Philadelphia has given birth to musical acts as diverse and celebrated as Will Smith, Jim Croce and Joey Lawrence.  So it should come as no surprise that our city’s musical heritage is a rich one.  According to the National Park Service, the building currently located at 808 Locust St. was at one time among the foremost and influential musical performance halls in the country.  The Park Service reports that the Musical Fund Society formed in 1820 to help support indigent retired musicians.  Among the first of such cultural-endowment groups, the Society purchased the Fifth Presbyterian Church on the south side of Locust Street in 1824.  The image below, taken from Hexamer & Locher’s 1858-1860 Philadelphia Atlas, shows the location of the Musical Fund Hall only a few decades after it was established.

On the map

The Hall quickly became a preferred destination for singers,…