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The Tacony Music Hall
By Louis M. Iatarola
Our
sixth profile of a significant person of place in Tacony's
history focuses on the Tacony Music Hall, presently the only
property within Tacony which is listed on the National Register
of Historic Places.* This is the story of a 144-year old building
which has undergone several metamorphoses during its actual
life -- having been the cultural and social center of a small
town to becoming an abandoned storage warehouse to becoming
an active mixed-use commercial building restored to its original
Victorian grandeur.
 This building documents the social history
of one of the most unusual Victorian factory neighborhoods,
the industrial settlement of Tacony that Henry Disston laid
out around his Disston Saw Works. Containing an auditorium
and lecture rooms, the building also housed the Disston Library
and Free Reading Room. The Music Hall served as the meeting
place of the working class community's clubs and lodges, and
formed the social and recreational center of Tacony.
The Tacony Music Hall is a three-story
brick building on a corner lot situated at the intersection
of Longshore Avenue and Edmund Street. The Edmund Street side
of the building features four bays, whose first story openings
consist of a modern, steel lintel-headed opening at the front,
and four windows headed by brick arches. Between these windows,
to the rear of the building, is the elaborate entrance to
the Music Hall, made up by a pair of brick pilasters carrying
a brick and stone entablature. In the upper stories a pair
of windows light each bay which are arched at the second story
and headed by stone lintels at the third. Along each roof
line there is a bold frieze of brick corbels above which are
terra cotta rondels. A pressed metal cornice caps the building.
The rear elevation, beyond the original
Music Hall stage, is a single first story segmental window
and a French door functioning as a window with fixed stained
glass panels at the second story. Like the facade, the rear
is divided into three bays. There is a single window in the
central bay, which was infilled, and two third story windows.
 The
Longshore Avenue side of the building is separated into three
bays, the central one projecting above the roof line to end
in an ornate pressed medal pediment. The first story consists
of two store fronts which are capped by exposed steel lintels
and preserve the raised bases beneath their display windows.
The entrances to the right and left are capped by brick arches
with stone imposts, and are reached by short flights of stone
steps. Each of the second story bays is fronted by a large
round arched window with ornamental brick detailing. A panel
bearing an inscription caps each of the outer windows. The
third story contains windows only in the center bay which
is lighted by four lintel-headed windows. The other bays,
and the raised parapet at the center, are accentuated bold
brick corbels and recessed panels.
The Tacony Music Hall was built in 1885
as a speculative venture by Frank W. Jordan, an entrepreneur
and local druggist whose store adjoined the lot. Jordan exploited
the site ingeniously, fitting income producing space on all
three stories. The first story contained rental shop space,
used by such tenants as H. G. Shannon, Watchmaker and Jeweler,
while the second story comprised an assembly hall for musical
performances, lodge meetings, and lectures. A permanent tenant
was also found for the third story: the Keystone Scientific
and Literary Association. Founded in 1876 to sponsor public
debates and lectures, the Association had maintained a small
public library but had "sought larger and more imposing
quarters." Although funds were limited, "generous
gifts and money from the Messrs. Disston" made it possible
to rent and furnish rooms in the Music Hall. In 1885, upon
the completion of the building, the Association opened their
library with a main reading room and a smaller committee room
to the rear under a picturesquely detailed exposed wood roof
truss. Acknowledging the financial support of the Disston
family, the name of the Association was changed to the Disston
Library and Free Reading Room. In 1906, the library moved
to even larger quarters at Knorr Street and Torresdale Avenue
and again changed its name to the Carnegie Library in honor
of its benefactor, Andrew Carnegie. Our modern day Tacony
Branch of the Free Library of Philadelphia has been recently
rehabilitated and is a shining example of Victorian architecture
featuring central stained glass skylights.
The Tacony Music Hall and the library
that it housed not only benefited from the largesse of the
Disstons (particularly Thomas, who was a board member of the
Library), but also reinforced their paternalistic social message.
Thus P.T. Barnum lectured for the Keystone Association on
Temperance and Susan B. Anthony spoke on Woman's Suffrage.
It was believed that enlightenment of the work force was an
effective means of social control. Disston helped to fund
the community churches and workers' housing and, at the same
time, exercised considerable social control. Thus none of
the land he sold could be used for a "tavern or building
for the sale or manufacture of Beer or Liquors of any kind,"
nor were there to be any "carpenter, blacksmith, currier
or machine shop, livery stables" and so forth on the
property. These restrictions are still in force today.
With its lecture rooms, entertainment
facilities and library, the Tacony Music Hall was the cultural
and social center of Tacony. It regularly hosted musical revues
and variety shows, often organized by Jordan, acting as his
own stage manager, or James J. McGowan -- a talent agent based
in nearby Frankford who was himself a regular feature in the
Music Hall with his "Irish comicalities." During
the theater season there were typically performances on Wednesday
and Friday with two on Saturday. Rather than repeating a show,
the visiting company would often present four different plays.
Besides providing entertainment, the second story hall served
virtually everyone of Tacony's clubs and associations who
used the Hall for their weekday evening meetings, including
the Tacony Division of the Sons of Temperance, the Disston
Lodge of the Order of St. George, the Tacony Republican Club,
the Ladies Aid Society of the Methodist Church and other local
clubs. So important was the building as an image of the community
that it graced the masthead of the town newspaper, the Tacony
New Era, where it assumed a place of honor with the Mary Disston
School, superimposed over an image of the Disston Saw Works.
When the Philadelphia antiquarian Samuel Hodgkins wrote Tacony's
first history in his 1893 The Bristol Pike, he used a woodcut
of the building to represent the town.
The Music Hall remained the center of
Tacony's cultural life into the twentieth century. After the
Disston Library moved into its own building, the Music Hall
entered a protracted period of neglect. The changing character
of American leisure, particularly the decline of variety venues
and the rise of the cinema, hurt the Music Hall which never
became a successful motion picture theater. The building languished
under a series of later short-term owners, beginning with
the shipping agent and speculator Alonzo Shotwell, who acquired
the building in 1888. By World War II the theater was closed
and the building converted into a furniture warehouse, which
it remained until its purchase and restoration in 1989. Fortunately,
the failure of the theater has preserved the building's original
character including such features as the metal-ceilinged Music
Hall itself and the original library on the third story.
The rehabilitated Tacony Music Hall reflects
the mixed use of the building. The first story is principally
devoted to the two storefronts that run perpendicular to Longshore
Avenue, while the main staircase to the main hall is located
to the rear of the Edmund Street elevation. Nearly the entire
second story is taken up by the music hall whose trim includes
an elaborate pressed-metal ceiling and wooden wainscoting.
The northwest corner, now a private office, was formally the
hat check and ticket offices. The third story contained three
rental rooms where the Keystone Scientific and Literary Association
Library was once housed: two meeting rooms running longitudinally
at the front of the building and the smaller library room
across the rear who exposed roof truss is a prominent Victorian
feature.
Since its rehabilitation, the upper two
floors of the Tacony Music Hall have housed the real estate
appraisal offices of Louis A. Iatarola, current owner of the
building, with the fully restored Disston Library and Free
Reading Room serving as the office's research library at the
northerly end of the third floor. First floor commercial uses
in the early to mid-1990's included Cecelia Gift Shop, Rose
Petals and Lace Flower Shop, and Northeast Glass Company which,
several years ago, sought "larger and more imposing quarters,"
moving its facility to the southeast corner of Longshore Avenue
and Gillespie Street. The first floor occupants presently
include Miss Susan's Entertainment and Dance, now entering
its fifth season at 4819 Longshore Avenue, offering a variety
of dance and pre-dance from children through adults, as well
as the combined offices of the Tacony Civic Association and
Historical Society of Tacony at the rear off Edmund Street.
This joint office, staffed entirely by volunteers, opened
in August, 1998, and is open on Friday afternoons as well
as by appointment.** By the Summer of 2000 the vacant
unit at 4817 Longshore Avenue will be occupied by Little Victorian
Village, Inc., a pre-school facility which will begin operation
with a summer mini-camp for ages 3 to 5.***
The
Tacony Music Hall has caught the eye of at least two directors
as this historic building has been featured in a television
commercial and an independent feature film. In 1996, Comcast
Cablevision filmed a commercial on the first and second floors
of the building.  Much more attention was given to the filming
of "The Big Store," an independent film by Brick
House Films and Bob Max Productions, which virtually took
over the intersection of Longshore Avenue and Edmund Street
on June 18, 1998. The corner space occupied by Miss Susan's
was transferred into a 1930's-era storefront as a shoe store,
with scenes shot both inside and outside the building well
into the evening. Neighbors pulled up lawn chairs and witnessed
a professional movie shoot unlike anything Tacony has seen
since Pride of the Marines was filmed in part at the old Dodge
Steel Foundry at Magee Avenue and State Road. "The Big
Store" starring Tony Mastrione from the soap opera "One
Life to Live," is rated PG and is scheduled for release
in November, 1999.****
The Tacony Music Hall superbly documents
the early history of Tacony and extent to which the cultural
and recreational life of the community was dominated by a
single institution. In many respects, the building has come
full circle. The first floor is now institutional in nature,
housing the offices of the Tacony Civic Association and Historical
Society, and dance school and a pre-school. A new generation
of Taconyites has the opportunity to become enlightened and
enriched under the arched brick and Victorian metal pediment
pointing skyward above the building. In doing so, this generation
will hopefully appreciate the significance of this structure
and the uniqueness of the community that surrounds it.
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