Editing Second Empire Architecture (section)

== Decline ==

Second Empire architecture fell from favor rapidly after 1870, victim of shifting tastes that embraced Queen Anne picturesqueness and the solidity of Richardsonian Romanesque. The style's associations with the corrupt Grant administration, which had built Second Empire post offices and courthouses across the country, contributed to its decline. By the time City Hall finally opened in 1901, its design seemed a relic of earlier decades, its French pretensions outdated in an era of American imperial confidence. Yet the style's Philadelphia monuments—City Hall above all—proved too substantial and too central to remove.<ref name="moss"/>

Second Empire's rehabilitation came gradually during the twentieth century's later decades. Preservation movements recognized the style's historical significance and the quality of its surviving buildings. City Hall, long derided as an embarrassing white elephant, gained appreciation as visitors and architects recognized the irreplaceable craftsmanship embodied in its construction. Today Second Empire buildings are valued as documents of Gilded Age aspiration, their mansard roofs and French ornament appreciated as distinctive contributions to Philadelphia's architectural heritage.<ref name="tatum"/>