A Ceiling Fit For a Museum

Look up! This green, ornately-designed ceiling in this room remains the oldest visible painted surface on Girard College’s entire campus. The paint treatment does not date from the opening of the building, but probably from 1892 when the room became the exhibit room of Stephen Girard’s belongings. The green oil paint background is impressively decorated with aluminum leaf stencil work and free-hand highlights. Although it was designed for a museum room, the decoration was quite up-to-date, as aluminum had only been recently become commercially available. This room has had many uses over time. It was used as a chapel from the school’s opening in 1848 until 1878, then became classrooms, before being used as a museum room, and now an event space.

As Founder’s Hall was the main building of Girard College, the first floor rooms have served many purposes over the school’s history. When Girard first opened in 1848, this room was used as a chapel, a role it held until 1878, when a separate Gothic-style chapel building was built. It was briefly a classroom space, then became a memorial room in 1892. In his will, Stephen Girard had requested that “A room most suitable for the purpose shall be set apart for the reception, and preservation of my books and papers, and I direct that they shall be placed there by my executors, and carefully preserved therein.” He also bequeathed his furniture and silver to the college, which his executors interpreted to mean all the furnishings of his Water Street home. These Stephen Girard objects have been on display in Founder's Hall for staff, students, and visitors from the opening of the school onwards, although the exact location changed several times. Over time, historic items related to the school have also been added to the museum collection.

This room served to display Girard’s personal belongings from 1892 until 1981. The decorative stenciled ceiling was most likely added when this room was converted to museum use; it had previously been subdivided into two classrooms, which were then recombined. The ceiling is clearly visible in a set of photographs taken in 1893. Finally, in 1981 the Stephen Girard collection moved to a new museum space on the second floor. Girard College materials remained on the first floor for ten more years, until they also moved to the new second-floor museum in 1991 and this room became an event space. The Founder’s Hall museum is still active and open to the public. It exhibits Stephen Girard’s belongings and documents, as well as materials exploring the school’s history and its relationship to architecture, civil rights, education, and Philadelphia history.

Girard College Historical Collection.

Steel & Garnet. Spring 2022.