Ruth Branning Molloy
A Founder and Emeritus Board Member of UCHS
July 24, 1910-November 8, 2002

A Remembrance, by Sylvia Barkan

Ruth Branning MolloyThis week Ruth Malloy died. Ruth always claimed that I was the founder of The University City Historical Society. NOT TRUE!—UCHS evolved from what began as our joint activities.

I'll admit my idea wasn't so original - after reading in the N.Y. Times about a gallery owner / historian in N.Y.—Ivan Karp—who saved huge sculptures from buildings being demolished in New York which subsequently became a sculpture garden at the Brooklyn Museum—and after arranging a bus tour to the museum of a group of like minded Architectural Historians—Ruth and I were off and running. It was the sixties and we were living in University City where huge blocks of houses were being demolished for University expansion, including the 100 year one that Ruth and Joe lived in on Locust St.and where Ruth routinely hung inspiring messages for passing students to read. With the help of Carol Anne and the West Philadelphia Corporation, we obtained the right (and keys) from the Redevelopment Authority to document and remove sculptures from houses that were slated to be demolished.

We didn't always follow protocol—and so that while Ruth, one of our chief procurers and others were inside chipping away at our “treasures” I would stand outside and explain to the police about our “permission.”

We did get our sculpture garden (at 40th and Walnut, since demolished) and between Ruth and myself probably have thousands of slides, documenting all our lost treasures. Ruth had a Leica—with no exposure meter—and her photos were wonderful!

What an eye she had. Her photos combined humor, beauty and in a sense combined her appreciation of life around her, they were Ruth.

If Ruth would be reading this letter, she would edit all my errors. At age 92 she had a perfect recall of dates, names and events. Poet - historian - Artist - editor - most creative - all Ruth. I've run out of adjectives!

The following is a brief history of UCHS that Ruth wrote for the Board a few years ago:

THE UNIVERSITY CITY HISTORICAL SOCIETY was organized in 1967 for the purpose of rescuing and preserving architectural details of buildings about to be demolished by the City in the interest of building programs of the University of Pennsylvania and Drexel... This non-profit organization, UCHS, encouraged and aided materially at first by the (then) West Philadelphia Corporation, was the inspiration of artist Sylvia Barkan who had seen the sculpture garden on the grounds of the Brooklyn Museum, made up of exterior ornamentation from demolished buildings in New York City...A bus trip to that Museum was one of the first programs of our Society...

The late Leon Rosenthal, attorney, and author of “A History of University City” (actually a misnomer), was the first UCHS president (1967-1970). Other early presidents were Larrick Stapleton(1970-73);Lorelei Steuer (1973-76); Robert P.Hughes (1976-77); Betty Moloznik (1977-79) Michael D.Hardy (1979- ).Present president is Jennifer Goodman (1995- ) preceded by Melani Lamond (19 - ); Rebecca Trumbull(19 - ); John Hall (19 - ); Joanne Kellerman (19 -) Joan Coward (Wells) (19 - ); Mary Katharine Walton (19 - ).

The late John Maass, first program director, produced meeting notices which could have been called collectors’ items. Early programs included lectures, exhibitions, bus tours, “walks”, meetings in historic houses, dinners and talks in local restaurants. A 1976 “marking day”, engineered by Mike Hardy, with teams on different routes marking buildings at least a century old, was hailed by a well-known architect as “a perfect little program”. Board member Dorothy Kussmaul described it as a gift to those who had not known the excitement experienced by members of the privileged Acquisitions Committee.

That committee, during the demolition years, with a go-ahead from the Redevelopment Authority and the cooperation of the Police Dept., entered buildings about to be demolished and saved ornamental woodwork, tiles, hardware, stained and leaded glass, ironwork, terra cotta ornamentation, and items such as house numbers, bits of wallpaper, lighting fixtures, mantelpieces, and even personal memorabilia left behind, as well as pieces of furniture which would have otherwise been taken by vandals or left to the wrecking ball... On every weekend of those early years the enthusiasm of the Acquisitions Committee was contagious. It is no wonder that outsiders begged to be allowed to “help” and that members returned to the scene at day's end to pick up items somehow overlooked. In that way, two respected professional men, whose expertise made them valuable to the Committee, collected Victorian doorknobs, register grilles, and mantelpieces... “Remember the Society”, Sylvia would exclaim, to no avail. Sylvia and I, Ruth Molloy, have literally thousands of color slides and black and white photos documenting those years...

Some of our treasures were stored in private homes (or in yards or on porches from which they were to disappear), some in Leon Rosenthal's office basement} some in the warehouse at 4040 Locust St where UCHS rented space. Two Board members from the Penna. Hosp. for Nervous Diseases offered the hospital basement for storing the largest items (iron gates, pillars, sizable plumbing fixtures, exterior ornamentation). UCHS never had a written agreement with the hospital.

This collection was later itemized by Outerbridge Horsey, a Penn architectural student who had volunteered to oversee the addition of certain sculptures to The Peoples Park at 40th and Walnut, just east of the Library (a project of Lorelei Steuer)... Later, when Horsey returned to the Hospital he found that everything had been stolen. No answer was ever received from questioning letters written. All the psychiatrist told me was, “I was too shocked to answer.” He, incidentally, the late Dr.Robert Jones, was the member most involved with two early programs, antiques shows at the Convention Center (working hand, in glove with the wk Marian Carson.)

Early UCHS meeting places were the 2nd floor front of the Arts League, which we rented, and the lower level of St. James RC Church at 38th and Chestnut Sts. where we set up an exhibition of a Victorian room in a small raised section at the back. Board meetings were also held at the Spruce Hill Center on 45th St. A fashion oriented meeting at the Arts League featured, our fine collection of Victorian gowns and accessories (since disposed of). Dressed headless manikins were walked over from Gene Smith's on 4lst and, created a sensation. Our speaker was a doll collector who later committed suicide, as did also the unfortunate trolley motorwoman who had taken us on a trolley tour, programmed by Dave Horwitz... A memorable pre-Christmas meeting in our Arts League rm. featured a birthday cake for Georgina Melville, who died at 95, and talked to us of her vivid West Phila memories, taped later by Fran Byers and me.

At one time a project of taping old residents was initiated but not continued. Exhibitions of tiles and ironwork, and the work of local late photographers were held at the Van Pelt Library, and architectural postcards at AIA Headquarters, and in Reading and Washington to which bus tours were held in '76 as well as tours to New York and Bridgeton, N. J. Perhaps 25 exhibitions were seen at the 40th Street Library. The annual House Tour and Adopt-a-Grave are two programs which continue. The New Year's Eve party at The Woodlands promises to be another lasting event.

Bee Rosenthal has taken credit for having drawn our attention to The Woodlands as a project. Others say Betty Moloznik was the instigator. Our excitement over the demolition of 19th C. houses gave way to enthusiasm over the restoration of an 18th C. mansion. Mike Hardy, formerly as volunteer and now as executive director must continue to be the pillar of strength as far as the Woodlands in concerned. ...He will tell us about the past and plans.

UCHS has weathered 28 years and the future looks bright as long as we can keep Mike in good health. The history of an area is not confined to one day or to one century. The late Lloyd Bankson, Penn 1877 graduate, lived in 1917 at 4211 Chester Ave. and wrote in Penn's Quarterly (Jan 1936) about the fine mansions and upper class people who had once lived in West Philadelphia, and then regretted “the end of all this early promise came in 1876 (when) many rows of ugly cheap houses were built "and afterwards served to house another type of people”. He hoped that some day “a much better type of houses inhabited by a more suitable class of people” would be “a fitting setting for the University.”

So much for Lloyd Bankson. My hope is that UCHS will have the inclination to respect and foster interest in our area throughout the centuries and the 20th century, almost over, and the upcoming 21st will be worth preserving in our archives wherever they may be filed! After all, we are here today!

-Ruth Molloy

A Remembrance, by Melani Lamond,
UCHS Board Member and former President

I first met Ruth Molloy in 1984. As a new Realtor, I sent out a letter asking people who were interested in selling their houses to call me, and when Ruth received it on St. Mark's Square, she called - not to sell her
house, but to tell me that she didn't like the letter and to ask where, exactly, I wanted her to go! We had a long phone conversation, at the end of which she declared, "you're not pushy at all!" - and then volunteered to think of people who might be interested in my services. And we were friends ever afterwards.

Ruth made friends everywhere! So often one hears of a person "outliving her friends," but Ruth's friends were of all ages; that could never have happened to her! When she invited my family to a St. Mark's Square Day dinner, her other friends there included the woman who framed pictures for her at American Picture Framing and the teenage son of a neighbor. That day, she took a short spin on an even younger neighbor's bicycle. My son, now 19, considered her a friend all the time he was growing up, and he was quick to remind me yesterday that he has one of her decorated walking sticks that she offered for auction at the Arts League several years ago.

Ruth knew almost everything and everyone in University City, and she told her stories with humor and irony, even when they were about thieves being chased across peoples' back yards or other subjects where the humor wasn't obvious at the start of the telling. She loved the cats she adopted on her block. She photographed every event she attended. Her house is packed with an amazing collection of memorabilia. She put together exhibits for the University City Historical Society and the Arts League which focused on the
small things that happened in University City and the everyday people who live here.

She wrote for the University City Review, which honored her with a dinner some years ago, and she'd also written, in years past, for many other publications, including an article about St. Mark's Square for Philadelphia
Magazine. Serious about writing, she was quick to lament poor word usage and punctuation in publications and on signs, including a mistake on the marker erected at the entry to The Woodlands! Two years ago she published a book of poetry called Finally. There was a book signing event at the Arts League, and the place was packed with friends and well-wishers. The book she signed for me says, "Love to Melani."

Ruth made her own Christmas cards every year, and her mailing list must have been very long. Christmas won't be the same this year without a card from her.