Mayor Parker can help keep the arts in the Avenue of the Arts — if she acts quickly

Hamilton Hall, the austere Greek-style temple at Broad and Pine, was turned into an arts school in 1893, a full century before the now-defunct University of the Arts acquired the building. Over that time, the various art schools that occupied Hamilton Hall have nurtured hundreds of people who went on to achieve international acclaim, including such luminaries as the architect Julian Abele, dancer Judith Jamison, illustrator Charles Santore, and Academy Award-winning actor Jared Leto.

Yet, despite this remarkable contribution to Philadelphia’s cultural life, Hamilton Hall’s legacy is now being threatened by bankruptcy proceedings that are designed to dispose of the university’s real estate as fast as possible with little concern for the city’s best interests. Earlier this month, a bankruptcy judge accepted a bid for the historic, and history-filled, building from a developer who specializes in “affordable luxury apartments.”

It’s hard to believe that the city’s political and philanthropic leaders would allow one of Broad Street’s great cultural anchors to be sold off like so much factory surplus. The original portion of Hamilton Hall went up in 1824, making it the oldest building on Broad Street. Today’s building is the combined work of three of Philadelphia’s most important 19th-century architects: John Haviland, William Strickland, and Frank Furness.

Surely, we would never accept the same fate for the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, its arts sibling on North Broad. Why are we willing to tolerate this outcome for Hamilton Hall, whose architectural and educational legacy is just as significant?

South Broad, which was envisioned as the Avenue of the Arts in the 1990s — right around the time UArts acquired Hamilton Hall — will be a much lesser place without the building’s studios and the artists who populate them.

Fortunately, there is still time to stop this ill-considered deal.

Another bidder, Lindsey Scannapieco, who transformed the former Bok high school into a hive of makers, has put forward a plan to turn Hamilton Hall into a sort of “Baby Bok.” Besides preserving the existing workspaces, she would repurpose 45 dormitory rooms as subsidized apartments for artists. Those units would be in the dramatic, redbrick Victorian complex on 15th Street, designed by Furness in 1875.

Of course, the first obligation of any bankruptcy court is to make sure the creditors are paid. In this case, many of those who were stiffed when UArts abruptly closed last June are working people: the faculty and staff who never received their final paychecks.

But satisfying their claims shouldn’t be a problem because Scannapieco’s company, Scout, has offered to pay the same amount for Hamilton Hall as the winning bidder, Dwight City Group — $12 million. She lost out merely because the deep-pocketed apartment developer was able to offer cash for the property.

Scannapieco believes that decision was wrong given the complex’s civic importance. She plans to challenge the decision on Tuesday, an action that would force the bankruptcy court to hold a public auction on Thursday.

Scannapieco’s chances of winning that auction don’t look great right now. Several market-rate apartment developers are also expected to file challenges, and the competition will invariably drive up the sale price. And, like Dwight City, those market-rate developers have access to capital, which would allow them to pay cash for Hamilton Hall.

In contrast, Scannapieco had to scrape together loans from a variety of sources for her bid, including banks, private investors, the Philadelphia Industrial Development Corp., and the Reinvestment Fund. Because it takes longer to close on a property when you’re relying on a mix of funders, it will be harder for Scannapieco to win over the bankruptcy court even if she again matches the high bid.

This is where the Parker administration can help. Despite the outsize role that arts and culture play in shaping both Philadelphia’s economy and identity, Mayor Cherelle L. Parker has yet to weigh in publicly on the UArts bankruptcy proceedings. A word from the mayor in favor of an arts-focused buyer could bolster Scannapieco’s case.

The Parker administration also has policy tools that can shape Hamilton Hall’s future. Why not create a zoning overlay that would restrict Hamilton Hall and the Furness building for cultural uses? Even if Scannapieco loses the auction, an overlay would keep the arts in the Avenue of the Arts.

As now structured, Scannapieco’s plan offers virtually every policy benefit that Parker could want. The mayor has promised to pull out the stops to increase Philadelphia’s supply of affordable housing. Scannapieco’s proposal supports that goal with subsidized apartments for artists, a group that was once drawn to Philly for its cheap housing but is now being pushed out by rising prices.

But the most compelling part of Scannapieco’s plan is that it would harness the arts for economic development in the same way she did at the Bok Building.

Bok, which is three times the size of Hamilton Hall, was a shuttered vocational high school when Scannapieco acquired it from the school district in 2014. Today, more than 700 artists, entrepreneurs, and small manufacturers work in Bok’s studios at Ninth and Mifflin. Many of Bok’s retail businesses, like the Machine Shop bakery, which has won plaudits from the James Beard Foundation and the New York Times, have become Philadelphia destinations.

Because Bok offers space at affordable prices, the building is populated by people who often struggle to open small businesses: women and people of color. Several original tenants have gone on to bigger spaces on Philadelphia’s commercial corridors, yet Scannapieco says she still has 600 people on her waiting list.

It’s not just the mayor and City Council who need to act quickly to save Hamilton Hall for the arts. The city’s philanthropists also need to get involved. Foundations and city taxpayers have invested untold millions in the Hamilton Hall complex since it became an art school in 1893 — what was then called the Philadelphia Museum and School of Industrial Art. It may not say so on the deed, but Hamilton Hall is effectively a public building.

The William Penn Foundation tried to make this argument to support the Lantern Theater during the recent auction for the Arts Bank, another UArts property on Broad Street. But in that case, the theater’s offer came up $100,000 short of the winning bidder, Quadro Bay LLC.

Sadly, the bankruptcy trustee rejected William Penn’s argument, and the Arts Bank is likely to be converted to apartments. The loss of the Art Bank’s theater, which was carved out of the former bank building in the early 2000s, will further sap the Avenue of the Arts of its vitality.

Patricia Wilson Aden, who runs the Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance, was “concerned about the erosion of the vision for the Avenue of the Arts” even before the Arts Bank sale. If Hamilton Hall also ceases to be a cultural destination, she fears the street will lose its cohesion.

The original mastermind behind the Avenue of the Arts, former Philadelphia Mayor and Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell, is also worried and believes the “city should really be doing something” to make its interests known to the bankruptcy trustee. The city could nudge the private developers to step aside, as Allan Domb did during the bidding for the Art Alliance, which went to the Curtis Institute of Music.

There’s no doubt that Broad Street could benefit from more housing, but that doesn’t mean every building should be housing. While it makes sense to turn UArts’ high-rise towers — Juniper, Spruce, and Anderson Halls — into apartments, the low-rise Hamilton Hall and the Arts Bank are monumental buildings that are better suited for civic uses.

Even in a city like Philadelphia, which owes so much of its reputation to its world-renowned cultural institutions (OK, its sports teams help, too), the arts are constantly in a fight for their lives. This isn’t the first time Hamilton Hall was almost taken over by a private developer. The same kind of bidding war happening today occurred in 1893, when the Philadelphia Museum of Art was trying to buy Hamilton Hall from a school that served deaf students.

But the Philadelphia Times newspaper weighed in with a rousing editorial that swayed the results: “The property is exceptionally adapted to a public institution,” the editorial argued. “If the rare opportunity now presented should be lost, it will be a cause for lasting and universal regret.”

What was true in 1893 is no less true in 2025.