Keith Haring’s famed 1987 mural We the Youth, the artist’s only collaborative mural that still stands in its original location, is now an officially designated historical place.
At a public meeting on Friday, the Philadelphia Historical Commission voted unanimously to add the Point Breeze mural, on a rowhouse at 22nd and Ellsworth Streets, to the city’s Register of Historic Places.
With this designation, the building’s owner, listed as “2147 Ellsworth LLC” in city records, will not be allowed to remove or alter the appearance of the mural without the Historic Commission’s review.
It’s the fifth mural in Philadelphia to be an officially designated and protected landmark, and only the first outdoor mural to do so.
The other designated murals are The Dream Garden inside the Curtis Center, the New Deal-era murals inside the Family Court building, the frescoed ceiling at Old City’s St. Augustine’s Roman Catholic Church, and Iron Plantation Near Southwark inside the Southwark Station Post Office in South Philly.
“To finally see the community here stand for the recognition of this unique piece of collaborative work is particularly meaningful,” Simon Castets, executive director of the Keith Haring Foundation, said after the decision, citing Haring’s connection to Philadelphia and the foundation’s mission to preserve the artist’s local works.
Haring, a native of Reading, was one of the defining artists of the 20th century and known for his bold drawings and colorful graffiti-style paintings. He died in 1990, at age 31, due to AIDS-related complications.
In 1987, Haring and a group of 14 Philly and New York students collaborated on We the Youth to commemorate the bicentennial of the U.S. Constitution.
The mural features vibrant figures dancing across the facade of a three-bedroom rowhouse. In 2013, Mural Arts Philadelphia undertook a massive restoration of the mural, located on a shared wall at 2147 and 2149 Ellsworth Streets.
Friday’s decision comes after months of advocacy from the Haring Foundation, Mural Arts, and the Neighborhood Gardens Trust, which collectively oversee the mural’s upkeep.
The three parties have pushed for the mural’s historical protection because of the mural’s artistic and cultural significance to Point Breeze.
“This is an amazing moment, and I’m so proud of our city,” Mural Arts founder and former CEO Jane Golden said. Ahead of the vote, she said, “I thought, ‘Philly, you have to come through.’ And the city did. It was beautiful. It underscores why public art matters.”
The meeting largely drew support from Point Breeze residents and other community members, including those wearing shirts with Haring’s signature figurines.
However, prior to the vote, attorney Sean Whalen, who represents 2147 Ellsworth LLC, spoke out against the designation, citing the extensive preservation efforts needed to maintain the mural in its current state and location. He said he supported a “methodology that is feasible.” But under the bounds of designation, these efforts, he said, are not “logistically capable.”
Whalen and Ori Feibush, the property manager at 2147 Ellsworth LLC, pointed to the structural infirmities of the wall on which the mural is placed, saying the mural has delaminated from the underlying salmon brick.
“We are not talking about a wall that is failing. We are talking about a failed wall,” Whalen said.
Feibush shared a video showing the back of the mural that he recorded last week with a scope camera. As a result of a poor “stucco and plaster connection,” he said, there are gaps between the mural and its support wall.
“There is absolutely no portion of the mural that is attached to the plaster in the brick wall. It is 100% freestanding,” said Feibush who, with Whalen, suggested the removal and reinstallation of the mural as the best step forward.
Throughout the hour-and-a-half-long discussion, commissioners Zachary Frankel, Emily Cooperman, Robert Thomas, and others agreed that the damage to the mural and shared party wall is common among decades-old properties and that there are viable options for preservation.
“There are many possibilities,” Cooperman said regarding the next steps in the mural’s preservation.
Current Mural Arts executive director Emily Mello said she and others will work diligently with community partners to ensure this newly designated historical marker and piece of Haring’s legacy remains a “cultural memory” that never fades.
“It may take a lot of resources,” Mello said. But the advocacy of the community members who are most impacted by the mural will anchor this initiative.
“That’s our greatest resource.”