Jonathan Cohen's photos with the keyword: Avenue of the Arts

The Bellevue is a landmark building at 200 South Broad Street at the corner of Walnut Street in Center City, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The building opened in 1904. Over two years in the making and costing over $8,000,000 (in 1904 dollars), the Bellevue-Stratford was described at the time as the most luxurious hotel in the nation and perhaps the most spectacular hotel building in the world. It initially had 1,090 guest rooms, the most magnificent ballroom in the United States, delicate lighting fixtures designed by Thomas Edison, Tiffany and Lalique glass embellishments, and the most celebrated marble and hand-worked iron elliptical staircase in the city. A massive renovation in 1979 transformed converted the hotel rooms from floors 2 to 11 into office space. The grand public areas on the ground floor were converted to shops. The hotel portion reopened in 1989 as Hotel Atop the Bellevue, with guest rooms on floors 12-18 and a lobby and public rooms on the remodeled 19th floor. The two domed ballrooms on that floor (the South and North Cameo rooms), were turned into the Ethel Barrymore Tea Room and a restaurant called Founders. From its beginning, the Bellevue-Stratford was the center of Philadelphia’s cultural, social and business activities. It soon functioned as a sort of clubhouse for the Philadelphia establishment, not only a place where the rich and powerful dined and occasionally slept, but also the venue for their meetings and social functions. Charity balls, society weddings, club meetings and special family gatherings have all been held in the hotel’s ballrooms and meeting rooms. The rich and famous, royalty and heads of state from all over the world, presidents, politicians, actors and famous writers have stayed within its walls. All U.S. Presidents from Theodore Roosevelt through Ronald Reagan have been guests at the hotel, which is respectfully called the "Grand Dame of Broad Street."

The Academy of Music, also known as American Academy of Music, is a concert hall and opera house located at 240 South Broad Street between Locust and Manning Streets in the Avenue of the Arts area of Center City, Philadelphia It was built in 1855-57 and is the oldest opera house in the United States that is still used for its original purpose. Known as the "Grand Old Lady of Broad Street," the venue is the home of the Pennsylvania Ballet and the Opera Company of Philadelphia. It was also home to the Philadelphia Orchestra from its inception in 1900 until 2001, when the orchestra moved to the new Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts. The Philadelphia Orchestra still retains ownership of the Academy. The hall was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1962. The list of renowned artists who have performed at the Academy reads like a "who’s who" of the past century and a half of performing arts history, with such greats as Marian Anderson, Maria Callas, Enrico Caruso, Aaron Copland, Vladimir Horowitz, Gustav Mahler, Anna Pavlova, Luciano Pavarotti, Itzhak Perlman, Leontyne Price, Sergei Rachmaninoff, Artur Rubinstein, Isaac Stern, Richard Strauss, Igor Stravinsky, Joan Sutherland, and Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, among many others.

The Drake Tower is a historic 375-foot-tall, 33-story former luxury hotel, renovated to create apartments and luxurious penthouses. Built in 1928-29, by the architectural firm of Ritter and Shay in the Art Deco style with Spanish Baroque terra cotta ornamentation on themes surrounding Sir Francis Drake, including "dolphins, shells, sailing vessels and globes." The building is topped by a terra cotta dome. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and was once the tallest building in Philadelphia.

Years ago this building at 311 South Broad Street was known as the Regency Ballroom. In the 1930’s the ground floor housed a nightclub called Benny the Bums ("Where the Famous Gather") while the second floor housed the fine-arts section of the WPA’s Federal Arts Program, which operated as part of FDR’s New Deal. The church is the background is the former Chambers-Wylie Presbyterian Church; it now houses the Broad Street Ministry,