Glen Foerd goes retro: Jazz Age on the Delaware will be held Aug. 1 and includes a full Jazz Age menu, private bar, dance lesson and tour of the mansion. There will also be classic automobiles and bicycles on display, a cigar bar, lawn games and vintage photo opportunities. SOURCE: ANNIE VICKREY PHOTOGRAPHY
In a perfect world, place and time unite, forming an inseparable bond that satisfies both need and imagination.
For the last several months, the folks charged with preserving Philadelphia’s lone remaining 19th-century riverfront estate, Glen Foerd on the Delaware, have been on a mission to remarry their treasured community landmark with its glorious past while introducing the place to a broader audience of 21st-century nostalgists.
The product of their labor will be an elaborate and lavish period party called Jazz Age on the Delaware, planned for Saturday, Aug. 1, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. on the Glen Foerd grounds at 5001 Grant Ave. The objective will be more practical than mere frolic, however. They hope it will become a “signature” annual event that will generate broader interest in the city-owned, independently managed site while generating much-needed income in support of its maintenance, development and low-cost (or no-cost) public programs.
General admission tickets cost $55, with additional fees for various picnic lunch offerings. VIP packages cost $125 plus fees and include table seating overlooking the river, access to the full Jazz Age menu, private bar, dance lesson and a tour of the mansion. Visit www.jazzageonthedelaware.com for information.
“The reason we’re having Jazz Age on the Delaware is because we want people to know about Glen Foerd,” said Meg Sharp Walton, the estate’s executive director, during a preview gathering for media folks and contributors last Sunday afternoon.
“We needed a signature event to draw people here. We have to really grow the place because we have to do a lot of basic things for the people who come here.”
The inspiration has been multi-fold. As any casual observer of pop culture will attest, retro is hot these days, with 1920s America — i.e. the Prohibition Era — among the most celebrated and romanticized historical periods. In short, more and more young people and some not-so-young have been channeling their inner F. Scott Fitzgerald or Zelda through music, dance, drink and all-around revelry. Many are taking it a step further, adopting period clothing and vernacular for their social hours.
In fact, for the last decade, hundreds of would-be flappers and their male counterparts have been flocking to Governor’s Island in New York Harbor each spring and summer for the Jazz Age Lawn Party, a regular festival that directly influenced Glen Foerd’s planning. Many Philadelphians apparently are into the same sort of thing.
“It’s very popular right now. So we went to the Center City vintage community and asked if they would help us,” Walton said.
Judging by various presentations at the preview function, they seem to have thought of pretty much everything.
“We did our best. We thought of everything we could in reaching out to all demographic interests,” Walton said.
Live music will be central to the festivities and supplied by a procession of “hot jazz” and big band ensembles. Drew Nugent & The Midnight Society tops the list along with The Gin Canaries, The Minsky Sisters, The Red Hot Ramblers with Chelsea Reed, The Old City Sweethearts and Dandy Wellington.
Guests are encouraged to play dress-up, too. They may unfurl a blanket and picnic in the estate’s central lawn or dance the Lindy hop at the foot of the performance stage. A collection of classic automobiles and bicycles will be on display at the mansion’s carriage entrance. Other offerings will include food and drink stations, an outdoor cigar bar and cigarette girls, lawn games for adults and children, a pie bake-off, fashion illustrations and vintage photo opportunities.
Glen Foerd’s new in-house caterer, Jamie Hollander, is sure to get prime exposure with some creative delicacies. For instance, his “mini-martini” hors d’oeuvres at the preview event included toasted almond and chocolate caramel with sea salt confections, as well as eggplant caviar with toasted pita, all served in miniature martini glasses. On another table, he served “deviled quail eggs with crab meat” and other appetizers.
All of Hollander’s private parties at the mansion also help support the estate’s conservation and programming.
“It’s a partnership,” Walton said.
Another partner for the Jazz Age event will be the California-based Art in the Age brand of liquors, which will supply the rhubarb tea and sage spirits necessary for retro alcoholic beverages known as The Bee’s Knees and Sageside Punch. There will also be wine, champagne and a variety of craft beers offered by Northern Liberties’ own Yards Brewing.
“This will be a fun thing that will happen every year,” Walton said. ••
