The Please Touch Museum is giving its palatial home in West Philly a $4 million upgrade ahead of a set of historic anniversaries in 2026.
The museum’s home, Memorial Hall, was built for the 1876 Centennial World Exposition, which was the first world’s fair held in the U.S. and coincided with the 100th anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia.
Over the years, the building’s marble floors have suffered from wear and tear, and in places were replaced with tiles that were not close matches to the originals, museum officials said.
So on Thursday, workers launched a 15-month project to remove tiles throughout the structure and install replacements from Italian quarries — where the original marble is thought to have come from — as well as quarries in France and Spain.
The project is part of a larger Memorial Hall 2026 initiative to prepare the building for its 150th anniversary in 2026, as well as for celebrations of the nation’s 250th birthday, or Semiquincentennial, which is expected to draw millions of visitors to Philly a little more than two years from now.
“The Centennial District community — our residents, local businesses, parks, and cultural institutions — are a vital part of Philadelphia’s story that will be celebrated in the Semiquincentennial, and we must be ready,” said Patricia Wellenbach, the museum’s president and CEO, in a statement.
Famous feet tramped these tiles
Memorial Hall stands out among the city’s architectural treasures because it’s one of just two Centennial buildings still standing, out of more than 200 built.
The Exposition sprawled over hundreds of acres in West Fairmount Park and drew more than 10 million visitors during its six-month run from May to November 1876. Memorial Hall, the art gallery building for the event, was an early example of monumental Beaux-Arts architecture.
The floors are made up of white, red, and black marble, and may have been trod on by famous Americans like Ulysses S. Grant, Frederick Douglass, Thomas Edison, and John Wanamaker, according to Please Touch Museum officials. After the expo ended, the building became the Pennsylvania Museum and School of Industrial Art — the precursor to today’s Philadelphia Museum of Art and the University of the Arts.
The Fairmount Park Commission took it over in the 1950s, and the hall served as office space, a police station, a community center, and storage space until the Please Touch Museum leased the building from the city, renovated it and relocated its exhibits there in 2008.
Over the years, the mortar under the tiles deteriorated, leading to wobbly and broken tiles, per the museum. Many of the originals that remain are cracked and chipped.
A lesson for future construction workers
Please Touch Museum officials said they’re making the most of the project by turning it into something of an educational exhibit for children and families who visit over the next 15 months.
Tents with clear panels are being placed over the floor areas being overhauled so visitors can watch in real time, the museum said. Please Touch educators will also create pop-up play opportunities related to construction, fossils and other related themes.
Workers from Knapp Masonry, a Philadelphia firm that has repaired the Free Library’s Central Parkway building and other historic structures, are replacing the tiles 200 square feet at a time. They’ll remove old layers of substrate material under the tiles, grind it up for disposal, put in new substrate and mortar, and install new marble tiles according to the original design.
The project focuses on Hamilton Hall, near the entrance where the Statue of Liberty’s arm and torch is located, the museum’s cafe, and some other rooms and hallways, Axios reported.
The museum said it will keep any original marble still in good condition, using some of it in a meeting room that was a “reflection space” in 1876 and handing over some tiles to the city for future projects. Broken and non-original marble will go to landfills.
Officials stressed that the museum, which is a National Historic Landmark, will stay open and will continue hosting weddings and special events. Work that produces air particulates will take place under tents with filtration systems, and only in the early morning before daily visitors arrive.
Up next: Fixing the dome and facade
For the tile project, the nonprofit museum has already received financial support from many sources: the city, the state’s Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program, the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Save America’s Treasures program, and donations from museum trustees, charitable foundations, and other donors.
The next set of improvements will require additional funding. Ahead of the 2026 anniversaries, the museum administration wants to repair the building’s “majestic” dome, beautify the exterior facade, and make the building weathertight, at a cost of several million more dollars. They’ve launched a fundraising campaign called Memorial Hall 2026.
The projects come several years after the Please Touch Museum resolved a bankruptcy filing tied to its move to Memorial Hall.
After taking on $60 million in debt to finance renovations, it saw drops in admissions revenue and donations, and earned less than expected from the sale of its previous building. It emerged from bankruptcy in 2016, thanks in part to a $3.25 million gift from an anonymous donor, which encouraged additional gifts from other supporters.
Wellenbach, who became president and CEO that year, is credited with launching a massive fundraising campaign to restore the museum’s financial health, while also facing criticism for abusive behavior that led to a number of staff departures.
