Thomas Hall
GONE
The following were photos taken by Gerry Wilkinson.
Photos from Friday, September 18, 1998
Photo #1 - An empty hole where Thomas Hall once stood
Photo #2 - Contents of the 1900 Cornerstone of Thomas Hall
Photos from Saturday, August 8, 1998
Photo #1 - The Presser Learning Center, formerly known as the Parsonage of the Park Avenue Methodist Episcopal Church. In the center is Peabody Hall. In the foreground, rubble where Thomas Hall once stood.
Photo #2 - Taken from Peabody Hall, rubble where Thomas Hall once stood. In the background is the Presser Learning Center, formerly the church's parsonage.
Photo #3 - The door in the basement of Thomas Hall going up the cement rear steps. (This is the doorway near Studio A)
Photo #4 - In the left and center, there are 3 stained glass windows. The one of the left was in the Chief Engineer's office and the middle two in the newsroom. If you look carefully, you can see that these three windows were never removed.
Photo #5 - From Broad Street, Thomas Hall is gone, but not forgotten.
Photos from Saturday, August 1, 1998
Photo #1 - The entrance to Thomas Hall on Park Avenue. This is the doorway we used to use to go into the basement studios of WRTI. The 1900 cornerstone is still in place and most of the Park Avenue wall of the building. When are they ever going to remove that cornerstone?
Photo #2 - Shot was taken from outside the Norris Street door nearest to Watts Walk. Inside you can see rubble and the church's old parsonage, now the Presser Learning Center.
Photo #3 - What's left of the Watts Walk side of the building.
Photo #4 - Thomas Hall from Broad Street
Photo #5 - From Park Avenue, the door nearest the old parsonage, now the Presser Learning Center.
Photo #6 - One of the columns inside the main sanctuary.
Photo #7 - The inside of the main sanctuary.
Photo #8 - This bag contains 18 baseball sized stones from the 1886 section of the building. Want one?
Photos from Saturday, July 25, 1998
Photo #1 - The Sunday School area of Thomas Hall. Photographed from Watts Walkway.
Photo #2 - Thomas Hall from Broad Street. Note the destroyed area on the right.
Photo #3 - The Second floor of the Sunday School area. Photographed from behind the Presser Learning Center on the Watts Walkway.
Photo #4 - The lower portion of the photo shows Studio and Control Room A of our old Thomas Hall studios.
Photo #5 - The demolition company removes the main sanctuary doors (original). Photo taken from Park Avenue near Norris.
Photo #6 - The main sanctuary of Thomas Hall. Photographed from the Park Avenue side near Norris.
Photos from Friday, July 17, 1998
Photo #1 - Inside Thomas Hall, the old two story Sunday School room. The windows are out and the ceiling is falling in.
Photo #2 - From the corner of Broad and Norris, a sign announcing building the new dormitory. In the background, Thomas Hall, the building that had to be destroyed to make way to erect the new dorm.
Photo #3 - In the main sanctuary of Thomas Hall, on both the Park Avenue and Watts Walkway sides were brass plaques. When the University removed the plaques to be placed into storage, a pattern from the original wall was found. The design dates from at least 1910 but more likely dates from its original construction in 1886.
Photo from Thursday, July 16, 1998
Photo #1 - Outside Thomas Hall, the heavy duty demolition equipment moves in.
Photos from Tuesday, July 14, 1998
Photo #1 - Thomas Hall from Mitten Hall annex lawn.
Photo #2 - Thomas Hall from Park and Norris.
Photo #3 - Thomas Hall from Peabody Hall. Photos from Friday, July 10, 1998
Photo #1 - The side of the campus building facing Broad Street shows that these windows have been removed also.
Photo #2 - In the basement of Thomas Hall, the bench has been removed by the University for the WRTI "Old Gang." The bench has been reassembled into a four foot section which will "visit" future "Old Gang" reunions. Photos from Thursday, July 9, 1998
Photo #1 - Demolition workers from Winslow Stained Glass. They are 80 feet in the air removing the stained glass that was located in the top of the 1900 addition to the building. The stained glass that is shown being removed was in the second floor Sunday School rooms. The rooms in this shot face towards Broad Street.
Photo #2 - Workers on the same side of the building, but these are at the top of the main sanctuary, built in 1886. They have removed a section of stained glass and are ready to lower it to the ground.
Photo #3 - Worker loading in a truck the stained glass lowered in the previous shot. Photos from Wednesday, July 8, 1998
Photo #1 - Jamie Johnson from the University staff looks at the empty frame from the main sanctuary on the Norris Street side of the building.
Photo #2 - The metal box and contents from the 1886 cornerstone of Thomas Hall. It was a Bible or some other religious book. It has been almost totally destroyed. Only one page is even partially intact.
Photo #3 - This is in the second floor minister's office. The three Tiffany style windows have been removed. Photos from Tuesday, July 7, 1998
Photo #1 - The Park Avenue window of the main sanctuary of Thomas Hall. All the stained glass from that frame has been removed.
Photo #2 - The demolition equipment gets ready.
Photo #3 - The old bench in the basement of Thomas Hall has been removed from the wall. The University will transport the bench to the carpentry shop for pick-up by the WRTI "Old Gang." Hopefully, we will use the bench for next year's reunion.
Photo #4 - An University guard looks into the empty chamber of the 1886 Thomas Hall cornerstone. A metal box was removed but its contents is said to be ruined.
Photo #5 - A section of the Tiffany type windows is removed from the building. It looks like they just sawed through the glass. Photos from Monday, July 6, 1998
Photo #1 - Thomas Hall on Monday, July 6, 1998. Parts of the building are roped off for the beginning of demolition, the removal of the stained glass windows.
Photo #2 - Inside Thomas Hall, workers from Winslow Stained Glass discuss how to remove the windows.
Photo #3 - Inside Thomas Hall, workers start to remove the stained glass windows.
Photo #4 - In the main sanctuary, Park Avenue side, several windows have already been removed.
Photo #5 - Taken from inside Thomas Hall, the Watts Walkway side. About 40% of this window has been removed.
Photo #6 - Worker at the corner of Norris Street and Park Avenue starts to remove part of the sidewalk. Photos from Thursday, July 2, 1998
Photo #1 - Demolition team members surveying the rear roof of Thomas Hall.
Photo #2 - Demolition team members in the main sanctuary discussing procedure on removing the stained glass windows.
Photo #3 - Sub-contractors from Winslow Stained Glass recording the Tiffany type stained glass windows. These are on the second floor, Park Avenue side office, probably used by the church's minister. The windows date from 1900. Current replacement price is $100,000.00. These windows have extra added value as antiques.
Photo #4 - Thomas Hall Guard looking at a pile of rubble in the main sanctuary. The guard said and this is not a joke, "In a couple of weeks, it will all be rubble." The following were photos taken by Mike Muderick.
Photos from Friday, July 31, 1998. Mike Muderick says, "Rainy day and muddy. You really had to think for a minute, standing on Watts Street, to get your orientation and figure out where the steps were, etc. A real shame. A lot of the pictures were taken from the vantage point above the Studio A control room." Photo #1 - From Watts Walkway, inside Thomas Hall. On the left (blue) is part of the main sanctuary wall. The double red doors were the ones on Park Avenue. These doors were the main ones we would have used to enter Thomas Hall to go to the basement studios of WRTI. The white wall on the right was inside one of the offices. Immediately under the window in the white section, is one of the windows of the basement Men's room. Photo #2 - From the Park Avenue walkway, the exterior wall of Thomas Hall. These double red doors were the ones we would have used to enter the building. Immediately inside these doors to the right were the wooden stairway to the basement. Note the 1900 cornerstone was still intact when this photo was taken. Photo #3 - From Watts Walkway, looking down into rubble filling the cement stairway just outside Studio A. Photo #4 - From Watts Walkway, inside Thomas Hall. The blue section is the main sanctuary, built in 1886. Photo #5 - From Watts Walkway, the rubble of Thomas Hall. In the background is the intact building of the Presser Learning Center, which was the parsonage of the Park Avenue Methodist Episcopal Church. The parsonage has not been destroyed and had the same architects as the church. In the center of the photo are two partially buried windows. These were the windows that were just above th bench in the basement of Thomas Hall. Photos supplied by Temple University.
Photo #1 - July 1998
Photo #2 - July 1998
