A Point Breeze rowhouse, now available for rent, offers residents a chance to live with a one-of-a-kind work of art — the only Keith Haring collaborative mural that is still intact and in its original location in the world.
The three-bedroom home at 2147 Ellsworth St. is adorned with the acclaimed street and pop artist’s We the Youth . The mural, painted on the building’s facade, has stood on the corner of 22nd and Ellsworth Streets for almost 40 years.
“Keith believed that art was for everyone and that art should be accessible, so to have this mural still at this location for nearly 40 years is historically and culturally significant,” said Jane Golden, founder and executive director of Mural Arts Philadelphia.
The mural features an array of Haring’s trademark dancing figures filled with bright colors and patterns. It also has a small garden next to it, affectionately called “Haring Park,” which has been tended by neighborhood residents since the 1980s.
Haring, who was born in Reading in 1958 and raised in Kutztown, drew the mural over a few days in September 1987, coinciding with the U.S. Constitution’s bicentennial. The title of the mural pays homage to the Constitution’s opening lines.
Its location was important to Haring.
He did not want the mural to be in a more upscale, trendy part of the city, one of the mural’s student collaborators, Rita Martello, told online art marketplace Artsy in 2022.
“He wanted to put it in an actual urban neighborhood,” Martello said to Artsy.
Invited by two nonprofits that worked with youth, CityKids NYC and Brandywine Workshop, Haring worked with 14 students. While some of the dancing figures are solid colored, others feature unique patterns and symbols, all contributed by the students.
“Wherever [murals] are, they provide a foundation where change can begin,” said Golden. “They are a vehicle through which important stories are told, and they allow Philadelphia to maintain its status as a global leader in the arts and culture arena.”
Presently about 1,000 murals are displayed on the sides of residential homes in Philadelphia through partnerships with Mural Arts.
Haring, whose preferred medium was chalk, often created works that were not meant to be permanent. We the Youth too was not immune to decay over time.
In 2013, after Erica and Lucas Bryant of St. Paul, Minn., bought the house, Mural Arts undertook a massive restoration of the piece, adding several layers of paint and a protective coating against the sun, entirely replacing damaged sections, and replacing the chain link fence.
“Philly is very proud to have a Keith Haring mural and especially one embedded in the community that was done in such a collaborative manner,” said Golden.
Haring, who started making chalk drawings in the New York subway, first wanted to paint We the Youth on a garbage truck but was refused by the Philadelphia Sanitation Department.
He died in 1990, from AIDS-related complications at age 31.
“You can be the only person in the world who lives in a Keith Haring art piece!” boasts the OCF Realty listing for the three-bedroom, 2 ½ bathroom apartment.
The 1,797-square-foot, three-story rowhouse was renovated in 2020 and has a backyard patio and a roof deck. The property, managed by OCF Realty, rents for $3,295/month.
