The Philadelphia Bourse Building was founded in 1891 by George E. Bartol, a grain and commodities exporter. It was modeled after the Bourse

Bourse

Bourse may refer to:*exchange *stock exchange*Bourse : metro station, Paris, France*Bourse de Travail: French labor council-Exchanges:*Paris Bourse: Euronext Paris, historical Paris stock exchange...

 in Hamburg, Germany. It was completed in 1895. The architects were G. W. & W. D. Hewitt

G. W. & W. D. Hewitt

G. W. & W. D. Hewitt was a prominent architectural firm in the eastern United States at the turn of the twentieth century. It was founded in Philadelphia in 1878, by brothers George Wattson Hewitt and William Dempster Hewitt , both members of the American Institute of Architects...

.

Background

Upon his return from a European trip in 1890, Bartol organized the Philadelphia business community. He asked each new member to pledge $1,000 to the project. The Bourse motto was "buy, sell, ship via Philadelphia."

Architecture

The building was one of the first steel-framed buildings to be constructed. Carlisle redstone, Pompeian buff brick and terra cotta

Terra cotta

Terracotta, Terra cotta or Terra-cotta is a clay-based unglazed ceramic, although the term can also be applied to glazed ceramics where the fired body is porous and red in color...

 were all used in the construction of the facade.

Today

The Philadelphia Bourse stopped functioning as a commodities exchange in the 1960s. The structure continued to serve as strictly an office building until 1979, when it was sold and renovated to include upscale retail space on floors near the street level. The upper levels of the building continue to house office space. The location has not been particularly successful as a retail destination, and all of the shops and eating places now operating at the Bourse are tourist-oriented. A movie theater specializing in independent films, The Ritz at the Bourse, sits across the street at 4th and Ranstead streets.

External links

• http://www.bourse-pa.com/history-bourse-pa.html
• Listing and photographs at the Historic American Buildings Survey
  Historic American Buildings Survey
  The Historic American Buildings Survey , Historic American Engineering Record , and Historic American Landscapes Survey are programs of the National Park Service established for the purpose of documenting historic places. Records consists of measured drawings, archival photographs, and written...