Memorial Hall is the only major surviving building from Philadelphia’s 1876 Centennial Exposition.
Designed by Herman J. Schwarzmann, Memorial Hall served as the exposition’s art gallery. Construction began in 1874, and the building was completed in time for the fair’s opening ceremonies on May 10, 1876. Its Beaux-Arts design featured a large dome, iron and glass, and monumental decorative sculpture.
After the exposition, the building reopened in 1877 as part of the Pennsylvania Museum of Art. That institution later became associated with the Philadelphia Museum of Art, although the museum eventually moved elsewhere. Memorial Hall later served several civic purposes before becoming home to the Please Touch Museum in 2008.
Many temporary exposition structures were dismantled after the fair. Memorial Hall’s continued survival makes it an unusually direct physical link between the 1876 Centennial and the America250 era.