History of the Sanctuary at
The Fleisher Art Memorial

The Fleisher Art Memorial, originally known as the Graphic Sketch Club, was founded by Samuel S. Fleisher in 1898 in the Jewish Union building that then stood at 4th and Bainbridge Streets. Mr. Fleisher supported the program directly during his lifetime, and, at his death in 1944, left his residuary estate in trust to support the operations and maintenance of the program under the administration of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. The Graphic Sketch Club then became the Samuel S. Fleisher Art Memorial according to the terms of the founder's will.

Offering free instruction in art to anyone interested, the Graphic Sketch Club offered opportunity for personal enrichment and professional growth to adults and children in the surrounding South Philadelphia neighborhoods and in communities throughout the city. In 1915, when the success of the Club's programs required larger quarters, the need was met by the abandoned school building of the Saint Martin's College for Indigent Boys, a Romanesque revival structure that had closed a few years earlier. In the new facility, Fleisher installed objects from his own collection for students to view, but the concept of a "museum" as part of the educational program developed fully only in 1922 when Fleisher purchased the adjoining Church of the Evangelist as a home for his collections, and as he called it, "a playground for the soul." Fleisher rededicated the deconsecrated church "to the patrons of the busy streets of Philadelphia" whom he encouraged to "enter this Sanctuary for rest, meditation and prayer" and to "let the beauty within speak of the past and ever continuing ways of God."

The Church, also in the Romanesque revival style, had been built between 1884 and 1886, and was designed by L.C. Baker and E.J. Dallett of the firm of Furness & Evans. Its style was Italianate of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, influenced by the High Church, Ruskinian ecclesiological movement. Its models were among the most noteworthy of Italian churches — by request of Pastor Henry Percival. He specified that the building "have the same relative proportions of the Cathedral at Pisa; the square pillars will be like those in St. Mark's, Venice; and the Sanctuary will be square as in the Cathedral, Orvieto." For the facade, the architects added a fourth model, the church of San Zeno Maggiore in Verona. Contributing to the interior decoration were murals by two young painters who later had considerable impact on their chosen fields, Robert Henri and Nicola D'Ascenzo.

Under Percival, the Church of the Evangelist flourished. The debts incurred in construction were all repaid within three years of its completion. Unfortunately, however, after Dr. Percival's retirement at the turn of the century, the Oxford movement with which he was associated lost popularity in the Episcopalian church, and the congregation began to disband. Percival's successor, the Reverend Charles W. Robinson, sought to revitalize the parish by linking it with the immigrant populations of the immediate neighborhood. He founded and built the Saint Martin's College for Indigent Boys, a home and school for boys of any faith. While a more timely response to the working class community, St. Martin's was also a short-lived experiment.

Fleisher's purchase of the College building in 1915, and of the church building in 1922, marked a renaissance for the site. In its expanded quarters the Graphic Sketch Club thrived, offering instruction to thousands of young artists, many of whom became well-known locally and nationally. The Club became a cultural oasis, holding exhibitions and performances of dance and music that featured some of the finest artists of the day.

If the studio classes were the body of Fleisher's vision, the Sanctuary was the soul. The use of the building for his own collections and a haven for contemplation embodies Fleisher's almost religious belief in the salving effects of art and humanitarian principles. He endowed the Sanctuary, as he called it, with Scenes from the Life of Moses, an altarpiece by Violet Oakley, dedicated to his own mother. He acquired miniatures, decorative and liturgical objects, and commissioned Samuel Yellin to create an iron gate for the portal. He included a small collection of Russian icons and Oriental carpets acquired by his brother Edwin, founder and patron of the Fleisher Music Manuscript Collection at the Free Library of Philadelphia.

The Sanctuary was open regularly; students were encouraged to study the works of art and draw from them. They were invited to frequent concerts and recitals, and had access to the Steinway baby-grand piano. It was a unique kind of museum, eclectic, accessible and lively, open in the evening, with working people in mind.

In 1944, when Samuel Fleisher died, the Graphic Sketch Club lived on. The name of the Club was changed to the Samuel S. Fleisher Art Memorial, and the Philadelphia Museum of Art (PMA) was charged with administration of the program, collections and facilities. The program continued to flourish, and the Sanctuary underwent yet another reincarnation. Museum-quality objects replaced the lesser works in the Fleisher collection as the PMA curators acquired European paintings and sculpture to complement the Sanctuary's romanesque revival style. The gothic sculptures, in particular, were purchased from the estate of Joseph Brummer — the same source for many of the pieces now on view in The Cloisters in New York.

The new acquisitions were shown alongside the objects of the Graphic Sketch Club era: the Violet Oakley reredos, the Russian icons, and gifts like a three-paneled stained glass window by John LaFarge which depicts allegories for the arts of painting, education and music. The Sanctuary was open regularly to the public; concerts and recitals continued as part of the Memorial's educational program. But, in 1974, due to temperature and humidity control problem, the collections were removed to long-term storage at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

An overall building program was begun to rehabilitate all of the buildings, culminating with a full-fledged restoration of the Sanctuary to prepare it for its centennial year in 1986. Thanks to the generosity of the Mabel Pew Myrin Trust and the William Penn Foundation, the Sanctuary’s lighting system was redesigned, the roof was repaired, temperature and humidity control systems were installed, and the stained glass windows were conserved. The Sanctuary and its collections were finally reintegrated into the Memorial's interpretative programs.

Today, the Sanctuary is used as a classroom for the ever-popular Drawing: Introduction class; a popular rental space for meetings, weddings, and parties; and as a performance space for The Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, Time for Three, Voces Novae et Antiquae and The Bindlestiff Family Cirkus — among others.

For a list of events happening in the Sanctuary, please view the Fleisher event calendar.

Photographs: James G. Mundie