Fixing a facade | Scene Through the Lens

Working from an original band course on the 1857 concert hall and opera house, Goodroad is creating a profile template that will be used to restore damaged sections of the decorative course on other parts of the Academy, part of the ongoing restoration of the building.

Over the years various repairs, patches and reinforcements have taken place, the latest my colleague Peter Dobrin wrote about in 2022 when workers removed the balconies over the front doors that were falling apart and replaced the old brownstone with composite materials carefully matched in color and texture.

Designated a National Historic Landmark in 1962, the Academy - despite its name - was never a music school, but is the oldest opera house in the United States that is still used for its original purpose.

Since 1998, a black-and-white photo has appeared every Monday in staff photographer Tom Gralish’s “Scene Through the Lens” photo column in The Inquirer’s local news section. Here are the most recent, in color: