Kona Kai,Philadelphia, PA - Part 3

From the architectural rendering below, you can see the planned exterior A-framed entrance to the Kona Kai in the lower right corner.





Then Armet & Davis created this beautiful set of detail drawings for the entrance, including a Papua New Guinea inspired Frigate bird to top out the front header beam.






When the Kona Kai was finally built, they did put the Frigate bird at the front, however, notice that the detailed patterns shown on the blueprint were placed on the interior of the A-frame, not the exterior. I assume this was done to protect the artwork from the Pennsylvania harsh winter weather.


At night, the entrance was even more grand when the lights and torches were turned on.






In December 2007, the Frigate bird was posted for sale on eBay for $3,500. I don't remember it selling and the auction details are long gone, but the piece still exists....somewhere...