New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1873-08-08
ARCHITECTURE IN PHILADELPHIA FOR
1876

Our philadelphia friends will not question
the sincerity of our sympathy with their great
Memorial enterprise for 1876. We were among
the first. beyond a certain limited locality, to
say for it words of encouragement and nope.
Hence ia it that we the more freely ven
ture, without the risk of Offense, on the
threshold. to give little admOnitOry
counsel. The Centennial Commission" or
whatever body it may be which has charge OF
the matter, has at this moment, architectural
plans under consideration. If this Celebration
is to be national-and, unless it Is, 1t VIII GER
tainly fail-then the nation has an interest In
the Temple, as q matter of architectural taste
and beauty, in which it is to be held. But
the point which we desire to impress Is
onf trust that the adiudicatory body may be
ON its gSaSd against what we may term the
spirit of philadelphia architecture: 1t Is a
curious fact that, after succession of abOrtiye
attempts to erect really impressive building,
admirable as a work of art, Philadelphia,
at tho end of nearly two centuries of
brick and mortar and tChite marble, with
the exception of an incomplete Masonic
temple, and one or two small churches
lin which neither external brick nor white
marble figure), has scarcely single public
building, sacred or secular on which the art
eye dare dwell.
We say this advisedly. The un9sthetc
spirit of the Founder and his sect still rests
upon their city. The old Portuguese Minister,
so many of whose pungent sayings live in ira
dition, used to call it "Athenian Gothic" The
colonial and ecclesiastical authorities for time
made a struggle for a better school, and the
fruits were old Christ Church and Saint
Peters and the State House, which
are at least peculiar and characteristic.
Then came a short triumph of Gre
clan marble The Bank of Pennsylvania,
designed by the elder Latrobe, who was an
architect, was the first fruit, and in its day
was quite pretty. 1t was sacrificed by dis
creditable sale to the Federal Government,
and not stone survives. Huge brick stores
now cover its site. Then came what may be
termed the Strickland Walter school of uni
formity-again Greek temples and white mar
ble-Mr. Biddles Bank and Mr.. Biddles
Girard College. OF the two, the Bank, in its
simplicity, was the better, but its moderate
beauty was spoiled by punching sort of
portfolios under its cOlonnade. The College,
meant to be a copy of the ParthenOn and the
Madeleine, is, to the eye of taste, radi-
cally defective for want of the double row
of columns, and is, from its situation,
dominating dead level, utterly unimpressive.
Now, these, we say-and if we do injustice let
us be corrected-are the fruits of the Philadel-
phia school of building. Certainly neither
Vitruvius, nor Palladio, nor Sir Christopher,
nor even lingo has yet made his appearance
in the City of Penn. Are we wrong then in
asking the administrators of this great trust,
even the Philadelphians, to rise above the local
influenced They can boast a natural site the
banks and by the slopes of the Schuylkill en-
tirely unequaled. Let it not, we pray, be dis
figured by some quadrangular monstrosity.