A Few Pictures of Old City Philadelphia and Philadelphia's Magic Gardens

I have been to Philadelphia several times the last few months and each time I thoroughly enjoyed its lovely old architecture. The historical buildings such as City Hall, the Philadelphia Contributionship and the Union League of Philadelphia are all beautiful, as well as the old houses in Old City Philadelphia.

I don’t know much about these buildings – so far my visits have been focused on just exploring and shopping at vintage shops – but I wanted to share some of the pictures with you.

Philadelphia’s City Hall is one of the largest municipal buildings “in the United States and one of the largest in the world.” (1) It has 700 rooms and was designed by the architect John McArthur, Jr. It was built between 1871 and 1901 with a construction cost of $24 million. It is a truly beautiful building, built in the Second Empire Style. I have walked by and through the exterior a few times and even that is an awesome experience to see how lovely it is. One particularly hot, humid day mothers had brought their children and small toddlers out so that they could run back and forth in joy where the spurting shoots of water spout out. The children were giggling and thoroughly amused. Musicians were playing under the archway where you walk from one side of the building through to the other.

During the 1950’s, a few of the major city officials briefly thought about tearing down City Hall and replacing it. They discovered through estimates that to demolish the structure would bankrupt the city due to the extensive masonry construction involved in building it. I, for one, am very glad they kept it. In 1976 City Hall was named a National Historic Landmark.

The Philadelphia Contributionship was built in 1835-36 for the purpose of housing a fire-insurance company for homes. It is the oldest property-insurance company in the United States. It was built in the Greek Revival style.

Along the side streets and alley walkways you often see small signs stating that some houses were built around 1794. One thing I did not see such an abundance of in the Old City area was flowers along the streets and fronts of houses. The architecture is beautiful though and it is great to see such old history, along with simple elegant structures alive and well today.

That is all in this post about the architecture. If I get a chance to go again and have a trip where that is my main focus then I perhaps can do another post with more history about more of the various structures in Old City Philadelphia.

On South Street, the creative and artistic area of town, there is a large piece of “public artwork” by Isaiah Zagar. It is now called the Philadelphia Magic Gardens . It is a very large mosaic piece made from all kinds of recycled materials. Zagar began this piece in 1994, near his studio at 1020 South Street. He had been busy in the entire area since the late 60’s with various projects and adding his mosaics to walls on either private or public land. The area was in need of renovations and had many abandoned lots. “The Zagars (Isaiah and Julia, his wife), along with other locals revitalized the South Street area into an ‘artistic haven.’” (2) In 2002 the owner of the vacant lots Isaiah had transformed wanted to sell the land his artwork was installed upon. The community assisted Zagar in a legal battle, which they won in 2004. Once they were able to keep the land, Isaiah’s work was named Philadelphia’s Magic Gardens, and the space became a nonprofit with its aim to preserve this particular site as well as the rest of the South Street neighborhoods’ mosaics that Isaiah had worked on. Once this was under way, Zagar continued his work by “excavating tunnels and grottos” and proceeding to add his mosaics all around the structure.

In 2008 the Philadelphia Magic Gardens opened to the public and began to host various activities and tours. Concerts, exhibitions and private rentals for special occasions are now available. Zagar has mural workshops available and many other creative programs. He has created over 200 murals in either Philadelphia or other places in the world. I have attached a link to a youtube video if you would like to find out more about his work.

My daughter was the one who first told me about the South Street area. The first couple of times I went to Philadelphia I hadn’t headed over behind the old historical structures. When I ventured there I absolutely loved the area. It reminds me of the way the West Village was before 9/11 and before so many corporations leased the retail properties in the area. There are corporate stores on South Street, yet also a large amount of small privately run businesses. The artistic vein of creativity is very much alive in this area of Philadelphia. I am looking forward to going back there this fall at some point once my foot heals from my recent surgery.

I hope you are enjoying the last days of summer. I will have another upcycled links post ready for you very soon!

contribution building