Ethereum

Highrise #12

Collection

Highrises

Description

**Crozer Building** **Art by:** Chris Hytha **Story by:** Mark Houser The finery of a Loire Valley château was draped over a steel frame to create this early Philadelphia highrise. It was erected for the American Baptist Publication Society, which for years had printed and sold religious tracts and Bibles at its offices here, maintained a library, and coordinated various charitable causes until an 1896 fire destroyed it all. The new building’s French style obviously curtsies to Philadelphia City Hall, while its name honors the society’s former president, John Crozer, a wealthy textile manufacturer and dedicated philanthropist. The building opened in time for Christmas in 1897, and visitors marveled at its finely appointed bookstore with oak cabinetry, cushioned settees for browsing, and a dainty reading room for women. The lecture hall upstairs seated 600 guests, with high ceilings painted in allegorical frescoes. The exterior has suffered a bit since then, losing its original street-level façade and a sumptuous balcony railing that once stretched just below the steep mansard roof. But it still provides elegant quarters for the aspiring electricians who study at the charter trade school now located here.

Traits

Style

Second Empire

City

Philadelphia

Region

Northeast

Decade