The Neighborhood of Fairmount, Philadelphia's Art Museum Area




The Neighborhood of Fairmount Philadelphia's Art Museum Area

The Pink Chapel

The beautiful gothic church at 22nd and Green Streets is the Chapel of Divine Love. The name is meant to portray the Love of God for all people, yet one cannot help to feel that there is a romantic quality to the church. This is reinforced when the nature of the place is known.

The Convent attached to the chapel is the home of the Holy Spirit Adoration Sisters, a religious community of women devoted to prayer. The cloistered nuns are rarely seen outside of the church. Behind the locked gates in the nave of the chapel, there are always a pair of sisters praying in front of the Blessed Sacrament. They are there 24 hours a day, praying for the souls of the living and the dead.

The dedication of the sisters is noble in itself and precious enough to have been the inspiration for the name of their church. However, the Chapel of Divine Love becomes more romantic when one enters the chapel and discovers that the sisters are clothed in pink habits. The residents of the area, with deep respect and love, call the holy women the "Pink Sisters", and the church has been dubbed "The Pink Chapel".

Visit the Holy Spirit Adoration Sisters' Website

As we walked along Green Street, you probably noticed that the houses are not typical rowhouses. They are set back from the street and are more elegant and spacious than most homes in the neighborhood. This was the northern border of the Spring Garden District, an upper-class area just north of William Penn's original city. If you enter the neighborhood of Spring Garden, you will see more elaborate homes, but none more elegant and stately than the mansion across the street from the Pink Chapel.

The large brownstone edifice at the Northwest corner of 22nd and Green Streets was the home of the Bergdoll Family. The family who built the brewery on 29th Street. The property went back to Mt. Vernon Street and included the masion, servants' quarters, and a carriage house. Today, it's many rooms have been devided into many luxury apartments. A fire destroyed the stain-glass windows that decorated the 22nd Street side, but the building has maintained its Victorian splendor.

Let's travel North on 22nd and stop at Mt. Vernon Street and the Olivet-Covenent Church.

Alphabetical Tour Menu
The Bache-Martin School Brewerytown Eastern State Penitentiary Girard College The Joan of Arc Statue Olivet-Covenant Church Pennsylvania Avenue The Philadelphia Nursing Home The Pink Chapel Reservoir Homes The Smoke Stack St. Francis Xavier Church St. Hedwig Church St. Nicholas Church Von Colln Park and Playground Ward Memorial Park The 29th St. Bridge

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