School of Dentistry, “Thomas W. Evans Museum and Dental Institute,” Fortieth and Spruce Streets, Collegiate Gothic, time of Henry VIII, hard burnt red and black brick and Indiana limestone, built, 1914, architect, John T. Windrim; the grotesques ornamenting the band courses, while in the spirit of the Middle Ages, are modern in subject and caricature; most complete edifice in the world, devoted to the science of dentistry. Museum contains the priceless Evans collection, gifts from the nobility of Europe, portraits and busts of Dr. Evans.
Henry Phipps Institute for the study, prevention, and treatment of tuberculosis, founded, 1903, northeast corner of Seventh and Lombard Streets; facing Starr Garden Park, a civic center of the Playgrounds Commission; is colonial style, designed by Grosvenor Atterbury, New York, brick trimmed with white marble.
Flower Astronomical Observatory at Llanerch on West Chester Pike, architect, Edgar V. Seeler, 1895. Open to visitors every Thursday evening during collegiate year, 7.00 P.M. to 10.00 P.M.; is equipped with an 18 inch equatorial telescope, and other instruments of latest and most approved design.
Dormitory Houses, Jacobean, thirty in number, begun in 1895, suggest the Oxford and Cambridge colleges; carved grotesque bosses on main cornices are reminiscent of the Gothic period; they are amusing, and display an unusual amount of imagination; material, hard burnt yellow brick and Indiana limestone; architects, Cope & Stewardson; entrance through two gateways known as Memorial Tower, gift of the Alumni, dedicated in 1901, in memory of University of Pennsylvania men who served in the Spanish-American War, corner-stone was laid by General Miles, in 1900; and the Provosts’ Tower, named as memorial to the Provosts of the University of Pennsylvania, whose twelve names are carved on medallions, from William Smith to Charles Custis Harrison.
William Penn Charter School, 8 to 10 South Twelfth Street, was planned in 1684 at a meeting of the Provincial Council, Governor Penn presiding. In 1689, William Penn, writing from England to Thomas Lloyd, President of Council, instructed him to set up a “Public Grammar School in Philadelphia,” the school was incorporated in 1698, and George Keith engaged as head master, 1699. In 1701, William Penn, while on a visit to America, granted the school a charter from his own hand; on the same day he chartered the city itself. This school is the oldest existing chartered school in America; a second and more liberal charter was granted, 1708, and a third charter, under which the school is still conducted, 1711; the originals of all three of these charters are in the school’s possession. The school will be moved to Pinehurst, the Waln estate, twenty-two acres on School Lane near Wissahickon Avenue, Germantown, acquired by gift; field now used for their athletic sports, surface having been adapted for the purpose by the Newhall Engineering Company, Philadelphia, who made there a football oval; an eighteen foot quarter-mile track; and an eighteen foot 220 yard straightway; drainage of these tracks and oval is such, that in eight years, not one scheduled contest has been postponed on account of condition of the ground.
Central High School, Broad and Green Streets; established, 1836. In view of the increasing income and diminishing debt of the nation, the United States Congress in 1836 passed a law, authorizing the distribution of surplus revenue among the states, to be disposed of as their legislatures might enact; Pennsylvania devoted her share, over $70,000, to public education, and the controllers erected a high school in Philadelphia, which was completed, 1838, east side of Juniper Street, below Market Street. In 1853, the original building was sold; present structure occupied in 1900. Conferring of academic degrees dates from 1849. Memorial window to Edward T. Steel in assembly room.
Girard College, College and Corinthian Avenues, for the care and training of orphan boys; founded by Stephen Girard, a native of France, who at his death, in 1831, left his estate for this purpose. Main building, architect, Thomas Ustick Walter, architect of the Capitol at Washington, probably the finest architectural specimen in Philadelphia, modeled after a Greek temple, white marble, covers an area of 34,344 feet, exclusive of eleven marble steps by which it is approached on every side; a colonnade of 34 Corinthian columns aid in supporting the marble roof, each column 6 feet in diameter and 55 feet high, the diameter of corner columns being increased 1½ inches to overcome apparent reduction of size from their insulated position; bases 9 feet 3 inches in diameter, 3 feet 2 inches high, capitals 8 feet 6 inches high and 9 feet 4 inches wide; each shaft, as well as the bases, consists of a single piece, without vertical joints; at each end of the three story building is a vestibule, the ceilings of which are supported by eight columns, whose shafts are composed of a single stone; corner-stone was laid July 4, 1834, and the completed building transferred to the Board of Directors, 1847. In the first vestibule is white marble sarcophagus, with body of Stephen Girard, and his statue by Gevelot; the memorial room contains portrait of Girard, by J. R. Lambdin, copy from posthumous portrait by Bass Otis in Masonic Temple; interesting collection of furniture; pictures; china; silverware, and fine marble bust of Napoleon I, by Canova, presented to Girard by Joseph Bonaparte.
Present capacity, 1520 boys, admitted from six to ten years of age and graduated fourteen to sixteen years of age, preference of admission is given to those born within the old Philadelphia city limits, next in consideration those born in Pennsylvania, and third group, boys born in the cities of New York and New Orleans. There are several hundred on waiting list.
Equipment comprises ten white marble buildings for school and house purposes, chapel seating 1600, and other buildings, also plant for heat, light, and power, inclosed on forty acres with a ten-foot high stone wall. Endowment now about $29,000,000. Soldiers’ and sailors’ monument on campus, in memory of the graduates who served in the Civil War; sculptor, J. Massey Rhind. Clergymen are excluded by Girard’s will, “that the boys might be kept free from denominational controversies.” Bible has always had a foremost place in the teaching of the college; Chapel speakers are laymen of prominence in the professional and business world.