Francisville is filled with a rich history from William Penn, the Divine Lorraine Hotel and the Metropolitan Opera House, which is also referred to as the Met. Oscar Hammerstein brought this opera franchise to Broad Street in the early 1900s.
The Met has had many owners and experienced many different venue types. First the Met was an opera house, next a ballroom, then a sports venue and lastly a church. In 1994 the building was labeled as condemned and was going to be demolished.
However, there is one organization that stopped this from happening—Save Our Sites. Save Our Sites is an organization run by volunteers. The organization nominates buildings throughout the city and try to help save these historic buildings.
“We don’t have the money to save it, but we try to bring it to the public’s attention in the hopes of saving it,” said David Traub, the secretary-treasurer of Save Our Sites.
Finally, in 1996 Rev. Mark Hatcher was able to save this historic opera house from demolition. Hatcher runs the Holy Ghost Headquarters right inside of this beautiful, old building. The organization holds weekly services as well as special events, even though the outside still looks less than perfect.
“The Holy Ghost Headquarters is the only owner to actually have done some work on the building,” said Traub.
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