What a Ticket at Old Swedes' Pays For This Winter

"A gracious wind from the northwest helped drive the fire toward the Delaware River and away from the church, so the sanctuary was spared." Amy Grant, president of Preserve Old Swedes, said this about July 1, 1944. That day a vacant factory building about 100 feet south of Gloria Dei caught fire, and a four-story brick wall fell into the churchyard. In the group's account of the new Memory Wall, at least 45 graves were crushed under the rubble. The pieces stayed scattered for 80 years.

This fall, 20 of those fragments went up on a new wall on the south side of the rectory. The work used a $10,000 matching grant from America250PA plus donor money, and Heritage Conservation Collective cleaned and preserved the stones. The Memory Wall is a good way into what is happening at 916 S. Swanson St. this season. Pennsylvania's oldest church is holding paid talks, a Scandinavian bazaar, a candlelit pageant and a folk-music tribute night between now and late January. The talks on that calendar double as fundraisers for preserving the church and its graveyard, and they run while much larger grants for the roof and bell work their way through.

Where the talk money goes

The talks show it most clearly. Michael Teti speaks on November 12 about Charles Thomson and Timothy Matlack, two Revolution-era figures whose work usually gets less attention than the signers'. The event listing says every dollar goes to church and graveyard preservation. Admission is $12 with a drink ticket, or $10 if you buy ahead.

The January programs work in a similar way. The Biddle talk listing says a portion of the proceeds goes toward preserving the site. Their host is Preserve Old Swedes, the public name of the Historic Gloria Dei Preservation Corporation. That group exists to preserve, restore and interpret the campus, graveyard, buildings, archives and artifacts. That makes the talks small fundraisers that come with a lecture.

What's on, in order

November opens with the country's next 250 years

Root Quarterly runs Founder's Weekend from November 6 to 8 at several venues around the city. Its theme is the values and ideas the country will need for its next 250 years. This is the third year, and Gloria Dei is hosting a Friday morning brunch discussion about faith in a pluralistic society, built around Jonathan Rauch's book Cross Purposes. It's free, and the organizers ask you to register in advance.

The Thomson and Matlack talk six days later stays on the founding era. Thomson and Matlack mostly did administrative work, and in the Semiquincentennial year a church older than the Declaration is a fitting room for that subject.

December brings the two oldest traditions

Lucia Fest turns 89 this year. Gloria Dei presents it as a musical pageant for St. Lucia, with a candlelit procession and singing. St. Eric's Fair runs alongside it as a Scandinavian Christmas bazaar, selling imported goods plus food and drink. Each day has three shows, at 2, 3:30 and 5 p.m. on Saturday, December 12 and again on Sunday, December 13. Tickets are $15 for adults and $10 for children under 12. You book a specific time slot, so the later shows are a reasonable bet if you'd like to browse the bazaar first. Questions go to [email protected] or 215-389-1513. The Lucia Fest page covers the tradition.

The next weekend changes the mood completely. Sexton Sideshow brings back its O Brother, Where Art Thou? tribute on Friday, December 18 and Saturday, December 19, now in its eighth year. The listing says ticket details are coming later, so check it in November.

January is when Preserve Old Swedes takes over the calendar

Cordelia Frances Biddle opens 2027 on January 10 with a talk on the "Bank War," the 1830s fight over the Second Bank of the United States. It's priced the same as the November talk. On January 24, The Publick Pleasure performs "Great Scots!", a program on the Scottish music heard in early Philadelphia. Advance adult tickets are $30, a $5 savings over the $35 door price.

Some of this music programming has outside support too. In July 2026, the Philadelphia Cultural Fund gave the Historic Gloria Dei Preservation Corporation a $12,875 grant for community educational and music programming.

The bigger bills, and where they stand

The roof and bell are funded on a different scale. In September 2025 the National Park Service announced a $569,367 Semiquincentennial grant to rehabilitate the roof and restore the church's historic bronze bell, with the goal of having the bell working for the 250th anniversary. The money comes from the Historic Preservation Fund.

The congregation's property report for its May 3, 2026 annual meeting shows how slowly this kind of money moves. A new roof on the south-facing side was done. The main church roof was still waiting for the approved funds to be released. The same report lists everyday repairs. Leaks from an air conditioner had damaged the church ceiling and were fixed. Termite damage was repaired on Riverside Hall's north-side window sashes. During a light-fixture install, crews found knob-and-tube wiring and rewired it to code. A water-reclamation project had cleared all its approvals and was about to start. Altogether, the report counts $586,167 in grants covering the bell, the church roof, a structural study, a preservation plan, graveyard signage, the Memory Wall, a native garden and musicians' pay.

What you can see for free, any day

Not everything here needs a ticket. Several additions this year cost nothing, and you can drop in on a walk.

• The Memory Wall. It holds 20 gravestone fragments from the 1944 fire, mounted beside the rectory and open from sunrise to sunset. Look for the large sign near the rectory. An audio tour covers eight people buried here, including patriots, mariners, civic leaders, craftspeople and women known for their talents. There's also a free brochure inside the sanctuary.
• Marvels of Ministers. A free self-guided audio tour about ten of the church's pastors, launched in 2026.
• Colonial Games and Toys. An 18-stop tour and exhibit, also new this year, supported by the Philadelphia Funder Collaborative for the Semiquincentennial.

The tours run in the Old Swedes app, available for Apple and Android. A Lucia Fest ticket costs $15, and the Memory Wall is open every day for free, so you can see both on one December weekend.

If you own an older home in Queen Village, the repair list above probably sounds familiar: one side of the roof done while the other waits, old window sashes, surprise wiring behind a wall. That kind of work on a historic house is something The Liz Clark Team talks through with owners all the time, whether you're planning for the next decade in the house or getting ready to sell. Let's meet, maybe after a Lucia show, and work out which projects matter most for your house.