Join Susan Glassman, Executive Director of The Wagner Free Institute of Science and author of the National Historic Landmark Nomination for The Church of the Advocate, for this extensive "behind the scenes" tour of two of North Philadelphia's architectural gems, The Wagner Free Institute of Science and The Church of the Advocate.
      For more than 130 years The Wagner Free Institute of Science, as per founder William Wagner's original mission, has provided outstanding educational opportunities to the community free of charge. The Institute had its beginnings in the 1840's, when Wagner, a noted Philadelphia merchant, philanthropist, gentleman scientist, and lifelong collector of natural history specimens, began offering free lectures on science at his home, Elm Grove, on the outskirts of the city. He drew on his vast collection to illustrate his lectures, which became so popular that he constructed a building to house his collections and expand his education programs. The stately Victorian building, completed in 1865, stands today as a monument to the idea that education should be available to everyone. With more than 100,000 specimens illustrating the various branches of the natural world, The Institute is home to Wagner's outstanding and extensive mineral and European and American fossils collections. --- The Church of the Advocate was built as a memorial to George W. South (1799-1884), a wealthy merchant and a Philadelphia County Treasurer. Designed by Charles M. Burns (1838 -1922), in the style of the great European cathedrals, The Church of the Advocate stands as a magnificent example of Ecclesiological design in America and monument of Gothic Revival architecture. The church was placed on the Pennsylvania Inventory of Historic Places in 1979 and the National Register of Historic Places in 1980, and achieved recognition as a National Historic Landmark in 1996.