How can a city known for its history help to preserve Black heritage historical sites?

Jillian Patricia Pirtle runs a museum dedicated to the life and career of contralto singer Marian Anderson. The other night, she talked about how much work it takes to manage any historic landmark or museum.

“Now multiply that times 100 when you don’t have staff, when you’re doing it yourself, and you have no help except for the wonderful, amazing volunteers,” Pirtle said Tuesday evening at the Preservation Alliance for Greater Philadelphia’s 2024 Fall Speaker Series, “Preserving Philadelphia.”

Pirtle, CEO of the National Marian Anderson Museum & Historical Society in Southwest Center City, was speaking at a panel discussion, “Restoring Black Heritage Sites: Challenges and Opportunities,” that the Preservation Alliance held at the Cosmopolitan Club in Center City.

Also on the panel were Janice Sykes-Ross, executive director of the Paul Robeson House & Museum in West Philadelphia, and Christopher R. Rogers, co-coordinator of the Friends of the Tanner House in North Philadelphia.

Anderson was born in Philadelphia in 1897. She sang in opera houses all over the world. Arturo Toscanini, the Italian conductor, once told her, “A voice like yours is heard once in a hundred years.”

But in 1939, the Daughters of the American Revolution denied Anderson the use of Constitution Hall, Washington’s largest concert hall, because she was Black. Eleanor Roosevelt, then first lady, resigned from the DAR in protest and helped arrange for Anderson to sing on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial instead.

That 1939 Easter Sunday Lincoln Memorial outdoor concert became one of the defining moments of the civil rights movement.

Pirtle talked about the more than $500,000 in flooding damages that resulted after a basement pipe burst at the museum in 2020. She said the museum at 762 Martin St., where Anderson once lived, was able to begin restoration and repair work with the help of generous donors and the Preservation Alliance. It is scheduled to reopen to the public in October.

But overall, Pirtle had a pointed message about how Philadelphia treats its historic legacy as part of its tourism industry.

“Our historic buildings and properties are not just housed between Third and Market going over to Seventh Street … in a four-square-block area,” Pirtle said. “There are historic districts across the Philadelphia area. Historic landmarks and buildings exist in these neighborhoods where we live, in our communities.

“Why is it that Black heritage sites don’t get funded?”

“Why is it that Black heritage sites don’t get funded? Why don’t they get treated with the same amount of respect and funding and support that other historical sites do?”

Former Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter, who moderated the panel, posed the question of whether the city could generate money to preserve historic landmarks by taking a portion of hotel or other tourism fees. He noted that when cities help finance baseball or football stadiums, sometimes $1 from every ticket purchased is put aside and used to fund programs to benefit children.

Sykes-Ross, of the Robeson House & Museum, which comes under the umbrella of the West Philadelphia Cultural Alliance, described the Robeson House as being a community hub, an educational center, and a “legacy keeper” of Robeson’s life and career.

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Paul Robeson was an internationally acclaimed singer, actor, lawyer, athlete, and activist, and he lived at the house at 4951 Walnut St. with his sister, Marian Forsythe, for the last 10 years of his life. He died in Philadelphia in 1976.

Sykes-Ross said that Black heritage sites like the Robeson House are in neighborhoods that are constantly being threatened by gentrification. As neighborhoods change, she said, the Robeson House “will still be here. We will not be moved.”

And Rogers, of the Friends of the Tanner House, talked about the work the organization is doing to try to stabilize and restore the house at 2908 W. Diamond St., where artist Henry Ossawa Tanner and his family lived, so that it can become a community asset in North Philadelphia.

The FOTH just released a report on its past year of community engagement to seek suggestions on how the Tanner House should serve the community once it is restored.

Nutter asked each of the speakers how much money they would need to sustain the house museums they are running or, in the Tanner case, hope to run.

Pirtle said she needed at least $3 million. “We need a staff. I can’t keep doing this alone,” she said.

“It’s beautiful, it’s bright and shiny, but this is Philadelphia, and we are an old city.”

Sykes-Ross said she could use $2.5 million, and Rogers said at least $1 million. He said a second phase of stabilization work began this summer, but the house needs to be completely restored.

Nutter then noted that as he drives around Philadelphia he can’t help but see all the new construction that is going on.

“It’s beautiful, it’s bright and shiny, but this is Philadelphia, and we are an old city. And if you lose a sense of all that, we will have no idea of where we came from and how we got here and where we’re going,” he said.

“While we’re building all this new stuff, how do we maintain the historic stuff?”