Written by Naima Small

_{The front of the John Coltrane House.}

Located on 1511 North 33rd Street, the John Coltrane House, once home to the prolific African–American jazz musician John Coltrane, has been a National Historic Landmark since 1999. John Coltrane was born on September 23, 1926, in Hamlet, North Carolina. Coltrane first moved to Philadelphia in 1943, and began his jazz career there, playing with smaller groups and eventually national ones. Coltrane purchased the house in 1952 and lived there for six years with his cousin, Mary Alexander. Coltrane became part of Miles Davis’s First Great Quintet, but that role was jeopardized in 1957 when he was kicked out due to his debilitating heroin addiction. This motivated Coltrane to quit heroin, which he had been addicted to since 1951. He returned to the group and continued playing with Miles Davis until 1959. In 1957, Coltrane also notably collaborated with fellow composer and musician Thelonius Monk, prompting a shift in his artistry “from traditional, chord-based song forms to more open-ended, modal structures.” As he returned to Davis’s Quintet, he continued to develop his signature sound and went on to compose his classic album Giant Steps, which was released later in 1960. John Coltrane went on to create many of his major works in New York City, such as 1965’s A Love Supreme but continued to split his time between there and his Philadelphia residence for the remainder of his life.

Upon Coltrane’s death in 1967, ownership of the house was passed to Mary Alexander. She later launched the John W. Coltrane Cultural Society in 1985, a nonprofit organization that organized jazz classes and events at community centers and schools around the city. The organization also gave young musicians the opportunity to work with professional musicians. It had a distinct impact in Philadelphia—a 1995 article in the Philadelphia Tribune praised the Society for 10 years of “keeping the legacy of jazz alive.” 

In 2004, however, Alexander sold the property due to her declining health. Despite the importance of the John Coltrane House to the local community, the house has been in poor condition since the early 2000s, with leaking pipes and crumbling walls eroding one of Philadelphia’s most significant archives of Black culture and history. Black Philadelphians have continually protested the current state of the house and encouraged the city to do better. Efforts to save the John Coltrane House increased when the property next to 1511, which had previously been given to the John Coltrane Society in 1990, was set to be demolished. Preservationists argued this demolition would threaten the condition of the John Coltrane House as well. Previous construction around the area in 2014 had already taken down a John Coltrane mural at 32nd and Diamond to create a new apartment complex. A new mural was painted a few blocks away in 2017, but three years later yet another construction project obscured that mural, too. 

In 2020, due to the work of preservationist Faye Anderson, the Preservation Pennsylvania organization placed the John Coltrane house on its “at risk” list. This important designation acts as a “tool to rally support for a local landmark.” In Anderson’s words, “Preserving this house sends a powerful message to Philadelphians that this place matters; Black history matters.” 

_{A piano in the dining room of the John Coltrane House featuring his record albums.}

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Bibliography

Anderson, Faye. “The Clock Is Ticking to Save John Coltrane’s Stawberry Mansion Home.” The Philadelphia Inquirer. 2022.

D’Onofrio, Michael. “Second John Coltrane Mural to Fall Victim to New Development, Developer Offers to Recreate It.” The Philadelphia Tribune. 2020.

“Faye Anderson.” Advisory Council on Historic Preservation.

Kahn, Ashley. “John Coltrane.”

Lane, Lynda. “The John W. Coltrane Society Celebrates 10 Yesrs of Living The Legacy.” The Philadelphia Tribune. 1995.

Russonello, Giovanni. “Mary Lyerly Alexander, Keeper of the Coltrane Flame, Is Dead at 92.” The New York Times. 2019.

Tanenbaum, Michael. “John Coltrane House Project in Strawberry Mansion Gets State Blight Remediation Funds.” Philly Voice. 2021.

Winberg, Michaela. “Strawberry Mansions Famous John Coltrane House Named At Risk Boosting Chance for Survival.” Billy Penn at WHYY. 2020.