The historic Tanner House might receive $150K from the city for preservation efforts

The Friends of the Tanner House might receive $150,000 to aid preservation efforts for the landmark, a major victory for the volunteer group that has fought to save its history.

City Council approved the funding Thursday as part of a $6.2 billion budget deal. The legislation is on track for final passage this week.

The Tanner House was home to the renowned artist Henry Ossawa Tanner, whose works are among the collections of both the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Tanner’s father bought the home in 1872.

Although the Tanner House, at 2908 W. Diamond St., is on the National Register for Historic Places and has been declared a National Historic Landmark, it has been deteriorating for years. In August 2021, the city’s Department of Licenses and Inspections posted a notice that it was unsafe and could be demolished.

The Friends of the Tanner House formed after The Inquirer first reported on the conditions of the house and began raising awareness and money to pay for immediate stabilization work.

Just last month, the National Trust for Historic Preservation announced that the Tanner House and Philadelphia’s Chinatown neighborhood were named to this year’s list of America’s 11 Most Endangered Historic Places for 2023.

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

Until now, the group had raised about $55,000. Coincidentally the Friends of the Tanner House also received a signed contract on Friday from the current property owner, giving the group permission to begin stabilization work immediately, or as soon as permits are granted.

“It means all the stars are aligning for a positive flow of resources to continue our work to stabilize the Tanner family house,” said Judith Robinson, a North Philadelphia resident and member of the Friends of the Tanner House.

She said the home first needs a new roof, and the buckled west-side wall of the house needs to be repaired.

Councilmember Katherine Gilmore Richardson pushed for the funding within Council. Richardson said she met with Robinson, community advocates, and Council President Darrell L. Clarke to discuss how to save the house.

“Mr. Tanner had immense influence not only in Philadelphia’s arts scene, but in paving a pathway to success for Black artists across the globe,” Richardson said in a statement. “We all agree that we must do everything in our power to preserve this history and assist the Tanner House in transforming into a community arts center in the heart of North Philadelphia. This is especially important as we seek to uplift the next generation of artists in Philadelphia.”

Tanner was 13 when his family moved from a house near Third and Pine Streets, close to Mother Bethel A.M.E. Church, to the Diamond Street house near Fairmount Park.

It was within the same year he moved to Diamond Street that biographers say Tanner was walking with his father in Fairmount Park and saw an artist painting. He decided at that moment to become an artist himself, according to the biography Henry Ossawa Tanner, American Artist, by Marcia M. Mathews.

The house is also historic because of the accomplishments of several other members of the Tanner family.

Those family members include: the artist’s father, Bishop Benjamin Tucker Tanner of the African Methodist Episcopal Church; his mother, Sarah Miller Tanner, who escaped enslavement as a child and was taken to Pittsburgh, where she earned a college degree at Avery College; the artist’s sister, Halle Tanner Dillon Johnson, a medical doctor at Tuskegee Institute, who was the first woman in Alabama to pass the Alabama medical licensing boards; and his niece, Sadie Tanner Mossell Alexander, a lawyer who was the first Black person to earn a doctorate in economics from an American university, in 1921.

“These funds will help us tell the story of the Tanner family.”

“These funds will help us tell the story of the Tanner family,” Robinson said. “Hopefully it is a turning point where we will realize the importance of these historic preservation sites, especially in the African American community that doesn’t get the kind of attention we know we need to have.”

Jacqueline Wiggins, another member of the Friends of the Tanner House, agreed.

“I thought it was great,” Wiggins said Mondayabout the new funding. “I wish there were more city officials who will support historic preservation, period — not just at the Tanner House.

“There are stories of history-making Black people all across the city from South Philly and Southwest Philly to the Northeast. We are part of Philadelphia’s history and it should not go unnoticed or unrecognized.”

This story has been updated to include a quote from Councilmember Katherine Gilmore Richardson.