1930–1966 Originally known as the Municipal Auditorium, the arena hosted many events, including the 1936 and 1948
Democratic National Conventions, and the 1940 and 1948
Republican National Conventions. Thus the building became known as Convention Hall.
Martin Luther King Jr. spoke there, and
The Beatles,
The Grateful Dead (twice in August 1974, and three times in April 1984) and the Philadelphia
Mummers each performed there. The
Philadelphia Warriors and
Philadelphia 76ers both played many of their games in the arena; the
1960 NBA All-Star Game was played there. President
Lyndon B. Johnson spoke at a campaign appearance on October 29, 1964, at Convention Hall. He appeared at the Hall alongside many notable Philadelphia and Pennsylvania Democratic leaders. Four days later, The Beatles played the venue on September 2, 1964, during their first tour of the United States. Tickets went on sale in May 1964 and sold out within 90 minutes. The
Rolling Stones played Convention Hall on May 1, 1965, during their
third American tour.
1967–2005 After the
Spectrum opened in 1967, the Civic Center continued on as an alternate venue to the larger arena for events requiring less seating or overall space. On February 5, 1970,
The Jackson 5 played their first official concert for
Motown Records there. The
Grateful Dead played there for 3 consecutive nights in April 1984; the whole concert from the 20th, and about half of the show from the 19th, were officially released on
Dave's Picks Volume 35. The building was later used for
Atlantic 10 Conference and
Big Five basketball games.
Jim Crockett Promotions, under the
NWA banner, and later the
Ted Turner-owned
WCW, also staged professional wrestling there, which included three
pay-per-view events:
Halloween Havoc in
1989 and
1992 and the 1994
Slamboree event. The Civic Center also hosted the
World Hockey Association's
Philadelphia Blazers and the minor-league
Philadelphia Firebirds hockey teams. The
University of Pennsylvania used the building for commencements (due to it being larger than Penn's own basketball arena, the nearby
Palestra), as did
Drexel University,
Temple University, St. Joseph's University, and
La Salle University.
Pope John Paul II and
Nelson Mandela both spoke there. being built after the demolition of the Philadelphia Civic Center Convention Hall was torn down in 2005, after more than a decade without a regular tenant. The 1996
Atlantic 10 Men's basketball tournament was the last event ever held there (its convention functions were taken over by the
Pennsylvania Convention Center in the city's central business district); prior to this, it also hosted college basketball in the form of the 1986
MEAC men's basketball tournament. Afterwards, it served as a soundstage for movies and the TV series
Hack starring
David Morse. The civic center was used as a sound stage for Beloved in 1988. The championship fight scenes in the 1990 movie
Rocky V was shot there. The Auditorium's M.P. Moller 86-rank
pipe organ, built in 1931, was removed just prior to the building's demolition and placed in Pennsylvania Hall in temporary storage. In October 2006 the organ was donated to the University of Oklahoma's
American Organ Institute where it was partially installed into the Sharp Hall. The Institute however was disbanded in 2019 and the uninstalled pipework sold. The last remnant of the Civic Center, Pennsylvania Hall (built in 1978), was imploded on March 4, 2007. The
University of Pennsylvania Health System's
Perelman Center for Advanced Medicine opened on the site in October 2008. One limestone
frieze that adorned the Civic Center, tall and long and depicting the history of labor from the days of the ancient Egyptians to the 20th century, was carefully removed before the building was demolished. It was purchased by the Alessi Organization in 2005 and in 2017 was installed outside its new Crossing Shopping Center at East 22nd Street and
Route 440 in
Bayonne, New Jersey. ==References==