Guide to the Witherspoon Building (Philadelphia, Pa.) Records
Open for research.
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In 1895, the trustees and the Business Committee of the Board of Publication and Sabbath School Work (PCUSA) appointed a Subcommittee on New Building. Its purpose was to manage and oversee the construction of a new building to house various PCUSA offices, including the Board of Publication and Sabbath School Work, the Presbyterian Historical Society, and General Assembly offices. The lot purchased for the new building was in Philadelphia, extending along Juniper Street from Walnut Street to Sansom Street. The committee elected to name the building in honor of the Rev. John Witherspoon, first president of the College of New Jersey (Princeton University), member of the Second Continental Congress, and the only clergyman to sign the Declaration of Independence.
In June of 1895, Joseph M. Huston was selected as the architect. The committee intended that the Witherspoon Building should be "an ornament to the city, a fit exponent of the strength and capacity of the Presbyterian Church, and a centre of beneficent power and religious influence for the elevation and enlightenment of the whole country." The decoration of the building reflects this attempt to tell the story of American Presbyterianism in steel, granite and terra cotta. Samuel Murray (in collaboration with Thomas Eakins) sculpted ten larger-than-life-size statues of Biblical prophets which stood at the building's corners and along the walls high above the street at the eighth floor level, and Alexander Stirling Calder carved six statues of fathers of American Presbyterianism which stood above the main doors. The building was further decorated with carved medallions, some of figures from the Bible and from American history, and others bearing seals and insignia of various Presbyterian organizations.
The 11-story Witherspoon Building remained the headquarters of the Board of Christian Education, the Historical Society, and other Presbyterian offices until the 1960s. The Historical Society moved to a building of its own in 1967. In 1973, as a part of the reorganization of General Assembly agencies, the General Secretary of the Board of Christian Education sold the Witherspoon Building. Though the statues of prophets and Presbyterians have been removed, the Witherspoon Building remains standing and is still in use as an office building.
Record Group 282 contains the minutes of the Subcommittee on New Building from the inception to the conclusion of the Witherspoon Building project. Besides the minutes, it provides a photographic record of the progress of construction. It also includes records of the sale of the building in the 1970s, interior and exterior photographs, the architect's original pencil drawing of the building, and clippings.
SERIES I: WITHERSPOON BUILDING, 1895-1973, UNDATED
SERIES II: PHOTOGRAPHS, 1896-1961, UNDATED
SERIES III: OVERSIZE/FRAGILE ITEMS, 1896, UNDATED
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Materials marked "Digital" in the Collection Inventory may not have been digitized in their entirety.
The Witherspoon Building was owned and operated by the Board of Publication and Sabbath School Work and afterward by its successor organization, the Board of Christian Education. Researchers may want to consult the annual reports, minutes and property records of these organizations for further information on the building.
The Calder statues of six heroes of American Presbyterianism which originally stood above the Walnut and Juniper Street entrances to the Witherspoon building were given to the Presbyterian Historical Society in 1961, and they stand among the shrubbery on either side of the front entrance to the Society at 425 Lombard Street in Philadelphia. As they are considered museum items in the Society's collection, all photographs of and information relating to them are located in Record Group 22, Presbyterian Historical Society Records 1852-1991. The same is true of photographs of the rooms in the Witherspoon Building which the Society occupied from 1896-1967.
The Society also owns a bronze plaque listing the members of the Subcommittee on New Building together with the architect. A lion's-head gargoyle from the Witherspoon Building spouts water in the fountain in the courtyard outside the Society library.
Because of its size, the architect's original pencil drawing of the Witherspoon Building is housed in the map case. It can be retrieved with its call number, which is included in the container list.
Collection processed and finding aid prepared: October 1991
Stephanie Muntone, Processing Archivist.
Box | Folder | Description | Alternative Formats |
1 | 1 | Finding Aid to Record Group 282 | |
SERIES I: WITHERSPOON BUILDING, 1895-1973, UNDATED | |||
1 | 2 | Minute Book--Subcommittee on New Building, 1895-1898 | |
1 | 3 | Laying of Cornerstone--Address, Contents, Article, 1896 | |
1 | 4 | Scrapbook--"Laying of the Corner-Stone of the Witherspoon Building," 1896 | |
1 | 5 | Architect's Notes on Building Decorations, 1903, 1929-1930 | |
1 | 6 | Printed Publicity Materials, 1906, 1942-1960 | Digital |
1 | 7 | Address by Andrew Johnstone, Supervisor of Construction, 1922 | |
1 | 8 | Manuscript Articles, 1936, 1946, 1956, undated | |
1 | 9 | Fiftieth Anniversary, 1946 | |
1 | 10 | Disposition of Statues, 1961 | |
1 | 11 | Disposition of Witherspoon Building, 1972-1973 | |
1 | 12 | Newspaper Clippings | |
1 | 13 | Fact Sheets | |
SERIES II: PHOTOGRAPHS, 1896-1961, UNDATED | |||
1 | 14 | Groundbreaking, 1896 | |
1 | 15 | Construction, 1896 | Digital |
1 | 16 | Construction, 1896 | Digital |
2 | 1 | Construction, 1896 | Digital |
2 | 2 | Laying of Cornerstone, 1896 | |
2 | 3-4 | Carved Medallions, 1896 | |
2 | 5 | Interior--Staff, Bookstore, Auditorium, Elevators, 1924 | |
2 | 6 | Staff Banquet, (Board of Foreign Missions?), circa 1945 | |
2 | 7 | Interior--Lobby, Staff, 1951 | |
2 | 8 | Replacement of Cornerstone, 1961 | |
2 | 9 | Statues of Prophets, undated | Digital |
2 | 10 | Exterior, undated | Digital |
2 | 11 | Interior--Offices of Board of Education, undated | |
SERIES III: OVERSIZE/FRAGILE ITEMS, 1896, UNDATED | |||
3 | Glass negative--old engraving of Witherspoon Building | Digital | |
3 | Photographs--exterior, Witherspoon Building | ||
3 | Drawings--statues of prophets and of John Witherspoon | ||
Map Case 39.9 | Architect's drawing--Witherspoon Building, 1896 | Digital |