that “the Powel House, as far as I know, was entirely stripped of covered in wallpaper. However, when he removed the wallpaper he found the field of architecture, his rough and impolite personality often left him widely anything which might possibly be considered of value from an antiquarian pattern of the original Rococo paneling. Kimball then immediately bought the unpopular. Even his friends, who wrote his biography acknowledged, “more point of view. While it is a pity to see it go, it has very little now to justify its woodwork and ceiling for $5000 (67,000 in today’s dollars) from owner Wolf people disliked than liked” him, and told how the head of the architecture preservation.” Indeed, even Fiske Kimball, the Director of the Museum, said Klebansky. department at Michigan attempted to have Kimball thrown out of the that the only piece still worth keeping would be the staircase and it was only department because of his hatred for Kimball. Due to his tendency to tease still there because he would “find difficulty in showing it” in the museum. The one benefit of Kimball’s removal of the interior was that since he was others and make off-color remarks, such as his habit of telling dirty stories These two quotes reveal one of the perspectives on preservation in the 1920’s, trained in architecture, he carefully studied the rooms in order to produce around the refined upper-class society, Kimball acquired a reputation as a in which only the actual material was seen as valuable without concerns as to accurate recreations. However, since the room was to showcase the art in the “bull in a china shop.” However, while most saw his rudeness as a fault, Eli the stories that the space could tell. museum as well as be part of the art, he did take some artistic liberty when Price, the president of the Art Museum, believed Kimball was “not a bull but a reconstructing the room, such as adding to the additional scroll work designs lion” who was needed to shape the museum into the world-renowned art Indeed, if Frances Wister and the Philadelphia Society for the Preservation of around the fireplace and changing the location of the doorway. The different institute it is today. Landmarks did not intervene, then this space would have been turned into a representation of the room stemmed from Kimball’s desire to make the parking lot instead of a historic house with a rich past. After Wister saved and museum one that “any nation might be proud and a source of delight and inner enrichment to every citizen.” Therefore, Kimball’s chief goal was to increase see is a fairly accurate representation of how the room would have functioned the prestige of the museum; the preservation of the artifacts for their own sake and looked. One of the most faithful interpretations is the inclusion of the Preservation History of the Powel House came second. While Kimball might have considered himself a preservationist, green trim paint that Kimball discovered when removing the woodwork from modern preservationists are more focused on trying to limit the changes made the ballroom. Introduction to buildings. Since Kimball only saved specific artifacts for preventive care, In 1769, Samuel and Elizabeth Powel he can in some ways be seen more as a conservationist than a preservationist. The Met’s room, on the other hand, highlights the pitfalls of interpretation. purchased this house and transformed it into Indeed, the main tenet of modern preservation calls for the utmost respect for Since the withdrawing room was removed from its original context, the one of the most impressive colonial Georgian the historical and material integrity of the property, meaning that such harsh curators at the museum decided to interpret it more broadly. As a result they architectural buildings in America. As one of techniques, as removing the woodwork and plasterwork, would be frowned added Chinese wallpaper because it was used in other contemporary houses the wealthiest families in Philadelphia, the upon. but there is no evidence that the Powel family ever used it. Furthermore, to increase the grandeur of their room, the Met added a copy of the Rococo Powels designed the house to reflect the Regardless of his designation, Kimball’s approach was quite different from the ceiling from the ballroom into their design, which is a clear misrepresentation European architectural style and used the non-invasive maintenance techniques that aim to protect the historic character of the withdrawing room and gives a false sense of the importance of this second story rooms to entertain the elite of of the entire building. There are good reasons for the rise of modern practices, room. Both of these issues reveal the problem of removing an historical piece colonial society, such as George and Martha as Kimball would discover when the beautiful Rococo plaster ceiling shattered from its original context. Indeed, one major problem of the work done by Washington. Due to its Rococo styled interior into pieces after they slipped off their cases because the glue supporting it Kimball and other museums such as the Met is that it is a static representation and important history, many people in the failed after being stored in the museum at a 45-degree angle for two weeks. of the historical pieces, which can result in the loss of the historic meaning. In 20th century sought to preserve the Powel House as one of the best This incident also revealed Kimball’s often abrasive and rude manners as his contrast, house museums, like the Powel House, can provide a fuller and more representations of an upper-class colonial home. Beginning in the 1920’s, the letters to the plaster contractors who removed the ceiling and moved it to the complete sense of the history of the time since they can engage more actively history of the preservation of the Powel House has taken many twists and museum accused them of complete incompetence, while he refused to take with the community. Place is also important because it is through which that turns with museums buying parts of the interior to put in their exhibits. This any responsibility for the damages. Indeed, his second letter become more cultural identity, social history and urban design are expressed and allows for process began when the then owner of the property, Wolf Klebansky, decided hostile as he stated that “it is of course obvious that, if the plaster had been the understanding of the past to connect to the present. Therefore, it is to sell the decorative architecture of the house to the Metropolitan Museum of properly attached, the molding would not have fallen off… therefore, the essential to continue to save and preserve the entire historic structure because Art and the Philadelphia Museum of Art. This approach sought to save the responsibility for the detachment and scattering of the molding rests entirely only when taken as a whole can the place begin to share the deeper secrets of important pieces of the house, such as the trim around the mantelpiece, from upon your firm.” While they were fortunately able to create new plaster casts the past. possible damage and destruction since the house was being used as a based off pictures, the destruction of the originals highlights the problematic warehouse for Klebansky’s horsehair business. attempts of these early preservations efforts. Conclusion Fiske Kimball, director of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, was a leader in architecture preservation and worked to take many of the iconic architectural Withdrawing Room The preservation of the Powel House has a complicated history because of the early work done by Kimball, which scattered the original pieces amongst the pieces out of the house and into the museum where the rooms were After the dinner parties and Powel House, Philadelphia Museum of Art, and the Metropolitan Museum of reconstructed. While this process was aimed at saving the important interior dancing in the ballroom, the Art. While Kimball prized the architectural value of the pieces he was works of the Powel House, later preservation strategies shifted to save the Powels and their guests would preserving and saw his work as essential to saving the legacy of the Powel entire structure. The move to save entire buildings originated amongst women transition into this room to House, he often overlooked the historical value of place and the need for preservation groups and it was one such group led by Frances Wister that finish the night with insightful and meaningful interpretation. Kimball’s method of removing the saved the Powel House in 1931. The difference between early and modern refreshments. The withdrawing interior of the rooms has caused damage to some of the original pieces but at preservation revolves around some early methods’ reliance on removing room expresses both the the time his actions were seen as necessary to save the pieces from being lost artifacts and preserving them in museums while newer methods seek to importance and problems of completely. Removing the architecture from its context has also led to maintain the entire building to preserve its integrity. This is done by making historical interpretation. The Metropolitan Museum of Art (Met) purchased interpretation problems at both the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the sure all alterations are absolutely necessary and if a replacement is needed, it and removed the original interior of this room in 1917 in order to add it to its Metropolitan Museum. Kimball’s story is important to remember as it can is done with similar material, such as a wooden support beam being replaced American Wing collection. Since this room therefore exists in two different guide our current understanding of preservation and help us work to save and with another wooden beam not a modern steel one. This tour aims to share the places and is managed by different organizations, the interpretation and interpret history in a way that instructs and engages with events happening history of the early efforts of preservation looking at their successes and representation of the room is quite different between the two. The room you today. shortcomings and showing why preservation is still essential today.