Friday, August 16, 2013
Tuesday, August 13, 2013
Saturday, August 10, 2013
Old Academy Bell - University of Penn - Philadelphia
Old Academy Bell - U of Penn. - 1752 |
On March 14,
1752, two months after his commission to create a silver inkstand for the
Pennsylvania State House (Independence Hall), a bell that Philip Syng had
ordered from London arrived in Philadelphia. This bell was to be shared by the
Union Fire Company that he and Franklin had founded, and, the Hand-In-Hand Fire
Company. With nowhere to hang the bell, Franklin, Syng and their fellow
trustees agreed that the bell would now also be shared with the Academy and
hung in a steeple that would be added to the Academy's "New
Building". There, it would sound fire alarms and "answer the purpose
of the Academy in giving Notice to the Scholars of the Hours of Meeting."
After a long and stormy history of ownership, the Academy Bell was returned to
the University of Pennsylvania in 1945. Again without a belfry, it is today
displayed in the University of Pennsylvania's Van Pelt-Deitrich Library.
This time the
Trustees decided they had no power to act in this situation, although they had
power to refuse in 1807. The wardens of St. James, being in possession, had the
weight of the bell and the height of the steeple on their side, and the bell
remained where it was.
In 1869 St.
James was razed and a new church erected by the congregation at the comer Of
22nd and Walnut streets. The bell was moved to the new location. It no longer
sounded any alarms.
In 1945 the
congregation sold its property at 22nd and Walnut to the Atlantic Refining
Company as the site for a filling station. Demolition was begun in April 1945.
At this time, without minutes, petitions, ceremony, or special deliberation,
the bell was quietly turned over to the University of Pennsylvania, largely
through the efforts of Mr. William Du Barry, an officer of St. James and Vice
President of the University.
For 193
years, the name used had been the "Academy Bell"--not the Union Fire
Company Bell or the Hand in Hand Bell or the Phoenix Bell. Therefore the bell
came back to the Academy.
The Academy
at Fourth and Arch is gone; the "Presidential Palace" is gone; the
fire companies are gone. Two St. Jameses are gone. But the bell and the
University remain. And for the third time in its history the bell has no
belfry. The Library has no belfry either, but it has an honored place for the
bell, which rang the last time for the dedication of the Van Pelt wing of the
Library where, as President Gaylord Harnwell announced on that occasion,
"it shall remain as long as the building shall stand."
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Friday, August 9, 2013
Spire - Bas-Reliefs - St. James Episcopal Church Philadelphia - The Churchman July 6, 1895
The Churchman July 6, 1895
The Beheading - (right) |
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hardman_%26_Co.
Hardman Drawing Design and Stained Glass
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St. James Episcopal Church Philadelphia - 22nd and Walnut Sts. - 1871-1945
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Tuesday, August 6, 2013
Saint James Episcopal Church - 22nd and Walnut Sts.- Philadelphia
1871 |
1887 |
1933 |
St James Church Philadelphia
- Also (*) See comment #2 Michael J. Lewis - 2 Jan 2016 - for clarification of Architect’s credit.
NW Corner 22nd and Walnut Sts. - Present (Google Maps) |
Sunday, August 4, 2013
Coogan's Warehousing and Moving - Alco Trucks - 1913 - Philadelphia
Advertising - 1913 |
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