Bellevue Literary Institute - Sixty-Fifth St. and Haverford Ave. - Dedication 1877

1878 - Important Events of the Century...

Inquirer 2 Oct 1877

BELLEVUE LITERARY INSTITUTE

Dedication Of The New Building in West Philadelphia 

The dedication of the new hall took place last evening in the presence of a large audience. The preliminary exercises consisted of a piano solo by Mr. J. Zelby, Jr., a chorus sung by the Bellevue Choral Society, and an address by Mr. Jonathan Bonsall, president of the Bellevue Institute. Mrs. Dr. Dalton and Miss Anna Walton sang a duet, after which the orator of the evening, Colonel John W. Forney, was introduced. He said his idea would have been, had the occasion served, to have spoken on the pleasures of work, now that bankruptcy and want of honor and want of manliness seem to be the prevailing custom of the time, when the whole world seems to be abandoned to a disrespect for law and order. After all, what has been the duty and beauty of the Centennial, of which this sweet little temple was a part, if not to give a practical idea of the pleasure of work. The exhibition is an old story, and yet everyday and hour it becomes more interesting to us. Philadelphia has a right to be proud of it. After a solo by Miss Lidie Fischer, Professor James Rhoads was introduced, and spoke in reference to his residence of nearly sixty years in West Philadelphia. Mr. J. A. Simpson, Jr., was the next speaker, and said that it was just by such work as the Bellevue Institute was engaged in that Massachusetts had achieved such power. Hon. William D. Kelley made a short address, and said be had been for twenty-seven years a resident of West Philadelphia. Now, there is the George Institute, endowed by that noble old bachelor, Jesse George, and then there is the West Philadelphia Institute, with its fine building. When he first removed to West Philadelphia it required 93,000 persons for a Congressional district, now it requires 126,000. They have here the most effectual of educational agencies; the very word education means to draw it. In his boyhood the speaker belonged to a youth's debating society, and when he recalled his associates he found in their number distinguished divines and eminent lawyers. One of the boys of that institute has been thrice mayor of Boston, another is the leading manufacturing jeweler of Boston.  Addresses were also delivered by Mr. W. L. Morris and Rev. J. W. Mills. The building dedicated last night was that used in the Centennial Grounds for the Rowell newspaper pavilion.

1876 - Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper

(Manual for visitors among the poor :
with a classified and descriptive directory to the charitable and beneficent institutions of Philadelphia. 1879)

Inquirer 2 Dec 1876

(above) A typo perhaps or the address changed as to destination of building. Mancill Hall owned by Mancill Brothers at SE Sixty-Third and Vine Streets at that location from early 1870s, prior to Centennial Exposition, replacement building or a typo in Inquirer?, the Mancill Hall building there until 1920s.

Inquirer 25 May 1877

Public Ledger 25 Jul 1922

Inquirer 5 May 1901
...
At Sixty-fifth and Haverford avenue one of the old Centennial buildings is still standing, although it is rapidly falling into decay and can last but a short time longer. During the Centennial this structure was know as the American Newspaper Building. It is a frame building, two stories in height and of Swiss architecture. It was originally located on what was the called Fountain avenue, near the lake, within the Centennial grounds. It contained a large hall and a reading room, supplied with newspapers and periodicals. It was transferred to the present site in 1878.