A Giant Step - John Coltrane's Philadelphia house designated historic site

American Visions, June, 1999 by Sharon Fitzgerald

In 1952, after returning home from the Navy and with funds provided by the GI Bill of Rights, John Coltrane saxophonist, family man, and native of Hamlet, N.C. purchased a three-story brick row house at 1511 N. 33rd St. in Philadelphia. The house was situated within the area known by locals as Strawberry Mansion, a working-class neighborhood populated at that time by families of diverse ethnic backgrounds. The 26-year-old Coltrane bought the `house as a habitat for himself, his mother, his aunt and his cousin a nuclear unit that the same cousin, Mary Alexander, describes today as "the little family."

From the start, domestic life in Philadelphia was unpredictable. Coltrane's aunt died one month before the family's scheduled move into the new home. The man of the house since the deaths of his grandfather, father and uncle, Coltrane was gaining recognition in a profession that necessarily kept him on the road. Still, until 1958, when he resettled in New York City, the young musician made his home base on North 33rd Street.

It was within this structure that he practiced out loud or executed silent finger runs after hours. Here, on the dining-room walls, are two unsigned watercolors that are traceable to Coltrane-the-impressionist only because "Cousin Mary" (for whom he named that special composition) insists that she watched him create them.

Sometimes, while sitting on the living-room sofa, Cousin Mary can still hear and see the jam sessions once held in the family's front room. Occasionally, when she glances up at the staircase, she spots drummer Philly Joe Jones standing on the landing.

Word of her extraordinary inheritance began to spread in 1990, when the Coltrane House was awarded a spot on Philadelphia's historic register. Letters of support abounded. A group of zealous well-wishers offered to rid the house of its bygone spirits. Cousin Mary was nonplused. "They were actually ghost-busters," she says. "I told them, `Well, I don't want anybody to bother my ghosts, because I live with mine.' I'm not afraid of anything in here. I live with good spirits."

This past January, the John Coltrane House was designated a national historic landmark. For celebrators of jazz, the honor places a brilliant artist and innovator on a highly deserved pedestal. For preservationists concerned with turn-of-the-century structures, Coltrane's $5,416 real-estate purchase is a gem that escaped the divide-and-lease metamorphosis that has changed the face of housing in northern Philadelphia.

Many hope that the designation of the Coltrane landmark will infuse the community with a sense of the neighborhood's importance and possibilities. Two doors down from the landmark, a John Coltrane Memorial Garden is being ushered into bloom. And an ambitious, $1 million capital campaign has been launched by the John W. Coltrane Cultural Society. When this organization's goal is met, it plans to transform the house next to Coltrane's into a significant gathering place that honors its namesake, as well as other creators of jazz. Renovation plans for this site include the installment of studio space, an archive, a gift shop, and lecture and performance rooms. "Having the center will make us self-sustaining," says the society's executive director, Cynthia Webster. "We always try to keep the community involved."

These days, Cousin Mary looks forward to the visits that students pay to her family's home. She enjoys telling them about her cousin in this setting that remains modestly true to his life. The backyard concerts held at the house during the summer months have become a local event.

"My whole thing is just to keep his legacy going," says Cousin Mary, "That's what the whole thing is about. But now, this is really important: I always say that he didn't need me to do this; he wrote his own epitaph. However, you can still keep it going--the legacy--you can still keep it alive. And that's what I have tried to do in my own small way, you know? In my own small way.

"This house was really important, because it was the house that he bought, and it was the house that he composed music in. This was really important. That is why I wanted to keep the house."

Cousin Mary has assigned Coltrane's son Ravi the task of deciding which 28 words should inscribe the plaque honoring the life of his father. "I had a couple of friends who wrote things," she says, "but I felt: that it should be from the family, because it will be there for a million years. And you want to say that his son or somebody like that wrote it, so I sent it to Ravi.

"When I think about it, I say to myself, This is really something." She recalls Ravi's response to reading the appointment letter: "He said, `You know, this is the history of the United States of America.'"

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