Emergency stabilization work finally begins at the historic Henry Ossawa Tanner House

Stacks of lumber were placed on the sidewalk outside the Tanner House Tuesday morning, and workers went inside to assess the immediate damages they need to address to begin stabilizing the historic Henry O. Tanner House in North Philadelphia.

Workers hammered at the boarded up placards outside the basement, and members of the Friends of the Tanner House gathered early in the morning to witness the start of the work.

The work began 17 months to the day since the Friends of the Tanner House launched their initial campaign on Feb. 25, 2022, to raise money to stabilize the childhood home of the internationally acclaimed artist, Henry Ossawa Tanner. The house is a National Historic Landmark.

What may have seemed like a futile effort to some didn’t stop the Friends group from securing partnerships and financial support to save the house, at 2908 W. Diamond St., in Strawberry Mansion. The artist’s father, Bishop Benjamin Tucker Tanner, a leader in the national African Methodist Episcopal Church, bought the home in 1872.

Rene Romero, owner of G & R Contractors, said work permits were approved last Thursday and the first day of work on Tuesday was mainly to make an assessment of what needs to be done first.

He spoke with Justin Spivey, an engineer with Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates, who was on site Tuesday, about how to best proceed. Romero said his workers would start in the basement first to stabilize the interior walls that are buckling and will eventually work their way up to replace the roof.

He said the stabilization work, which he described as a “make safe” project, should take about four months. The city’s Department of Licenses and Inspections declared the house “unsafe” in August 2021.

Since then, after an Inquirer story was published in 2021, the Friends of the Tanner House gained partnerships with the Preservation Alliance for Greater Philadelphia, which acts as a fiduciary agent for their fundraising campaign, and with the Center for the Preservation of Civil Rights Sites at the University of Pennsylvania. The Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts also hosted a fundraiser.

Just last month, the City of Philadelphia pledged $150,000 to support the preservation efforts, and the African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund, a program of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, awarded a $100,000 grant to the Friends of the Tanner House.

» READ MORE: Once ‘the center of the Black intellectual community in Philadelphia,’ the Henry O. Tanner House could be demolished

Christopher R. Rogers and Judith Robinson, the two co-directors of the Friends of the Tanner House, and Deborah Gary, cofounder of the Society to Preserve Philadelphia African American Assets (SPPAAA), in addition to being a founding member of the FOTH, were there Tuesday morning.

“We started a conversation together in December 2021, setting forward a strategy to do something about this deteriorating National Historic Landmark. Since then, we’ve amassed close to $450,000 in commitments to not only work on rehabilitating the Tanner House, but setting the foundation for a powerful, cultural [nonprofit] to sustain and explore Black heritage in North Philadelphia,” Rogers said Tuesday.

“Our work is far from done. But it’s important we name our benchmarks to inspire others that this is possible for our communities.”