From the Philadelphia Evening Bulletin, October 6^th, 1959

THE PHILADELPHIA SCENE

by Ruth Seltzer

THAT PHILADELPHIA would some day be the Paris of the East Coast, that the banks of the Schuylkill would be as enchanting as the banks of the Seine, was the dream 30 years ago of a politician, an architect and an automat king.

All three are gone and the dream hasn't yet been realized. In the late Nineteen-Twenties, Charles B. Hall (then president of City Council) returned from a good will trip abroad with the hope that Philadelphia would be beautified - French style. He suggested that Chestnut Street be arcaded like the streets of Paris.

Pine Street, he thought, in the vicinity of the Schuylkill, would be a good place for "Little Paris" to begin. He first interested architect and Penn professor James P. Metheny, who built himself an unusual home at 2420 Pine.

Next house to go up was a great mansion, at 2410 Pine, designed by the brilliant Metheny for Joseph V. Horn (head of Horn and Hardart). It's a huge stone home, with majestic courtyard. Thus today, dominating the square, is the Horn Memorial Building - the University of Pennsylvania's School of Social Work.

The Metheny home and the Horn mansion will be open this Sunday afternoon for the Center City Residents Association's tour of houses. In all, 23 homes will be open, with proceeds going to tree-planting and center-city beautification.

Recently, with the dream of Paris in mind, we visited the old Horn mansion, climbed its winding stairway, looked down on the garden, on the European-flavored courtyard where Mr. Horn maintained garages and servants' quarters.

Architect James Metheny's house is still the home of his sister, Miss Grace Metheny. She's an artist. With center-city booster Paul James, we stopped off to see her. The Metheny livingroom is a studio, 13 feet high with Italian Stucco walls and wooden beams from an early 17th century mill. An atmospheric setting, with museum-quality furniture.

After the Metheny and Horn homes were built, the depression came. And there, the dream of Paris rested.

Now, everywhere you turn there is redevelopment. We strolled up to the Schuylkill. It doesn't look like Paris - but the area is reawakening with new residential construction, proud homeowners, little gardens bright with color.

There's talk that a motel and yacht marina may be built on the Schuylkill - perhaps where the B & 0 Station now stands. Here we walked across the tracks to the river bank. It could look beautiful, very beautiful.

Still thinking of Paris, we decided to conclude the afternoon with coffee at a sidewalk cafe, the da Vinci which has three outdoor tables on Walnut Street As we sipped, we thought of the Messrs. Hall, Metheny and Horn - and their dreams of long ago.