Theatre Design & Technology - Dec 1972 - 11

A number of factors had decided for the Haviland
facade. One was that the theatre had always cultivated its
historic image and reputation. Another was the attractiveness of the Greek Revival style of the 1820's and 1830's,
with its thoroughly American associations. Another was
the undeniable fact that most of the architectural elements of the Haviland design were still present. Some of
them had been altered or plastered over, of course. The
original marble facing from quarries in King of Prussia,
Pennsylvania, was gone. It was replaced with as much consistency as possible by an Italian gray marble. The six
arched windows of Haviland's second story were restored.
The marble columns were freed from the front wall in
which they had been embedded. Today, they are backed
by steel supports in the masonry, so they do not have to
carry any weight. The architrave was stripped of its sheetmetal covering.
Originally, there had been seven marble steps before
the entrance, stretching the length of the colonnade some sixty-five feet. Over the years, with the accretion of
dirt and pavement, the street level had been rising. Six
inches were added to the street's turn-of-the-century level
by modern street widening. The attempt has been made to
preserve the appearance of the old steps, despite these
losses in elevation. This has been done by keeping the
floor line at the base of the columns' plinths and using
low risers. The old entry doors were four in number and
designed to fold. They have been replaced by modern
glass double-doors. These mark both symbolically and
actually the line between restoration and renovation.
Another advantage of the exterior reconstruction was
its relative economy, thanks to the survival of so much of
Haviland's original. It was much less expensive than the
creation of a modern facade would have been. The restoration of the facade has been figured, in fact, at less than
ten per cent of the entire renovation cost. No expensive
reconstruction was needed on the Ninth Street side of the
theatre, since Haviland had put all his effort into the
front.
John M. Dickey, of Dickey, Weissman, Chandler, and
Holt - the architectural firm responsible for the reconstruction, has stated the cultural argument for the Haviland facade in forceful terms:
... the 1828 theatre had been a significant monument
of the neoclassic architecture which had changed the
appearance of the city, and which was itself an expression of a radical change in social attitudes, a new phase
in the development of American culture. Although it
was part of a world-wide change, Philadelphia's contribution was an individual one, both in philosophy
and architecture. The Greek Revival was the beginning
of the romantic eclecticism which dominated the esthetics of the next hundred years. Haviland and the
Walnut Street Theatre figure importantly in its development.

THEATRE DESIGN AND TECHNOLOGY

... Whatever the Greek Revival may have meant to
Philadelphia in the 1830's, it means something else to
us. At its best it will remind us of a romanticism that
was both more sensuous and more rational than our
present grossness, of a more subtle language in which
one could say less than one means, with tact and delicacy, and make the meaning very clear.
... The contrast between the theatre's facade and its
modern architectural environment, or its interior, for
that matter, is more striking and dramatic than any
architectural invention of brutual cantilever or arbitrary arch. I suggest that it is the contrast between the
beginning and end of an era in American history, and
its impact is the realization of what we have lost; the
price that has been paid for a hundred and fifty years
of progress. 5
There was at no time any consideration of a comparable reconstruction of the interior of the theatre. Precise information was not available. But what was known
of similar theatres of the period made it quite clear that
modern audiences would never tolerate 19th century conditions. Bryan Loving realized that he would have to
avoid, rather than recreate: bad sight-lines, uncomfortable
seats, cramped lobbies, virtual absence of toilet facilities,
primitive heating and ventilation, and constant danger of
fire. Those were among the interior amenities of the Walnut Street in Haviland's time, and long afterward as well.
Considering the extensive use of wood in its construction,
it is a wonder that the Walnut Street has survived so long.
As for the stage itself - wing-space, dressing rooms, and
similar backstage facilities - no union would have let its
members work the theatre if the conditions of 1828 had
been restored.
When the former Shubert interior was being demolished, Loving and his staff conducted the structural
studies and examinations of the historic fabric which they
had neither time nor money to carry out before the project
got underway. They learned that Haviland had removed
the old circus interior. He then had new interior walls,
two feet thick, built inside the old outer walls to relieve
lateral pressure on them. Around 1860, a new west wall
on Ninth Street had added some eight feet of width to the
house on that side. At the same time, the stage was rebuilt. The work on the west wall may account for the fact
that the center of the auditorium is not in the center of
the facade between the two central windows. It is in the
center of the third window from the western end of the
theatre's front.
In 1903, Willis G. Hale made further renovations, but
Loving could not discover much about them. In 1920, the
interior was gutted by William Lee. He designed a steel
structure which was then constructed within the masonry
shell of the theatre. It had a cinema-type balcony. But

DECEMBER. 1972

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