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EXPOSITION BUILDINGS Memorial Hall From the Schuylkill Expressway you can see its dome peaking above the treetops. Or you may recognize it as the backdrop for many a movie set. Memorial Hall is one of Fairmount Park's most recognizable landmarks and the only major building left from the 1876 Centennial Exposition. Fairmount Park Chief Engineer Hermann Schwarzmann created this national significant Centennial Art Gallery as one of America's first examples of Beaux-Arts architecture. Memorial Hall's price tag was $1.5 million, quite a sum at that time. Consider though that Memorial Hall was built without wood and was fireproofed. The dedication of this fine building was made by U.S. President Ulysses S. Grant at the Centennial. Memorial Hall served as the city's art museum until the Philadelphia Museum of Art opened in 1928. If you've never set foot in its Great Hall you're missing one of Philadelphia's vast spaces. A whole new generation will soon be introduced to its grand architecture and important history as the Please Touch Museum occupies Memorial Hall in 2007. To the Centennial Model enthusiasts among you, the scale Model of the 1876 Centennial Exposition fairgrounds will stay! Location: West Fairmount Park 4231 North Concourse Drive Philadelphia, PA 19131  FDR Park Police Station and Stable Like numerous other park structures, this handsomely tiled roof building served as a Park Guard station for most of its life. In its heyday this large complex, with an enclosed outdoor courtyard, accommodated 25 horses for the Mounted Park Guard Division and the K-9 Corps Kennel. One of the rare Arts and Crafts style buildings in the Park, it is currently home to park and recreation staff serving FDR Park and Center City. Location: FDR Park 1600 Pattison Avenue Philadelphia, PA 19145  Sesquicentennial Exposition Emergency Hospitals After 1926, the existing Sesquicentennial Emergency Hospitals for Men and Women became a locker room for swimmers and a Park Guard station. Park users swam in nearby Meadow Lake. The Fairmount Park Commission adapted the "natural" lake designed by Frederick Olmstead into a swimming pool lined with concrete. In the 1970s, the Men's Hospital became a park maintenance building. The Women's Hospital has been vacant since closure of the park pool (a second, modem pool) in the late 1990s. This building is currently available for adaptive reuse. Location: FDR Park 1601 and 1607 FDR Parkway Philadelphia, PA 19145 |
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