Notary Hotel

All our municipal governments are more or less bad. Philadelphia is simply the most corrupt and the most contented.

-Lincoln Steffens

The Notary Hotel is a Classic Revival style building, built in 1926 as an annex building for City Hall. It was a necessary addition to City Hall; over half of City Hall’s square footage is held in its walls, so offices filled up quickly as the city’s needs grew.

Photo of the Notary Hotel, date unknown

The annex building was built in 1903 by Phillip H. Johnson, known as Philadelphia’s architect in perpetuity. A self-proclaimed architect, Johnson married into a rich and politically powerful South Philadelphia family and took full advantage of his newfound power. He used his connections to secure building contracts with Pennsylvania senators and the city of Philadelphia. The City Hall Annex is one of his first city commissions.

Phillip H. Johnson, 1905

In 1901, Pennsylvania opened a call for designs for the state capitol building. Johnson’s powerful brother-in-law planned to have the contract awarded to Johnson, but chose actual architect Joseph Huston instead to avoid controversy. Johnson was appointed as a silent partner by his brother-in-law, and pressured Huston to lie on estimates, bribe suppliers, and pocket the ‘extra’ money. They were caught, but because Johnson was not officially assigned to the project, only Huston and some other participants were convicted of bribery. Though most received two year sentences, Huston spent six years at Eastern State Penitentiary for the crime.

Pennsylvania Capitol building, 2024

Johnson earned the nickname “Philadelphia’s Architect in Perpetuity” after he signed a contract with the city of Philadelphia’s Department of Health and Charities. Johnson’s brother-in-law helped him sneak in loosely defined language that ensured Johnson would be paid every time the department built a new building, whether or not he was assigned to the project. This oversight would go unnoticed for many years, but when the city sued to have the contract changed in 1913, the court declared the contract valid, and Johnson was paid in perpetuity by the city until his death in 1924, when it was revealed that only one “architect” in Johnson’s firm had proven training in architecture.

Citations

The Capitol. The Pennsylvania Capitol: A Historic Landmark. http://www.pacapitol.com/about-the-capitol.cfm.

Connor, Jessica. PA State Capitol Building. Photograph. April 17, 2024.

Dillon, James L. City Hall Annex. April 21, 2024. https://www.philadelphiabuildings.org/pab/app/im_display.cfm/489746?ProjectId=PHC-5960.

Speros, Will. The Notary Hotel Opens at Philadelphia’s Former Civil Building. Hospitality Design. October 21, 2019. https://hospitalitydesign.com/news/hotels-resorts/the-notary-hotel-opens-at-philadelphias-former-civil-building/.

Trevisan, Adrian. Philip H. Johnson: The Architect That Swindled the City. August 20, 2021. https://hiddencityphila.org/2021/08/philip-h-johnson-the-architect-that-swindled-the-city/.

Ujifusa, Steven. A Philadelphia Firehouse Designed by the “Other” Philip Johnson. PhillyHistory Blog. October 10, 2019. https://blog.phillyhistory.org/index.php/2019/10/a-philadelphia-firehouse-designed-by-the-other-philip-johnson/.