Philadelphia School of Design for Women
From 1880 until 1959, this was the home of the Philadelphia School of Design for Women, the first school of industrial design for women in the United States.
The school was launched in November 1848, when Sarah Worthington King Peter (1800-1877) a philanthropist and wife of British consul William Peter, established a drawing class for women in her own home. Her goal was to prepare women to design the calico, wallpaper, carpets, and other furnishings that were being manufactured in Philadelphia. The school prospered, grew, and merged for three years with the Franklin Institute.
Reestablishing its independence in 1853, the school was first located at Eighth and Locust Streets and then at Broad and Filbert. In 1880, with enrollment topping 250, it acquired this house to accommodate its expansion. Bult in 1853-1854 for the brewer William Gaul (1804-1868), the Renaissance style brownstone was one of the first of the great Victorian mansions on this part of Broad Street. Stephen Decatur Button (1813-1897) has been identified as the architect of a design whose robustly bracketed cornices are more “Italianate” than Italian.
A year after its completion, the house was bought by Edwin Forrest (1806-1872), the first American actor of the international renown, who was famed for his portrayals of Shakespearean characters. Forrest built a one-story addition, containing a skylit art gallery and basement theater, on the south side of the house in about 1863. He resided here until his death in 1872, and the house stood vacant until it was purchased by the Philadelphia School of Design for Women eight years later.
The school immediately hired James Windrim (1840-1919) to design a long, three-story, L-shaped wing on the back to accommodate the needed classrooms and studios. The Master Street façade is a composition of brick and brownstone that echoes elements of the original house, intermixed with newly fashionable early Renaissance features. Forrest’s picture gallery was enlarged and converted into an auditorium.
Distinguished early graduates of the school included Jessie Willcox Smith, Lucille Howard, and Harriet Sartain. John Sartain, Robert Henri, Thomas Braidwood, Thomas Moran, and Emily Sartain were among the nationally recognized faculty.
The Sartain family of artists played large roles in the development of the school. John Sartain, an engraver, served as board vice president from 1873 to 1887. French-trained Emily Sartain (1841-1927), his daughter, was the principal from 1866 to 1920. Emily’s niece, Harriet Sartain (1873-1957), who graduated in 1892, succeeded her as principal (and then dean) in 1920-1946.
The institution was renamed in 1932 when Joseph Moore set up a three-million-dollar endowment. Initially called the Moore Institute of Art, Science and Industry, it became the Moore College of Art in 1963 and the Moore College of Art and Design in 1988.
In 1959, the school moved to a new building on Logan Square. The Forrest mansion was acquired in 1968 by the New Freedom Theatre, the famed African American theater company founded in 1966 by John E. Allen, Jr. (1934-1992).