Presser Home for Retired Music Teachers

The story

Written by AI from this property's National Register nomination and the record above; every sentence is checked against its sources before it appears here. Corrections: privacy@treealive.com

The Presser Home for Retired Music Teachers is a building at 101-121 W. Johnson St. in Philadelphia, built in 1914 and enlarged in 1931, in the Italian Renaissance Revival style. Davis & Dunlap and Seymour & Paul Davis are named as architects; Henry E. Baton was the builder.

Why it's listed

It was listed in the National Register in 2006 under criteria A and C, with local significance in architecture and social history. Its period of significance runs from 1898 to 1956, spanning the carriage house's construction around 1898 to the Home's dedication in 1914.

Physical character

Its walls are buff Roman brick with limestone and terra cotta ornamentation on a granite foundation, and its H-shaped plan has flanking two-story wings. The carriage house, built around 1898 on a Wissahickon schist foundation, shows wood half-timbering. A three-story addition went up at the northwest corner in 1931, and in 1959 its open stair was replaced with a new steel staircase.

Historical context

The Home was founded in 1906 and moved to W. Johnson Street in 1911, after Theodore Presser bought two adjoining lots in 1910. It served retired music teachers from 1914 to 1980, then became the Mt. Airy Commons convalescent home, closing and standing vacant by 2002.