‘Pup’-lic Art: Philadelphia’s Streetscape Has Gone to the Dogs BY DAN SAYERS continued
A WHIMSICAL FENCE Society Hill is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Among the stylish neighborhood’s many notable pub- lic spaces is a “pocket park” located a short walk from the Winder House. Named for William Heathcote Delancey, sixth provost of the University of Pennsylvania, Delancey Street Park provides an oasis of green that’s surrounded by four centuries of residential properties. Among the recent addi- tions to the streetscape is a modern masterpiece that blends seamlessly with the adjoining 18th, 19th and 20th–century properties. The front courtyard of this contemporary house is protected by a whimsical gate that features an array of flora and fauna, each piece hand–crafted in stainless steel. Among the recognizable characters on display is a small Terrier that’s simultaneously greeter and guard. In the few short years that it’s been on duty, the little dog’s surface has taken on a patina that’s given it a recognizable boldness. The Terrier’s most notable neighbor is the Hill-Physick House just across the street. Built in 1786 by Henry Hill, a wealthy Madeira wine importer who provided the libation to the nation’s founding fathers, the house next became the home of Philip Syng Phys- ick, “the father of American surgery.” When the three-story brick building fell into disrepair, it was restored by publisher and philanthropist Walter Annenberg. Annenberg’s daugh- ter, Wallis Annenberg, has taken up her father’s altruism by opening PetSpace in Playa Vista, California. The interactive adoption and education center honors the bond between pets and people as it explores the origin and science of that eternal relationship. A NORTHERN STAR The William Penn Annex Post Office at 9th and Chest- nut Streets was a sleek, state–of–the–art communications
center when it opened in 1937. For more than 80 years, its 42 aluminum–trimmed service windows have greeted custom- ers in a long, streamlined retail hall with a soaring ceiling and geometric Art Deco floor. Visitors to the post office have also been welcomed by four bas reliefs that flank the build- ing’s entrances. The granite carvings by sculptor Edmond R. Amateis, titled, “Mail Delivery—North, South, East, West,” were created in 1941 with funding from the Treasury Sec- tion of Fine Arts. Each relief features an American mail car- rier at work. To represent the North, Amateis carved a man wearing a hooded parka and a pair of Spitz-type dogs—likely Alaskan Huskies—pulling a sled. The sight of the man and his dogs must have seemed very exotic to Depression-era Phila- delphians. However, the figures were not entirely unfamiliar. On February 2, 1925, the headlines of every major American newspaper announced the arrival by dog sled of an antitoxin that saved the small town of Nome, Alaska, from an outbreak of diphtheria. Twenty mushers and 150 dogs traveled a total of 674 miles over five days in a relay race from the town of Nenena to Nome, an isolated outpost located just two degrees south of the Arctic Circle. The successful run made celebri- ties of the men and their dogs, none more so than Gunnar Kaasen and his lead dog, Balto. The pair even starred in a 30-minute film titled, Balto’s Race to Nome. So popular was the picture’s canine lead that a statue of his likeness was
erected in New York’s Central Park. A SCOTTISH IMMIGRANT
The origin of the United States Marine Corps and the Masonic teachings in America took place where Tun Tavern once stood at the intersection of King Street and Tun Alley. Though neither the tavern nor the street names remain today, the institutions that began in that long-gone meeting place
A whimsical fence on Delancey Street Park features several animals, including this unidentified Terrier. 140 • S how S ight M agazine , A pril 2018
This pair of Northern sled dogs greets Philadelphians at the William Penn Annex post office.
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