The issues of the Civic Center Museum and Convention Hall were decided something like 10 years ago (before the museum closed in 1994) as part of the building of the new Convention Center on Arch Street. While final decisions might only have just been made, the evaluation process has taken an extended period of time.
The folks who have suddenly discovered it as an issue are a bit too late to the table.
Other than that, the Museum building only dates to the early 1900s (the Museum moved in to its new building in 1905), so there isn't much "historic" about it. The Convention Center Hall itself wasn't built until 1931.
As far as I know the Museum building is also scheduled for demolition.
The Sesquicentennial was held at League Island, aka the Navy Yard, in 1926, and was an utter disaster ... nobody showed up, and it lost massive amounts of money.
The museum building may have been used for events as they did use other venues around the city for events -- Memorial Hall and Horticultural Hall (In Fairmount Park) from the Centennial were used. (Horticultural Hall was destroyed by Hurricane Hazel in ?1954?)
The Curtis Organ, now in Irvine Auditorium, was built for the Sesquicentennial.
"Cyrus H. K. Curtis, publisher of the Saturday Evening Post, afterwards bought the organ from the financially troubled fair, and in November of 1927 donated the instrument to the University of Pennsylvania for the nascent Irvine Auditorium, planned for construction at 34th and Spruce Streets in West Philadelphia."
As for the loss of the Convention Center Hall as a sound stage -- maybe without a city subsidized venue, Gamble and Huff's (I think it was them)'s project at Broad and Washington will finally get rolling.
thanks for the info, bill. it's pretty much in line with my understanding (and I could swear the civic center museum played an important role in the sesquicentennial... pretty sure it was written about in steve conn's museums and american intellectual life, 1876-1926, where he described how the demise of museum's 'intellectual authority' -- grounded, as it was, on an object-based epistemology -- coincided with the sesquicentennial...)
but anyway, what's interesting to me is how you say:
Other than that, the Museum building only dates to the early 1900s (the Museum moved in to its new building in 1905), so there isn't much "historic" about it. The Convention Center Hall itself wasn't built until 1931.
that's the 'selectivity' I was talking about. when preserving history, legitimizing certain histories and not others...
when you say the civic center museum only dates to the early 1900s, that there isn't much historic about it, I wonder. the nearby archaeology museum's early wings were built in 1899 and its rotunda was completed in 1915. when you point out that convention hall wasn't built until 1931, I wonder again. the paul philippe cret chemistry building on penn's campus was built in 1941. and both the museum and the cret building are listed on penn's website as having historical significance.
and then there seems to be a different kind of selectivity at work: the dp article mentions that "Penn officials have worked to ensure the preservation of the artifacts that are representative of the building. Many artifacts have been removed and will be installed in the new building as well as around campus. A large pipe organ, bigger than the one in Irvine Auditorium, has been removed and saved."
......... laserbeam� [aka ray]
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