presented by Irene Levy Baker and Chris Mullins

Find out what’s brewing at McGillin’s Olde Ale House, the oldest continuously operating tavern in Philadelphia and one of the oldest in the country. Starting with the launch of its new book, Cheers to McGillin’s: Philly’s Oldest Tavern, Chris Mullins, co-owner of the tavern, and author Irene Levy Baker will share stories behind the historic bar including its colorful history, romance, ghosts, celebrities and survival through wars, a fire, and even Prohibition. The book includes all this, plus how Philadelphia’s trials and tribulations over the years impacted the bar, tales of long-time employees and beloved customers, food and cocktail recipes and historic photos, as well as a forward by Edward G. Rendell, former Pennsylvania Governor and Philadelphia Mayor. 

In 165 years, the bar has only been owned by two families. In 1958, the McGillin family sold the bar to two brothers. When they retired in 1993, they sold the bar to their daughter and son-in-law, Mary Ellen and Chris Mullins, Sr, who run the bar today, with their son, Christopher Mullins, Jr. Christopher Mullins, Jr. joined the business in 2006, becoming the third generation of his family to run the historic tavern. 

Irene Levy Baker is the author of Cheers to McGillin’s: Philly’s Oldest Tavern, 100 Things To Do In Philadelphia and Unique Eats and Eateries of Philadelphia. She is always hungry for adventures that will surprise and delight her readers. Irene is the owner of Spotlight Public Relations, a public relations firm specializing in restaurants and hospitality. McGillin’s Olde Ale House has been her client through two generations, two decades, and countless icy cold beers and corned beef Reubens.

presented by Brandon Zimmerman, MA

Established in 1856, Philadelphia’s bucolic 27-acre Mount Vernon Cemetery (MVC) is the final resting place of approximately 33,000 people. Over the last few decades the historic cemetery has fallen into near-total ruin due to severe neglect. It is now considered a blighted property. Since 2022 the volunteer organization, the Friends of Mount Vernon Cemetery (FMVC), have spearheaded restoration efforts at MVC, and endeavor to make the property not only an active cemetery again, but a cultural heritage destination and environmentally-preserved green space.

In January 2022, while clearing extreme overgrowth at the back of the property, volunteers uncovered a series of tombstones, slabs, and vaults originating from the 18th century burial ground of the Second Presbyterian Church (2nd Presby, formerly located at Fifth and Arch Streets, and reinterred at MVC in 1867. Little is known about these burials due to the age and neglected condition of tombstones, combined with their being buried under decades of dirt and invasive vegetation. Since the initial discovery of the 2nd Presby section, many historically significant burials have been identified, including Revolutionary War soldiers, founding fathers, framers of the Constitution, victims of the 1793 yellow fever epidemic, worshipful masters of the Masonic Order, and many more.    

This photo-centric presentation discusses the history of MVC, current FMVC restoration efforts, and restoration of the Second Presbyterian Church Cemetery section. 

Brandon Zimmerman is the founder and President of the Friends of Mount Vernon Cemetery. For over twenty years, Zimmerman has worked as an award-winning exhibit developer, designer, curator, and consultant for numerous museums, libraries, and archives throughout the United States. He is also an author. His first book, Dissection Photography: Cadavers, Abjection, and the Formation of Identity was published by Bristol University Press in 2024. He is currently at work on his second book, A Monster in the Shape of Man: Anton Probst and the Deering Family Murders, which will be published in 2026. Learn more about Zimmerman’s work on Instagram: @brandozim and the efforts of the Friends of Mount Vernon Cemetery: @mtvernoncemetery.

presented by Tom Stokes

Carpenters’ Hall, one of the finest examples of Georgian architecture in North America, was designed, constructed, and financed in a group effort by the Carpenters Company of Philadelphia. While its primary purpose was to house the Company (and show off their professional talents), the Hall quickly became a profitable and prestigious rental space. Its most famous occupant, the First Continental Congress, made Carpenters’ Hall a shrine of American Independence on par with Independence Hall and Old North Church. Other important chapters in American and Philadelphian history started at Carpenters’ Hall including the First and Second U.S. Banks, General Knox’s Department of War, The Library Company and The American Philosophical Society. Most deserving of study are the many other smaller and often short-lived institutions and societies founded at Carpenters Hall. This presentation will provide an overview of the utilization of Carpenters’ Hall as a rentable property by highlighting a various array of lesser known organizations and contextualizing them within the new American society and the rapidly growing city of Philadelphia. 

Tom Stokes is a historian and researcher for Carpenters’ Hall, a museum in Philadelphia and the home of the Carpenters’ Company of Philadelphia. His other professional areas of focus include the study and preservation of local vernacular architecture, Pennsylvania Dutch cultural history and regenerative farming in Berks County’s Oley Valley. 

presented by Rev. Betsy Ivey

This presentation discusses the role of the Black Church in Philadelphia as the most important component of the stability of the initial settlement of the African Americans, free and enslaved.  The Black Church initially served as the bridge for the expansion of the spirituality persons brought with them from their nascent African cultures to the European-based culture of Philadelphia.  The Black Church, also, served as the center for the social development of Black culture.  Assuming the vestiges of a post-colonial society, the Black Church is redeveloping its sacred spaces as the centers of community stability with awareness of the current needs of their neighborhoods.  

Rev. Betsy Ivey is the Director of the Philadelphia Fund for Black Sacred Spaces of Partners for Sacred Spaces.  She holds Masters’ degrees from Lancaster and the General Seminaries as well as a Master of Science in Historic Preservation from the University of Pennsylvania. Rev. Ivey is an ordained priest in the Episcopal Church. 

Image Credits: The Rev. Dr’s Carolyn C. Cavaness and Eustacia Moffet Marshall ‘standing on the shoulders’ of two of the founders of the Black Church in Philadelphia: Rev’s Richard Allen (AME) and John Gloucester (Presbyterian).

presented by Lori Salganicoff

On a rainy Wednesday 149 years and 9 months ago this February, the world descended on Philadelphia to begin a 6-month celebration of American independence, human ingenuity and the dawn of international consumerism. Now, at the beginning of the nation’s Seminquincentennial year of 2026, Philadelphians and Americans can (and should!) look back to the Centennial Exhibition of 1876 for inspiration, pride and with questions about that time and this one. 

Using stereoview images, maps and publications from her collection and in the public domain, Lori Salganicoff will reveal physical, cultural and social impacts of the Centennial – from the astounding to the mundane. In addition to discovering many exotic curiosities and firsts, you will learn what happened to the 249 buildings and the infrastructure that occupied the 285 acres across the Belmont Plateau to Parkside Avenue (Elm Street) and George’s Hill, what remains in the landscape, and how Philadelphia fared as host to the world and 10-million Fair visitors.

Lori Salganicoff is a Philadelphia preservationist and urban planner who spent her entire fee from serving as the Preservation Planner for the 2004 Centennial District Master Plan on Centennial memorabilia. Her decades-long fascination with the Exposition began when she worked on the revitalization of Parkside Avenue properties, and was excited to “see” the enormous Main and Machinery Buildings that stood there dwarfing the now-iconic Memorial Hall. She has served on the Advocacy Committee of the Preservation Alliance since it was the Preservation Coalition.

presented by William Whitaker

In 1953, Japanese architect Junzo Yoshimura designed a now-classic Japanese house and garden that he called Shofuso. It was built in Nagoya, Japan, and shipped to New York in 1954, where it was exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art and then relocated to Philadelphia’s Fairmount Park. The curators of MoMA’s House in the Garden exhibition highlighted its synthesis of historic Japanese architecture with modern architecture: the clarity of the house’s post and beam structure, its flexibility of use and the close relationship of indoor and outdoor spaces.

This lecture centers on Yoshimura’s design for Shofuso and two allied sites located in New Hope, Bucks County, Pennsylvania: Raymond Farm (1939-41), a live-work residence built by Antonin and Noémi Raymond within the fabric of an existing 18th-century Quaker farmhouse; and Nakashima Studios, a complex of structures designed by George Nakashima over three decades (1947-77) to serve his furniture-making business and as his family’s home. Each site, in its own way, is the embodiment of the personal relationships and cross-cultural collaborations among this group of architects and designers set within the Philadelphia region.

William Whitaker is Director and Chief Curator of the Architectural Archives of the University of Pennsylvania Stuart Weitzman School of Design. He is coauthor (with George Marcus) of The Houses of Louis Kahn and Uncrating the Japanese House: Junzo Yoshimura, Antonin and Noemi Raymond, and George Nakashima (with Yuka Yokoyama). Trained as an architect at Penn and the University of New Mexico, Whitaker works closely with the archival collections of Louis I. Kahn, Lawrence Halprin, and the partnership of Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown, in support of teaching, scholarship, preservation, and public engagement.

Image Credits: Shofuso hallway looking towards veranda. Elizabeth Felicella

presented by Jack McCarthy

In this talk, Jack McCarthy highlights the fascinating stories behind Philadelphia’s two premier outdoor concert venues: the Robin Hood Dell, which opened in 1930, and the Mann Center for the Performing Arts, which opened in 1976. Based on his new book published by Temple University Press, A Century of Music Under the Stars: A History of the Mann Center for the Performing Arts and Robin Hood Dell, McCarthy recounts how both venues were built as summer homes for The Philadelphia Orchestra, but the Mann Center evolved over the years to host the world’s top artists across many musical genres and to offer a wide range of educational and community engagement programs.  As city-owned and -supported performing arts institutions, the history of the venues provides a unique perspective on the intersection of Philadelphia’s cultural, political, civic, and philanthropic worlds. Jack McCarthy shares the inside stories of “the Dell” and “the Mann”—their founding, growth and development, challenges and triumphs, and the many milestone concerts and events they hosted.

Jack McCarthy is a longtime Philadelphia archivist and historian who has held leadership positions at several area historical institutions and directed a number of major archives and public history projects. He has written and lectured extensively on the history of Philadelphia music, industry, and Northeast Philadelphia. In addition to A Century of Music Under the Stars, he is the author of In the Cradle of Industry and Liberty: A History of Manufacturing in Philadelphia, numerous articles for the Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia, and was a major contributor to The Philadelphia Music Book: Sounds of a City. Jack has served as consulting archivist and historian for The Philadelphia Orchestra, Mann Center for the Performing Arts, and the Philadelphia Jazz Legacy Project, and currently directs Preservation Alliance for Greater Philadelphia’s Poquessing Trail of History project.

Image Credits: Book Cover courtesy of Highmark Mann Center for the Performing Arts

presented by Mark Cartella

Mark will present a series of narrated slides that will provide attendees with a detailed description of how the developers envision the historic Wanamaker building will be repurposed for an exciting mix of retail, commercial and residential uses. This talk  will provide an overview of The Wanamaker Building’s evolution from its rich architectural and engineering marvel, historical dedication, cultural significance, and rise and fall of American manufacturing and merchandising to its rebirth as the epitome of a modern, mixed-use building.

Mark Cartella, SVP Development & Construction Alterra Property Group. Mark oversees the execution phase of Alterra’s real estate development and capital improvement projects including all facets of the project delivery process with a focus on design and construction. Over the course of his career, Mark has successfully managed the design and construction of various building product types ranging from highly sophisticated healthcare facilities, historic preservation/adaptive reuse buildings, higher ed/K-12 institutions, office space, and multi-family/mixed used developments with an aggregate volume valued in the billions.

Image Credits:  Wanamaker Building. Photograph. 1920. John Wanamaker collection. Historical Society of Pennsylvania