Point Breeze’s Keith Haring mural could be added to the city’s Register of Historic Places
“We The Youth” is being proposed to become a protected Historic Place to honor the Reading-born artist. But some are wary of the precedent it will set.
Keith Haring’s We The Youth is already a Philadelphia landmark, but what if the city made that designation official?
The Point Breeze mural, the only collaborative Haring mural that still hangs in its original location, is being proposed to be added to Philadelphia’s Register of Historic Places, which would make it an officially designated and protected landmark.
Haring was born in Reading, raised in Kutztown, and died in New York City in 1990, at age 31, from AIDS-related complications.
“Keith Haring was an extremely important artist who tragically died fairly young,” Alexander Till, a historic preservation planner at the City of Philadelphia who nominated the mural, said to WHYY in a statement. “This nomination gives us an opportunity to preserve this piece of his work and his legacy in Philadelphia.”
We The Youth, according to Till, fits Criteria A and E for designation, stating that it “has significant character, interest or value as part of the development, heritage or cultural characteristics of the city … or is associated with the life of a person significant in the past.” Plus, it “is the work of a designer … whose work has significantly influenced the historical, architectural, economic, social, or cultural development of the city.”
The South Philly mural has stood at the corner of 22nd and Ellsworth Streets for nearly four decades. It was painted in 1987 commemorating the U.S. bicentennial, and intentionally placed in a less mainstream neighborhood.
Defined by its colorful dancing characters, We The Youth was painted in collaboration with a group of Philadelphia students, through a partnership with the nonprofits CityKids NYC and Brandywine Workshop.
“Philly is very proud to have a Keith Haring mural and especially one embedded in the community that was done in such a collaborative manner,” Jane Golden, founder and executive director of Mural Arts Philadelphia, said last month. “We get nothing but positive response and excitement when people learn there is a Haring mural in our city.”
In 2013, Golden and her Mural Arts team undertook a massive restoration of the Haring mural.
“As the local caretaker of the Haring mural, we are committed to helping ensure this mural stays at its original location for generations to come,” she said.
Murals, especially outdoor ones, are notoriously difficult to get put on the city’s Historic Places Register. They can only be nominated as an “object,” defined under city preservation laws as “a material thing of functional, aesthetic, cultural, historic, or scientific value that may be, by nature or design, movable but yet related to a specific setting or environment.”
Out of 21 objects designated since 1971, only four of them were murals or mural collections: The Dream Garden inside the Curtis Center, the New Deal-era murals inside the Family Court building, Angelic Exaltation of St. Joseph into Heaven inside Old City’s Old St. Joseph’s Church, and Iron Plantation Near Southwark inside the Southwark Station Post Office in South Philly.
If approved, We The Youth would be the first designated mural in over four years, and the first outdoor one in the city’s history.
Some preservationists have reservations with such a designation.
“The nomination raises broader policy questions about how to evaluate murals under the city’s historic preservation rules,” Paul Steinke, executive director of the Preservation Alliance of Greater Philadelphia, said in a statement. “Murals are often created as public art on blank walls. Getting designated can have lasting effects on property, new construction, and neighborhood revitalization.”
The owner of a historic property in Philadelphia is obligated to keep the property in good repair and obtain approval from the Historical Commission before making any changes to the site, according to the city’s website.
The mural stands at 2147 Ellsworth St., on the facade of a three-bedroom rowhouse that is currently available for rent, per an OCF Realty listing. A potential historic designation will not affect the larger property and will be restricted to the mural and the wall it is painted on.
The building’s owner, presently listed as “2147 Ellsworth LLC” in city records, will be required to maintain the structural integrity of the wall and commit to set obligations, with Mural Arts making any necessary restorations to the mural itself.
The owner would not be allowed to remove or alter the appearance of the mural without the Historic Commission’s review, “just as the owners of historic properties are not allowed to perform exterior alterations to their properties without review,” a representative from the Commission said.
OCF Realty had not responded to further queries around the building’s ownership at the time of publishing.
“We believe it is essential for the Historical Commission to consider both the importance of this specific work and the precedent it may set for future mural nominations,” Steinke said.
The Philadelphia Historical Commission’s Committee on Historic Designation will discuss Till’s proposal at their next meeting on July 22. The nomination would have to be approved by the entire commission for We The Youth to be added to the Register.