The Curse of Billy Penn was an urban legend and popular explanation for the championship drought that all major professional sports teams based in Philadelphia experienced between 1987 and 2008. The drought was attributed to the construction of One Liberty Place, an 848 foot (258 m) skyscraper in Center City, Philadelphia. The tower's height broke a longstanding gentleman's agreement that no building in the city could rise above 548 feet (167 m), the height of the William Penn statue atop City Hall.
Prior to the construction of One Liberty place, the last area sports team to win their respective championship were the Philadelphia 76ers, who swept the Los Angeles Lakers in the 1983 NBA Finals. The curse is believed to have ended on October 29, 2008, when the Philadelphia Phillies defeated the Tampa Bay Devil Rays to capture the 2008 World Series.
Background edit
Philadelphia City Hall edit
The Scottish-born architect John McArthur Jr., assisted by Thomas Ustick Walter, began constructing Philadelphia City Hall in 1872.[1] Longtime Philadelphia resident Alexander Milne Calder, meanwhile, was tasked with overseeing the production of approximately 250 sculptures that would inhabit the City Hall building. In 1886, Calder was commissioned to construct a bronze statue of the city's founder, William Penn, which would sit atop the building.[2] Calder's project was delayed, as at the time there was no metalworking factory capable of crafting something the size of his intended statue. Tacony Iron and Metal Works agreed to take up the project after its founding in 1899, and on November 6, 1892, William Penn was unveiled in the front courtyard of City Hall.[3] On November 28, 1894, the statue was raised to its final position atop City Hall.[4]
Upon its completion, Calder's statue stood 36 feet 4 inches (11.07 m) tall and weighed 27 tonnes (27 long tons; 30 short tons).[3] Made of bronze, it depicts Penn as a young man, holding the Charter of Privileges in one hand. The figure's face points northeast to Penn Treaty Park, where Penn agreed to peace with the native Lenape. Calder disliked this orientation, as it cast the statue's face in shadow for most of the day.[2][5] From its base to the top of Penn's hat, City Hall stands 548 feet (167 m) above street level. This was the tallest occupied building in the world until 1909, when the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company Tower was completed in New York City.[4]
Construction of One Liberty Place edit
During his tenure as the executive director of the Philadelphia City Planning Commission in the 1960s, Edmund Bacon instituted a gentleman's agreement that no new building development would stand taller than the William Penn statue. While the Philadelphia City Council did not approve a bill that would have formalized this agreement, Bacon resisted any attempts by developers to allow the construction of taller buildings.[6] This agreement continued mostly without controversy until March 1984, when Willard Rouse announced his plans for two skyscrapers that would surpass the statue's height. Rouse argued that the flat height limit surrounding the statue did little to preserve its preeminence in the city, and that aligning buildings to allow for viewing corridors of City Hall was more sensible.[7]
The Curse of Billy Penn edit
Major professional leagues edit
College and amateur sports edit
Breaking the curse edit
In 2007, the Comcast Center replaced One Liberty Place as the tallest building in Philadelphia. At the topping out ceremony, construction workers affixed a small statue of Penn to one of the building's beams in the hope of breaking the curse.[8]
References edit
- ^ Smith, G. E. Kidder (1996). Source Book of American Architecture: 500 Notable Buildings from the 10th Century to the Present. New York, NY: Princeton Architectural Press. p. 255. ISBN 1-56898-024-8.
- ^ a b Perl, Jed (2017). Calder: The Conquest of Time: The Early Years, 1898–1940. New York, NY: Alfred A. Knopf. pp. 17–19. ISBN 978-0-451-49421-4.
- ^ a b Gayle, Margot; Look, David W. (1992). Metals in America's Historic Buildings: Uses and Preservation Treatments. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of the Interior. p. 28. ISBN 0-16-038073-1.
- ^ a b Hornblum, Allen M.; Holmes, George J. (2003). Images of America: Philadelphia's City Hall. Portsmouth, NH: Arcadia Publishing. pp. 8, 63. ISBN 0-7385-1340-7.
- ^ Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission (1996). An Image of Peace: The Penn Treaty Collection of Mr. and Myrs. Meyer P. Potamkin. Harrisburg, PA: Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. p. 13. ISBN 0-89271-069-1.
- ^ Heller, Gregory L. (2013). Ed Bacon: Planning, Politics and the Building of Modern Philadelphia. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press. p. 113. ISBN 978-0-8122-4490-8.
- ^ Gerber, Benjamin M. (2006). "'No-Law' Urban Height Restrictions: A Philadelphia Story". The Urban Lawyer. 38 (1): 111–161. JSTOR 27895609. Retrieved May 28, 2022.
- ^ Bunch, Will (October 3, 2007). "Will Billy Penn free his city?". Philadelphia Daily News. p. P-46. Retrieved September 3, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.