Zoo, Please Touch
and Mann Center
Anchor New,
Family-Friendly
Centennial District

by Suzanne Koup-Larsen

Bolstered by the opening this month of the relocated Please Touch Museum, a section of Philadelphia’s West Fairmount Park approximately the size of New York’s Central Park has a new name and a masterplan to develop as a family-friendly cultural zone.

The area has been dubbed the Centennial District to honor the Centennial Exhibition, mounted in West Fairmount Park in 1876 to celebrate America’s 100th birthday.

The Centennial District groups together three major family-friendly destinations: long time park residents the Philadelphia Zoo and the Mann Center for the Performing Arts, and the new kid on the block, the Please Touch Museum, which opens in Memorial Hall on Oct. 18.

These organizations have teamed up with nearby attractions and Fairmount Park leadership to create a cultural destination zone like the Avenue of the Arts (Broad St. south of City Hall), but aimed at family audiences.

Happy Neighbors
Fairmount Park Executive Director Mark Focht describes the evolution of the Centennial District as “three dynamic leaders” — the Zoo, the Mann, and Please Touch. These venues decided to work together as neighbors because it made sense, not because they were forced to do so.

“We see the arrival of the Please Touch Museum into the neighborhood as a wonderful thing,” says Vik Dewan, president of the Philadelphia Zoo. Please Touch president Nancy Kolb agrees with her new neighbor. “It really made a lot of sense for us to locate near the zoo,” she says. “I think it will ultimately be good for both of us.”

Sprucing Up
Each of the three major institutions has made or plans upgrades as part of the Centennial District improvements.

The Please Touch Museum has invested $88 million in the renovation of Memorial Hall to turn the 1876 exhibition hall into a children’s museum.

The Mann Center for the Performing Arts sports improved lighting, parking, entrance gates and gardens.

The Philadelphia Zoo, in a nod to Please Touch’s refurbished Dentzel Carousel, will add its own carousel decorated with endangered animals this fall.

Improvements in the Works
Change is already underway in the Centennial District. Projects include:

• Signs. New street signs directing visitors into and around the Centennial District are scheduled to be posted in time for Please Touch’s grand reopening at Memorial Hall on Oct. 18. The street in front of Memorial Hall, the former North Concourse Drive, has been renamed Avenue of the Republic.

• Trail. The 5K Centennial Loop, a paved recreational trail connecting the attractions of the Centennial District is being constructed and is expected to be complete by Fall 2009.

• Transportation. SEPTA bus routes 38 & 40 will stop in front of Memorial Hall. Next year, look for shuttle services connecting Centennial District attractions to each other and possibly with other Philadelphia tourist areas.

Big Ideas
Planners have lots of big ideas for the future of the Centennial District, with “all manner of potential,” says Please Touch’s Nancy Kolb. Although only ideas at this point, here’s a planner’s wish list for the Centennial District.

• New attractions might include a Performing Arts Center for Young Audiences and a Negro League Memorial Ballpark.

• Recreational activities could include an ice skating rink, miniature golf, paddle boats and a dog park.

• Infrastructure improvements to roads, paths, lighting, water fountains and landscaping will continue.

• A ferry might shuttle visitors across the Schuylkill River to attractions such as Boathouse Row, the Fairmount Water Works Interpretive Center, and beyond it, the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

“It’s all in its infancy,” says Fairmount Park’s Mark Focht. The Centennial District is in the second year of a 20-year plan for improvements that planners hope will be finished, fittingly, in time for the nation’s semi-quincentennial (250th anniversary) in 2026.

Many involved hope for the success achieved in other urban cultural revitalization projects, such as the Seattle Center district and the Forrest Park section of St. Louis. Says Mann Center president Catherine Cahill, “Philadelphia has every reason to be as spectacular as other great American cities.”

Suzanne Koup-Larsen is a local freelance writer.