Philadelphia Bourse
- Architect
- G. W. & W. D. Hewitt
- Year
- 1895
- Style
- Renaissance Revival
- City
- Philadelphia, PA
The Philadelphia Bourse opened in 1895 as a commodities exchange founded by grain and commodities exporter George E. Bartol, who modeled it on the Bourse in Hamburg, Germany after a European trip in 1890 and asked each founding member to pledge $1,000 toward the project. Designed by G. W. & W. D. Hewitt and built from 1893 to 1895, it was one of the first steel-framed buildings constructed in Philadelphia, faced in Carlisle redstone, Pompeian buff brick, and terra cotta.
the building
Steel frame beneath. The Bourse was one of the first steel-framed buildings ever constructed, a structural innovation hidden behind its historicist redstone, brick, and terra cotta facade.
Trading floor to offices. After the Bourse stopped functioning as an exchange, it was sold in 1979 and renovated to roughly 286,000 square feet of usable space, then renovated again for $40 million in 2016; it now holds office space anchored by the ad agency Digitas.
the style
Built in a Renaissance Revival key of the Beaux-Arts style, the Bourse borrowed the grandeur of a European trading hall for a young American exchange whose motto was "Buy, Sell, Ship via Philadelphia."
More on Renaissance Revivalsignificance
In mid-2024, ownership passed to a joint venture of Keystone Property Group and Lubert-Adler Real Estate Funds, which plans a mixed-use redevelopment of the landmark.
nearby
- Second Bank of the United States
- Franklin Court
- Philosophical Hall
- Independence Hall
- Carpenters' Hall
- Congress Hall