L&I closes building housing WWII museum
A Germantown building that houses a museum devoted to African American veterans of World War II was ordered closed today because of a bulging and unstable exterior brick wall.
A Germantown building that houses a museum devoted to African American veterans of World War II was ordered closed today because of a bulging and unstable exterior brick wall.
The three-story building that houses the Aces Museum was closed today by the city Department of Licenses and Inspections because the exterior wall posed a structural safety hazard.
"There is a concern that it could collapse," Eileen Evans, deputy commissioner of Licenses and Inspections, said.
Althea Hankins, a physician, owns the building at Germantown Avenue and Price Street and operates a family medical practice there.Hankins said the second and third floors, which house the nonprofit Aces Museum, were ordered closed by L&I in May. She said yesterday's order called for the closure of the entire building, including the medical office on the first floor. The building is to remain closed until repairs are made, she said.
On the building's upper floors is the Aces Museum, a 3,000-square-foot museum that Hankins built to tell stories of black servicemen in World War II. It features photographs, military uniforms, medals and other artifacts. Admission was free.
On the third floor is a ballroom, known as Parker Hall, which researchers at the Germantown Historical Society said was used as a night club and USO-type facility for black soldiers during World War II.
Repairing the brick wall will cost between $15,000 and $40,000, said Hankins, adding that it would cost $7,000 to shore up the wall enough to allow the reopening of the building.
Evans said L&I ordered Hankins in May to have the wall fixed and to produce an engineer's report every two weeks until the repairs were completed. Hankins did not comply, Evans said.
"We're trying to raise the money to fix it," Hankins said.
She said she has applied for a historic preservation grant from the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission that would help cover the cost of repairs, but that such grants are issued in September.
