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Eastern Pennsylvania » Philadelphia County » South Broad Street and Vicinity » Union League of Philadelphia

Union League of Philadelphia

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1864–1865, John Fraser; 1911 rear wing, Horace Trumbauer. 140 S. Broad St.
  • (Carol M. Highsmith Archive, Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress)
  • (Photograph by Matthew Aungst)

The principal survivor of Civil War Philadelphia is this clubhouse for an organization devoted to saving the Union and for a long time the center of Republican high culture. Designed by Scots-born Fraser, it has the air of an overscaled Victorian house, but the massive mansard roof and large-scale brownstone detail on a field of Philadelphia red brick enable it to hold its own among the skyscrapers that surround it. The projecting portico with its monumental stair and bronze railings are hallmarks of the old elegance of Broad Street, while the interiors were furnished by decorative artist George Herzog. In 1909, Horace Trumbauer designed a huge limestone-clad steel-framed rear wing in the Renaissance manner facing 15th Street.

Writing Credits

Author: 
George E. Thomas
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Data

What's Nearby

Land Title Building
The Bellevue (Bellevue-Stratford Hotel)
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Drexel Bank
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Citation

George E. Thomas, "Union League of Philadelphia", [Philadelphia, Pennsylvania], SAH Archipedia, eds. Gabrielle Esperdy and Karen Kingsley, Charlottesville: UVaP, 2012—, http://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/PA-02-PH55.

Print Source

Cover: Buildings of PA vol 2

Buildings of Pennsylvania: Philadelphia and Eastern Pennsylvania, George E. Thomas, with Patricia Likos Ricci, Richard J. Webster, Lawrence M. Newman, Robert Janosov, and Bruce Thomas. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2012, 88-88.

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