NOW, THIS IS A
HOUSE! A few weeks ago I took a friend through the John Coltrane
House. Like most everyone else, once inside the residence, she was enchanted.
It is a very beautiful place. She noted the antique tile floor and walls of the
entrance way, glass door knobs on all the doors, kitchen pantry, back
staircase, large built in wooden wardrobes in the front bedrooms, ten foot
ceilings. The house has an aspect and dignity of an earlier, more formal time
and exudes “atmosphere.” There are six bedrooms, four large and two smaller,
and two full baths. When we finished the tour, she said, “Now, this is a
house!” When preservationists from the Preservation Alliance and the
National Park Service tour the building they are equally ecstatic about the
interior condition of the house. For them the glass is much more than half
full. The house does need work, but all of the building’s original interior features
are still here, the same as when John Coltrane lived here and when it was built
in 1904. The John Coltrane House tangibly locates the Coltrane legacy
in the city of Philadelphia.
The house is the stuff of legend, where a giant in music took his first giant
steps toward completely changing the landscape of contemporary jazz. It is the
house where the greatest epiphany and greatest personal victory of Coltrane’s
life occurred. In 1957, in this house, Coltrane went through the agony of “cold
turkey” freeing himself of heroin addiction. The experience entirely altered
his outlook on life. Coltrane always attributed winning his battle
with heroin as a divinely aided transcendent experience. As my friend said after her tour of 1511 North Thirty-third Street: NOW,
THIS IS A HOUSE! Please help us restore and secure the house that is the
central location of the Coltrane legacy.
See the How You Can Help Page and DONATE. |
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