DESTINATION // Tour de Glass
Philadelphia’s Magic Gardens
First Glass Education
Exceptional murals, mosaics, and stained glass open to the public
Philadelphia has a plethora of stained-glass art in nearly every neighborhood—many of its historic churches and homes still bear the marks of craftspeople and artisans of the past. But there are a few spots in town and surrounding suburbs where you can see the best of the best.
Please Touch Museum
4231 Avenue of the Republic
Philadelphia, PA 19131
Admission: $22
Wednesday evenings: $2 per person for SNAP and EBT Access cardholders
Start them young as art appreciators: The many wonders of Philadelphia’s Please Touch Museum (yes, the giant heart is still there) include the Fairy Tale Garden, the life-size locomotive, and the planetarium. When you’ve finished running the kids ragged in one of the city’s most beloved institutions, head to the Rocket Room. The kids will want to see the launcher, mission control, spaceship, and Mars rover design table. You can take in the beautiful sun, moon, and planets rendered in stained glass. The extremely heavy windows are six feet wide and hung at a height of 40 feet; when the windows were rehung in 2010 as part of a renovation, the crew rigged up a pulley system to get the windows into their permanent placement. In 2022, Greg Stefan Studios was commissioned to add an Earth window, and his shop also helped with additional structural support to ensure the sun hangs high in the sky in perpetuity.
Philadelphia’s Magic Gardens
1020 South Street
Philadelphia, PA 19147
Admission: $0–$15; check website for details
One of Philadelphia’s kookiest and most beloved artists is Isaiah Zager, whose work can be found in permanent collections at the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. But public folk art was always his calling, and nearly 200 walls and other surfaces throughout Philadelphia—some on private property and others in public spaces—bear the mark of this visionary artist, whose mosaic techniques are renowned worldwide. But if you’re looking for a fully immersive experience, you can’t do better than the Magic Gardens, right in the heart of Philadelphia’s iconic South Street. Sure, the current scourge of vape shops and wear-it-once cheap jewelry stores aren’t as artsy as former residents, such as the storied Painted Bride, but there’s still Philadelphia art history to be had. At PMG, you can experience two indoor galleries and a bi-level outdoor garden that makes for endless exploration: Embedded in the mosaics are bike tires, mirrors, bottles, glass fragments, tiles, and inspiration from folk art around the world. Notably, Zager suffered a mental health crisis when he moved back to Philadelphia in the ’60s, and he used his art as therapy. Now, all of us can immerse ourselves in his mystical designs.
‘The Dream Garden’ Mosaic
The Curtis Center
699 Walnut Street Philadelphia, PA 19106
Admission: Free
Philadelphia’s Curtis Center, once the digs of a grand publishing house, was designed by architect Edgar Viguers Seeler. Publications such as Country Gentlemen, American, Jack & Jill, and Holiday helped build the Curtis fortune, as did titles such as The Saturday Evening Post, home for many years to the famous works of Norman Rockwell. Tucked inside the building lobby on the 6th Street side is the breathtaking mosaic “The Dream Garden,” designed by Maxwell Parish and made by Louis Tiffany of Tiffany Studios. Each of the 100,000 pieces of favrile glass was placed by hand. Casino magnate Steve Wynn tried to purchase and abscond with the precious mural to Las Vegas, but Pew Charitable Trusts donated $3.5 million to keep the mosaic in its historic environs. It remains in its original location, though it’s now owned by the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. Pro tip: If you go to see the mural, head there at 4:45, and on most evenings you can duck into P.J. Clarke’s for buck-a-shuck sustainable oysters and happy hour sliders and drinks.
Glencairn Museum
1001 Cathedral Road Bryn Athyn, PA 19009-0757 Admission $0–$15 for tours
If you fancy a day trip to send you back in time and wow you with architecture and art, we suggest Glencairn Museum in Bryn Athyn, PA. The Pitcairn family built the multi-building property as a post-Guilded Age residence between 1928 and 1939, designed in a medieval, Romanesque style. The New Church religious community founded the surrounding town of Bryn Athyn in the late 1800s, part of Pennsylvania’s robust history of religious toleration, promoted by founder William Penn. The property is now maintained as a nonprofit museum of religious art and history. Among its stated desired impacts is for visitors to help develop a sense of empathy by exposing them to varying perspectives—something near and dear to our hearts. Visitors can tour various galleries of precious art from Egypt, China, and America’s indigenous populations. Artisans and craftspeople of all kinds helped to make the property as authentic as possible, including many instances of beautiful stained-glass windows. The Pitcairns believed that all spiritual men must also be patriotic, and Glencairn’s Upper Hall boasts a trifecta of American government buildings in stained glass that represent our three branches of government and the balance of power among them: the Capitol building, the White House, and the Supreme Court. The museum also houses an internationally recognized collection of medieval stained-glass art and provides multiple kinds of tours for visitors, workshops, and music concerts. //
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