Liberty Title and Trust Company Building, prior to rehabilitation

Banking hall

Powers & Company, Inc. is providing historic preservation services for the rehabilitation of the Liberty Title and Trust Company Building standing at 101-109 N. Broad Street.  The building qualifies for the Federal Historic Preservation Tax Incentive Program, as it is part of the Broad Street Historic District.  This late Beaux Arts style high rise was constructed in 1925 for the Liberty Title and Trust Company as a bank. The U-shaped 20-story building will connect to the extension of the Philadelphia Convention Center now under construction to the north, at Broad and Race Streets.  In 1957, the building was sold to private developers and was eventually occupied by the Philadelphia Life Insurance Company and the City of Philadelphia Water Department. The building has been vacant since the early 1990s.  The proposed use of the building is to convert it into a hotel and restaurant to service the Convention Center.

The Liberty Title and Trust Company Building was designed by the New York City architecture firm of Dennison & Hirons (1910-1929), a company that specialized in upscale bank designs.  Powers & Company, Inc. worked on another Dennison & Hirons design in Wilmington, DE: the Classical Revival style Delaware Trust Company Building in downtown Wilmington at 900 N. Market Street, now apartments with retail on the first floor (1921, NR 2003).