The Victorian Society in America Annual Meeting 2019 C E L E B R AT I N G Queen Victoria’s 200th Birthday in Philadelphia MAY 23 - 25, 2019 • PRE-TOUR MAY 22, 2019 WEDNESDAY, MAY 22 OPTIONAL PRE-TOUR Depart by coach from hotel at 12:30 p.m. • Return to hotel at 5 p.m., depart at 5:30 for Opening Reception Breakfast on your own, lunch included at Jack’s Firehouse, located in a converted 19th century firehouse THE RODIN MUSEUM After lunch, we’ll swing by the Rodin Museum for a brief self-guided visit of this intimate venue. As one of the most revered destinations in Philadelphia, the Rodin Museum offers a verdant, elegant setting in which to enjoy some of the world’s most renowned masterpieces of sculpture, the largest collection of Auguste Rodin’s works outside Paris. Opened in 1929, the museum is administered by the Philadelphia Museum of Art. EASTERN STATE PENITENTIARY, GUIDED TOUR Eastern State Penitentiary was once the most famous and expensive prison in the world, but stands today in ruin, a haunting world of crumbling cellblocks and empty guard towers. Known for its grand architecture and strict discipline, this was the world’s first true “penitentiary,” a prison designed to inspire penitence, or true regret, in the hearts of prisoners. It’s vaulted sky-lit cells once held many of America’s most notorious criminals, including bank robber “Slick Willie” Sutton and Al Capone. Now it is a historic site, where we will learn the legacy of American criminal justice reform, from the nation’s founding through to the present day. The Rodin Museum, Phildelphia. 6 p.m. Opening Reception at the Wagner Free Institute • hearty hors d’oeuvres Keynote address by Michael J. Lewis, professor of architectural history at Williams College and reviewer of architecture for the Wall Street Journal, and board member of the Victorian Society in America. THURSDAY, MAY 23 STUDY TOUR PROGRAM Depart on foot 8:45 a.m. • Return by coach 5:30 p.m. replaced by the current synagogue. An outstanding example of Byzantine revival Breakfast & dinner on your own, lunch included. • Guide: Michael J. Lewis architecture, the synagogue features a limestone-clad exterior and a lavish interior with entryway mosaics, elaborate marble flooring, and hand-painted MORNING ON FOOT: PHILADELPHIA CITY HALL (1871) decorative stenciling. EXTERIOR WALKING TOUR & VISIT TO MAYOR’S RECEPTION ROOM Philadelphia City Hall is the seat of government for the city of Philadelphia, THE MET PHILADELPHIA • GUIDED TOUR Pennsylvania. The building was constructed from 1871 to 1901 within Penn Built in 1908 by opera impresario, Oscar Hammerstein, the once–lavish Square, in the middle of Center City. John McArthur Jr. and Thomas Ustick Walter Metropolitan Opera House is recognized internationally for its superb acoustics designed the building in the Second Empire style. and once served as a recording hall for the Philadelphia Orchestra. Now known as the Met Philadelphia, the theater reopened in December 2018, after a MASONIC TEMPLE (1873) • GUIDED TOUR complete renovation, as a concert venue. The Masonic Temple serves as the headquarters of the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania, Free and Accepted Masons, featuring the Masonic Library and GIRARD COLLEGE Museum of Pennsylvania. The ornate structure, which includes seven lodge Founder’s Hall at Girard College (1833–1847) is considered one of the finest rooms, was designed in the medieval Norman style by James H. Windrim. The examples of American Greek Revival architecture, for which it is designated interior, designed by George Herzog, was begun in 1887 and took another fifteen a National Historic Landmark. Founder Stephen Girard specified in his will the years to finish. dimensions and plan of the building and demanded an architectural competition for the school’s design. Endowed with his $2 million contribution, the 1832 PENNSYLVANIA ACADEMY OF THE FINE ARTS (1876) competition was the first American architectural competition to have truly GUIDED TOUR & BOX LUNCH national participation. The winning architect was Thomas Ustick Walter (1804– The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA) was founded in 1805 by 1887). After the Girard commission, Walter designed the dome of the United painter and scientist Charles Willson Peale, sculptor William Rush, and other States Capitol in Washington, D.C. He returned to Philadelphia and became an artists and business leaders. The current museum building opened in 1876. assistant architect on the City Hall and, in 1857, a founding member of the Designed by the American architects Frank Furness and George W. Hewitt, it has American Institute of Architects (AIA). been designated a National Historic Landmark and is recognized as an important part of America’s and Philadelphia’s architectural heritage. The collection explores the history of American art from the 1760s to the present. AFTERNOON BY COACH: CONGREGATION RODEPH SHALOM • GUIDED TOUR Congregation Rodeph Shalom dates its founding to 1795 with the coalescing of the first Ashkenazic congregation in the Western Hemisphere. Its first dedicated sanctuary was constructed in 1871 on its current site. Designed by Frank Furness, considered the most exciting Philadelphia architect of his time, It was a showpiece of Moorish-style architecture. In 1928, the Furness building was Cover: Furness Library. Above: Entryway mosaics at Congregation Rodeph Shalom. FRIDAY, MAY 24 STUDY TOUR PROGRAM Depart by coach 9:15 a.m. • Return 5 p.m. • Breakfast and dinner on your own, OR Alumni Association dinner.* Lunch included at annual business meeting Guides: Michael J. Lewis & Aaron Wunsch, associate professor, historic preservation, University of Pennsylvania MORNING: UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA CAMPUS TOUR Louis I. Kahn. The archives facility houses the Harvey & Irwin Kroiz Gallery, a We begin at Woodland Terrace, picturesque group of Italianate double houses specialized library, study room, and seminar room, as well as storage and by Samuel Sloan (1861). Move east through the Quadrangle, a superb dormitory processing facilities. complex by Cope & Stewardson (1894-1912) that set the model for the Collegiate Gothic style in America. Walk along Locust Walk, the main spine of the campus AFTERNOON: ST. JAMES THE LESS with important buildings by Horace Trumbauer, Mellor & Meigs, Robert Rhodes This is the first example of the pure English Parish church style in America, and McGoodwin and others. Also, College Hall (1872), Thomas Webb Richards, one of the best examples of a 19th century American Gothic church for its architect; is an essay in richly polychromatic Ruskinian Gothic. coherence and authenticity of design. Its influence on the major architects of the Gothic Revival in the United States was profound. The church and associated FISHER FINE ARTS LIBRARY school have been closed since 2006, when, after a lengthy court battle, the local Designed by the acclaimed Philadelphia architect Frank Furness (1839–1912), Episcopal diocese assumed control of the property. In 2008, the Standing the red sandstone, brick-and-terra-cotta Venetian Gothic giant—part fortress and Committee of the Episcopal Diocese of Pennsylvania voted to allow St. Mark’s part cathedral—was built to be the primary library of the University, and to house Church to adopt the Church of St. James the Less as a mission of St. Mark’s. its archeological collection. The cornerstone was laid in October 1888, construction was completed in late 1890. LAUREL HILL CEMETERY *Luncheon and business meeting at the Furness Library. Founded in 1836, Laurel Hill was the second major garden or rural cemetery in the United States. In 1998, it was designated a National Historic Landmark; few ARCHITECTURAL ARCHIVES cemeteries have received this distinction. Numerous prominent people are buried The Architectural Archives of the University of Pennsylvania preserves the works here, including many of Philadelphia’s leading industrial magnates. Names such of more than 400 designers from the 17th century to the present. Major as Rittenhouse, Widener, and Elkins certainly pique local interests, but Laurel collections include the comprehensive archives of a number of the 20th century’s Hill also appeals to a national audience. General Meade and thirty-nine other most significant designers, including: Robert Venturi & Denise Scott Brown; Civil War-era generals reside here, in addition to six Titanic passengers. More Lawrence Halprin; Ian L. McHarg; Edmund N. Bacon; Anne Griswold Tyng; and than a cemetery, Laurel Hill is a sculptural garden, a horticultural gem and a unique historical resource. NOTE: We can drop those who are interested at The Philadelphia *Alumni Association Annual Meeting & Dinner Museum of Art, which is open Friday nights until 8:45 p.m. Separate Reservation Required (see registration page) SATURDAY, MAY 25 STUDY TOUR PROGRAM Depart on foot 8:45 a.m. • Return by coach 4:30 p.m. RITTENHOUSE SQUARE, HORACE JAYNE HOUSE • INTERIOR TOUR Breakfast and lunch on your own Designed by Frank Furness (1895), built for his niece; it is Furness’s last great Closing Banquet & Awards Presentation included urban house and has been exquisitely restored. Many of Furness’s grandest Guide: Jeffrey A. Cohen, senior lecturer in architectural history, Philadelphia houses of the 1880s and 1890s were built near or fronting on Bryn Mawr College Rittenhouse Square; only the Thomas A. Reilly house and the Jayne house survive. MORNING: UNION LEAGUE CLUB GUIDED TOUR WITH HISTORIAN JIM MUNDY AFTERNOON: COACH TO GERMANTOWN The Union League of Philadelphia, ranked the #1 City Club in the Country, is a As the site of Philadelphia’s only Revolutionary War battle, the first American shining jewel of history in a city defined by such treasure. Founded in 1862 as a written protest against slavery and home of one the few remaining houses on patriotic society to support the Union and the policies of President Abraham the Underground Railroad, the Germantown community is of major architectural Lincoln.