The model's home, Memorial Hall, is chief among them and is entering a new era. Once neglected and vandalized, it has undergone a $42 million transformation into the home of the Please Touch Museum, where the model will be the centerpiece of a new Centennial exhibit.
The restoration has long been the dream of Philadelphia historians, preservationists and architects hoping to save the Beaux Arts building, designed by Hermann J. Schwarzmann as an international art gallery and permanent Centennial memorial. They carefully researched the history of Memorial Hall and the Centennial; they studied the model and photographs; and they have lovingly restored the architectural gem to embrace its role as a children's museum.
"I actually get emotional about this," said Please Touch president Nancy Kolb. "I have always loved history and have had a long career in museums, so to save this building and tell the story of the Centennial is great for me. And the model is a key part of what we're trying to do."
Kolb, a former member of the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, said much attention is paid to 18th-century Philadelphia, but little to the 19th-century Centennial, which drew 10 million visitors at a time when Philadelphia had fewer than one million residents.
"What happened in Philadelphia is a story we need to know," she said. "It was an opportunity for the city to shine, and it did. It was America's explosion on the world scene. The model is a record of that time. To me, it is the second most important object in the city, after the Liberty Bell."
Nobody had attempted anything like the Centennial Exposition. The sheer magnitude of it was mind-boggling. Planners created a self-contained city on Fairmount Park's Belmont Plateau, with police and fire departments, a water and sewer system, roads and public transportation, including North America's first monorail.
