Editor’s Note: A version of this story was published in the Winter 2023 issue of Extant, a publication of the Preservation Alliance for Greater Philadelphia.
Bache-Martin School
Location: 800 and 801 N. 22nd Street
Architects: Lloyd Titus and Irwin T. Catharine
Built: 1905-06 and 1936-37
The Bache-Martin School in Fairmount has a dual personality with two distinct buildings erected 30 years apart. On the east side of 22nd Street, the former Alexander Dallas Bache Public School, named for a scientist descended from Benjamin Franklin, was built in 1905 and is still an active middle school. Architect Lloyd Titus designed a three-story, somber stone edifice, perhaps in deference to the neighboring Eastern State Penitentiary, but he softened the facade with Romanesque arches over its central windows and student entrance.
On the west side of 22nd Street, the former Willis and Elizabeth Martin Orthopedic School was the city’s first school for physically disabled students, It was constructed in 1936–funded through the Works Progress Administration–and now serves K-4 children. School building czar Irwin T. Catharine designed the one-story, brick and limestone Georgian Revival complex with two inner courtyards and a portico of Corinthian columns, pediment, and bell tower reminiscent of Independence Hall.
The two buildings, which were added to the National Register in 1986, now form a dynamic campus with historical and architectural character and are worthy of listing on the Philadelphia Register.
I am Profoundly Deaf. I was W&E Martin for Orthopedic school student from K-7th or 8th grader in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania . District School of Philadelphia swept out Deaf and HOH students out of the school because Hearing students moved from Bache Public School for more space rooms in September 1984. Bache and Willis and Elizabeth Martin for Orthopedic School became Bache-Martin School. My friends and I were forced into transferred to Ethan Allen Public School by Broad of Education instead of PA School for the Deaf. They didn’t want us to go to PSD. They didn’t want to tell my parents for a reason and no parents meeting.That is my ugly truth!
Wow! I’m sitting in across from the school now and was very confused what an “orthopedic school was”. I likely would’ve been placed in this school late 70s early 80s if in Philly instead of pgh. Typing this as I limp to Girard College to finish a mural, disabled and still able to climb 20 foot ladders with grace from what I learned my schools at home. I had a convo a few weeks ago with an orthodox lady near where I live in Brooklyn who, when I told her my legs formed a circle and they thought I wouldn’t be able to walk but still walked and play(ed all sports), said that I must be really strong. Yes, but my orthopedic doctor was also a genius in straightening legs. Had I not boycotted them at 5 going to 1st grade and opted for my gymnastics slippers (everywhere), I most likely wouldn’t be limping right now.