Victorian Philadelphia had a brief fling with a stone called serpentine. Colorful and easy to quarry, serpentine became the choice for architects and builders interested in making their polychromatic buildings all the more polychromatic. College Hall, on the Penn campus, is perhaps the largest example of this stone fad. From the windows of Meyerson Hall (if you can find them on the fourth floor that is) you can admire the green hue of College Hall, but keener eyes may discern that serpentine is not just eye candy: it has some serious structural flaws.
The failings of serpentine can be seen at 19th Street Baptist Church at the corner of Titan and 19th Street in South Philly. A Furness and Hewitt-designed beauty, this 1874 church is currently receiving much-needed attention from its congregation under the direction of enthusiastic pastor Rev. Wilbur Winborne. Winborne is spearheading an effort to restore the sanctuary of the historic church whose roof collapsed a few years ago.
Winborne’s charge is made all the more difficult by the fact that his church’s veneer is shoddily-installed serpentine. As it turns out, serpentine does not perform well in polluted environments. Within decades, the stone starts spalling (crumbling into smaller pieces). Earlier congregations recognized this troublesome maintenance issue and applied a stucco finish to the entire church complex. Today, that stucco is falling off the building, taking with it significant portions of the serpentine underneath.
Enter Professors Aaron Wunsch and Frank Matero. The duo has taken a liking to 19th Street Baptist Church, and on November 7th, they roped students into helping the congregation with the restoration efforts. Fueled by donuts, pizza, hoagies, and the support of a remarkable congregation, dozens of volunteers cleaned out the basement, moved solid oak pews, and documented serpentine stones on the southern elevation of the sanctuary.
Penn’s historic preservation students are no strangers to volunteering their services for Philadelphia congregations. In 2015 alone, classes documented Our Mother of Sorrows, Smyrna Memorial Baptist, and Lombard Presbyterian – all in West Philadelphia. Earlier in the fall semester, we also worked with Lombard Presbyterian for a day of social impact that included demonstrations on restoring windows and repointing bricks.
For me, the serpentine is cool and all, but the real magic is the convergence of a caring congregation, engaged faculty, and students happy to set aside the books for pigeon guano. In the end, this building will not be saved because it’s a Furness-designed church, but because Philadelphians came together on the weekends to preserve their heritage in between sips of coffee.
Andrew Cushing is in his second year in the Master's Program in Historic Preservation at PennDesign. He is from New Hampshire and received his undergraduate degree from Bowdoin College in Maine.
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