WITH a royal grant for 40,000 square miles of land in the New World,
William Penn, thirty-eight years old, came up the Delaware River in 1682
and landed at the Blue Anchor Inn, built by the Swedes in 1636. The
state now covers 45,126 square miles.
No eastern state contains forests of such varied and abundant timber, or
extensive mineral deposits. According to official reports of the state
geologist, one and one-third billion dollars’ worth of mineral products
were taken from below ground in 1916; of these coal is the greatest
wealth producer, over $1,000,000,000 annually, the production being
nearly one-half that of the entire United States; the supply is still
ample and new fields are being opened. Over $100,000,000 in coke; and
more than $42,000,000 in its by-products. Petroleum counts for
$26,000,000. Gold, silver, platinum, and asbestos are found in small
quantities. Natural gas has been used in this state for manufacturing
purposes since 1874. This is the greatest manufacturing region in the
world, and has the richest agricultural land in the United States.
Pennsylvania stands first among the states in the Union in the number of
towns over 5000 in population, making it a remarkable selling market.
Philadelphia, the chief city, and third in population, 1,823,779, in the
United
States, is on the site of a village of the Lenni Lenape or Delaware
Indians, called Coaquanarck. Through William Penn’s liberal policy to
early settlers, and later being the seat of government of the United
States, many national institutions were originated here, and many more
historical buildings are here than in any other city in America. It
comprises the whole of Philadelphia County, and has a distinctive
character of its own, reminiscent of the old Quaker life, which is given
in this book in two Colonial Walks; the Revolutionary Period is given in
automobile routes, framed on Washington’s itinerary; and modern
institutions, many of them continuing from colonial times, are in
chapters, schools, galleries and museums, hospitals, libraries, music,
churches. Philadelphia was the leader in the fight for “Liberty of
Conscience.”
The obvious picturesqueness of Philadelphia is in the Pennsylvania
Hospital, Independence Hall, Christ Church, Old Swedes’, St. Peter’s.
Down in lower Spruce Street and neighboring streets are beautiful
colonial houses, stately doorways, decorative ironwork, dormer windows,
great gables, facing each other at street corners in harmonious
proportions. In not another town were the old streets so well worth
keeping unchanged. The early Friends, when they left England, packed up,
with their “Liberty of Conscience,” the love of beauty in architecture
and the money to pay for it. In a fine period of English architecture,
they got good English architects—Wren is said to have been of the
number—to design, not only their public buildings, but their private
houses; and carried over in their personal baggage, paneling, carvings,
ironwork, furniture and the various details they were not likely to
procure in Philadelphia.
Long straight lines of streets give the town serenity and repose.
1. Independence Hall. 2. Independence Square. 3. Philosophical Society.
4. U.S. Custom House. 5. Carpenters’ Hall. 6. Bank of North America. 7.
Christ Church. 8. Site St. George and the Dragon Inn. 9. Betsey Ross
House. 10. Friends’ Meeting House. 11. St. George’s M. E. Church. 12.
St. John’s Lutheran Church. 13. Christ Church Burial Ground. 14. Free
Quaker Building. 15. Fort Rittenhouse. 16. Mikveh Israel Synagogue. 17.
First U. S. Mint. 18. Site Robert Morris Residence. 19. Site President
Washington’s Residence. 20. Site Pennsylvania National Bank. 21.
Franklin Institute.
The Quaker City; Penn’s “Green country towne.”
Start at the State House, called Independence Hall in 1776; open free 9
A.M. to 4 P.M.; south side of Chestnut Street between Fifth and Sixth.
The most interesting building historically in the United States.
Architect, Andrew Hamilton, speaker in the Assembly; Georgian, brick;
erected for the Province of Pennsylvania as a Colonial State House.
Tower has wooden cupola built in 1828, containing clock and bell,
presented to the City by Henry Seybert, in 1876.
First occupied by the Assembly in 1735. Second Continental Congress met
here May 10, 1775. George Washington was chosen Commander in Chief of
the Continental Army June 15, 1775. Declaration of Independence approved
July 4, 1776. Articles of Confederation and perpetual union between the
States were adopted and signed July 9, 1778. Constitution of the United
States of America, long the pride of Americans, and the model for
friends of freedom throughout the world, was formed and signed September
17, 1787.
Lafayette was received here in 1824.
The body of Abraham Lincoln rested in state, April 22-24, 1865.
Second National Encampment, Grand Army of the Republic, January, 1868,
when annual Memorial Day, May 30, was instituted by Major General John
A. Logan. It was observed the same year by posts of the Grand Army of
the Republic and the public.
The Liberty Bell was rung July 8, 1776, in celebration of the
Declaration of Independence; inscription on bell, “Proclaim liberty
throughout all the land, unto all the inhabitants thereof” (Leviticus
XXV: 10). It was hung in the tower in 1755, and it was cracked while
being tolled for the death of Chief Justice John Marshall July 8, 1835;
not rung since 1843.
Portraits of the Signers of the Declaration of Independence, painted
chiefly by Charles Willson Peale, and his portrait of Washington are
here. Benjamin West’s
FOURTH OF JULY IN CENTER SQUARE, PHILADELPHIA
Painted by John D. Krimmel Courtesy of the Pennsylvania Academy of
the Fine Arts
painting, “Penn’s Treaty with the Indians”; a large collection of
portraits of Pennsylvania men notable in the government of the
Commonwealth; and a collection of forty-five small historic portraits in
pastel by James Sharples. On Chestnut Street front is a marble statue of
Washington; sculptor, J. A. Bailey; erected in 1869 by contributions of
the public-school children of Philadelphia.
The building was renovated and restored in 1897 to its early appearance.
Small buildings connecting west, contain colonial relics; east,
Revolutionary relics. West, open porch leads to Congress Hall, corner of
Sixth Street, built in 1789 for Court House of Philadelphia County;
Georgian, occupied by the Federal Congress, 1790-1800, after necessary
alterations by Major L’Enfant. First floor, House of Representatives;
second floor, Senate Chamber; gallery added in 1795. Here Washington was
inaugurated President, second term, March 4, 1793; and John Adams,
second President of the United States, in 1797. National Currency was
established. First National Bank founded. Army and Navy organized. Jay’s
Treaty determining relations with England considered and ratified.
Official announcement of Washington’s death in 1799 was made, and
resolution offered by Chief Justice John Marshall, to pay honor to the
man “First in war, first in peace, first in the hearts of his
countrymen.”
Contains sculptures in wood by William Rush; statue of Washington carved
in 1815; also eagle on globe, portrait of Michael Hillegas, first
Treasurer of the United States until 1789, and other paintings.
Building restored 1896, through the Pennsylvania Society, Colonial
Dames of America; architect, William Ziegler.
Corner of Fifth Street, Supreme Court House, or the old City Hall, built
in 1789. Second floor occupied by the First Supreme Court of the United
States, 1791-1800. Mayor’s Office until 1896. Later headquarters Boy
Scouts and Grand Army of the Republic. Now restored to first appearance;
museum, Colonial and American Indian collections, paintings.
In 1783, State House Yard was improved, elms planted, walks laid out,
and seats placed. Contains statue of Commodore Barry. 104 South Fifth
Street, in State House Yard, the American Philosophical Society, built
1789, brick, Georgian; originated in “The Junto,” formed by Benjamin
Franklin 1727. See Historic Institutions.
Southeast corner of Fifth and Chestnut Streets, site residence of
William Moore Smith, son of first provost of the University of
Pennsylvania. Washington’s portrait was painted here by Gilbert Stuart.
Northeast corner of Fifth and Sansom Streets, site Philadelphia Library
1790-1830.
427 Chestnut Street, site of Lawrence mansion, Howe’s headquarters,
1777-78.
421 Chestnut Street, site of United States Hotel. Charles Dickens stayed
here March, 1842, first visit to America.
South side of Chestnut Street, below Fifth, United States Custom House;
marble, classic; Doric portico; built 1819; architect, John Haviland.
Northwest corner of Fourth and Chestnut Streets, Provident Life and
Trust Company, of Philadelphia, modern; contains oil portraits of the
directors; among the artists represented are Bernard Uhle, Cecilia
Beaux, and Thomas Eakins.
Southeast corner of Fourth and Chestnut Streets, site of Friends
meeting-house in 1701, later site of Mathew Carey’s book store in 1800.
320 Chestnut Street, head of Carpenters’ Court. Carpenters’ Hall; open
free daily 9 A.M. to 3 P.M., Saturdays to 12.30 P.M.; Georgian, brick;
built, 1770 for use of the Carpenters’ Company, founded in 1724.
307 Chestnut Street, Bank of North America; founded in 1781 on the same
ground; oldest and first bank, chartered by Congress, in the United
States. Through Robert Morris, the first president, victory was made
possible to Washington and the Continental Army. Contains portrait of
Robert Morris.
Third Street above Chestnut; Post Office in 1713; later Judd’s Hotel
during war of 1812.
27 South Third Street, site United States Post Office, 1792.
250 Chestnut Street, site first United States Treasury, 1798.
243 Chestnut Street, site of residence of Governor Thomas Lloyd in 1684,
appointed by William Penn.
Letitia Street, west side above Chestnut, east of Second; site of
Letitia House, William Penn’s residence, moved to Fairmount Park.
Southeast corner of Second and Black Horse Alley, above Chestnut Street,
site Bradford House and printing office, used for colonial Post Office,
1728; Andrew Bradford, postmaster; in 1719 he published the first
newspaper in Pennsylvania, The Mercury, a weekly, second in America.
Southwest corner of Front and Market Streets, site of London Coffee
House, in 1754, where, in 1780, Robert Morris met with others to
consider the establishment of the first bank. Horses, slaves, and cattle
were sold here.
About 221-23 North Water Street, site Stephen Girard’s last residence.
111 Spring Street, west of Front, above Race, said to have been
residence of Benjamin Franklin 1723-26; brick, three stories and attic;
still standing.
Jones’s Alley, above Market Street, west from 14 North Front Street,
site Robert Grace’s residence, where the “Junto Club” met in 1727.
110 Market Street, site Robert Aitken’s Printing Office in 1782; he
printed the first English Bible in America.
Southwest corner of Second and Market Streets, site Friends’ first
meeting-house, 1695-1808, on land donated by George Fox, founder of the
Society.
Middle of Market Street, at Second, facing east, site of old Court
House, built 1710; used as town hall and seat of the Legislature until
the State House was built in 1735. Acceptance of the United States
Constitution was here proclaimed to the people December 13, 1787; shown
in large painting by Birch, made in 1829, now in City Hall, Broad and
Market Streets.
25 North Second Street, office Peter Porcupine’s Gazette, edited by
William Cobbett, a keen satirist.
Christ Church, west side of Second Street, north of Market, built 1695.
(See Churches.)
JOHN MARSHALL, CHIEF JUSTICE OF THE UNITED STATES,
1808-1835
From the original in the possession of the Law Association of
Philadelphia
Painted by Henry Inman
200 Arch Street, site Saint George and the Dragon Inn, built 1700, kept
by Nicholas Scull, member Franklin’s “Junto,” in 1727; sheriff in 1744;
he published a map of the city in 1750. Oldest Inn building standing;
from 1791-93 it was kept by John Inskeep, Mayor of Philadelphia,
1800-05. Stage coaches for New York and Baltimore left here regularly.
No. 239 Arch Street, Betsy Ross House, two-story, brick, marked by
tablet; now property of American Flag House and Betsy Ross Memorial
Association. She made the first flag adopted by the United States, from
pencil drawing by Washington, who with Robert Morris and George Ross,
called on her to give the commission; the flag was accepted by Congress
June 14, 1777, and is now one of the oldest flags in the world, older
than those of France, Spain, Germany, Russia, Italy, and Austria. John
Paul Jones was first to fly the new flag. Betsy Ross lived to be
eighty-four, dying in 1836; she is buried in Mount Moriah Cemetery,
where a flag continuously flies over her grave, instituted by the Sons
of Veterans. Flag Day was first inaugurated in Philadelphia, 1893.
226 Race Street, site First Moravian Church, 1742-1856.
267 Race Street, site residence of Benjamin Franklin about 1749.
325 Market Street, site residence of Benjamin Franklin, where he first
invented the lightning rod, about 1749-50; in 1752, first lightning rod
used in the world was set up by Franklin, southeast corner of Second and
Race Streets.
229 North Fourth Street, Saint George’s, oldest Methodist Church in the
world, used continuously for worship; dedicated November 24, 1769.
Fourth Street above Race, St. Augustine’s Roman Catholic Church, 1796;
destroyed in the riot of 1844; rebuilt in 1846.
Old St. John’s Church, Race Street between Fifth and Sixth; first
English Lutheran Church in America, built 1806.
Southeast corner of Fourth and Cherry Streets, site Zion Lutheran Church
(German), built 1766; in 1790 its organ was considered the finest in
America.
Northeast corner of Fourth and Arch Streets, James Russell Lowell stayed
here with his bride in 1845.
Southeast corner of Fourth and Arch Streets, Friends meeting-house;
oldest in Philadelphia, built in 1804; since 1811 it has been used for
the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting of Orthodox Friends, and is said to be
largest in the world. (See Historic Burial Grounds.)
Southwest corner of Fourth and Arch Streets, site of residence built for
William Smith, D.D., before 1762. First provost of the University of
Pennsylvania.
Fourth Street, west side, below Arch, site of the Academy in 1749;
beginning of the University, marked with tablet.
Southeast corner of Fifth and Arch Streets, Christ Church burial ground.
(See Burial Grounds.)
Southwest corner of Fifth and Arch Streets, Free Quaker Building;
tablet, inscription “By general subscription for the Free Quakers;
erected in the year of our Lord 1783, and of the Empire 8.” “Fighting
Quakers,” who fought in the Revolutionary War against peace principles
of the sect. The Apprentices’
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN
From the collection in Independence Hall
Painted by B. T. Welch
Library, organized 1820 in Carpenters’ Hall, for many years only free
library in Philadelphia, occupied the building after 1850. Later used by
the Grand Lodge of Masons.
515 Cherry Street, residence of Bass Otis in 1819, who made the first
American lithograph.
528 Arch Street, site, Pennsylvania College of Dental Surgery, first in
Philadelphia, founded 1852; now absorbed by the University of
Pennsylvania.
627 Arch Street, site, Woman’s Medical College, first in America to
graduate women physicians, founded 1850.
Southeast corner of Seventh and Arch Streets, residence of David
Rittenhouse in 1770.
Northwest corner of Seventh and Arch Streets, Fort Rittenhouse;
residence of David Rittenhouse, 1787; treasurer of Pennsylvania.
117 North Seventh Street, site, Mikveh Israel Synagogue, built in 1747.
Removed to Broad and York Streets.
37-39 North Seventh Street, first United States Mint, 1792. David
Rittenhouse, superintendent.
Southeast corner of Sixth and Market Streets, site of Robert Morris
residence; next to it, on Market Street, 530-536, site of President
Washington’s mansion and John Adams, second President; originally built
for Richard Penn.
700 Market Street, Penn National Bank. House where Thomas Jefferson
wrote the Declaration of Independence.
801 Market Street, site, office of Thomas Jefferson, Secretary of
State.
About 808 Market Street, site, residence of Thomas Jefferson, in 1791.
15 South Seventh Street, Franklin Institute, founded 1824; classic
architecture, marble; John Haviland, architect.
1. Continental Hotel. 2. Post Office. 3. Walnut Street
Theatre. 4. Musical Fund Hall. 5. Potter House. 6. Jewish Cemetery. 7.
Pennsylvania Hospital. 8. Morris House. 9. Holy Trinity R. C. Church.
10. Washington Square. 11. The Anthenaeum. 12. St. Mary’s R. C. Church.
13. Old Pine Street Presbyterian Church. 14. St. Peter’s P. E. Church.
15. Market. 16. Site Blue Anchor Inn. 17. Site Slate Roof House. 18.
Stock Exchange. 19. St. Paul’s P. E. Church. 20. Girard Bank. 21. St.
Joseph’s R. C. Church. 22. Contributionship Fire Insurance. 23.
Dispensary.
Southeast corner of Ninth and Chestnut Streets, site, Cook’s Museum and
Circus; first mummies brought to the United States are said to have been
shown here.
Northwest corner of Ninth and Chestnut Streets, United States Post
Office, built in 1884 on site of the Mansion House, built for the
official residence of President Washington, but never occupied; used for
the University of Pennsylvania. Bronze statue of Benjamin Franklin,
sculptor, John Boyle; Chestnut Street front, inscription by Washington:
“Venerated for Benevolence, admired for Talent, esteemed for Patriotism,
beloved for Philanthropy”; bronze bust, President McKinley in corridor;
sculpture group on roof by D. C. French.
Northeast corner of Ninth and Sansom Streets, site, Chinese Museum;
later, in 1835, Peale’s Museum; exhibitions by the Franklin Institute
were held here.
Northeast corner of Ninth and Walnut Streets, Walnut Street Theatre,
built in 1808; oldest theatre in the United States.
808 Locust Street, Musical Fund Hall, built in 1824; oldest building in
Philadelphia in continuous use as a hall; Dr. Charles H. Jarvis
conducted classical soirées here before the Academy was built; has fine
acoustic properties; it is on the site of the Fifth Presbyterian Church,
which was moved to Tenth and Arch Streets.
260 South Ninth Street, Potter House, built 1812; Joseph Bonaparte lived
here two years; the cartoons, “Birth of Psyche,” brought by him from
Versailles, still form the mural decorations of the banquet hall.
Northeast corner of Spruce and Darien Streets, below Ninth, Jewish
Cemetery, founded 1740; Rebecca Gratz, heroine in Scott’s “Ivanhoe,” is
buried near the entrance.
225 South Eighth Street, Morris Mansion, built 1787; typical colonial
model.
Eighth and Pine Streets, Pennsylvania Hospital, founded, 1751, by Dr.
Thomas Bond and Benjamin Franklin; Georgian. Contains Benjamin West’s
famous painting “Christ Healing the Sick”; woman with white head shawl
is said to be likeness of West’s mother.
715 Spruce Street, residence of Nicholas Biddle in 1820; now used by the
American Roman Catholic Society.
705 Locust Street, residence of E. L. Davenport, tragedian.
Southwest corner of Seventh and Locust Streets, site where Dr. Horace
Howard Furness began his great variorum edition of Shakespeare.
618 Locust Street, residence of John W. Forney, journalist.
Southwest corner of Seventh and Walnut Streets, oldest Savings Bank in
America; established 1816, by Mr. Condy Raguet with twelve directors;
classic adaptation; Furness, Evans and Company, architects; among the
oil portraits to be seen there are Lewis Wain and John C. Lowber, by
Thomas Sully; G. Colesberry Purves, by William M. Chase, and Condy
Raguet, artist unknown.
Southeast corner of Seventh and Chestnut Streets, site, residence of
George Clymer, signer of the Declaration of Independence.
708 Chestnut Street, site, residence of Jared Ingersoll, signer of the
United States Constitution; later, residence George M. Dallas,
Vice-President of the United States. Opposite, on Chestnut Street below
Eighth, eastern end of Green’s Hotel, site, residence of Thomas
Fitzsimmons, signer of the United States Constitution.
632 Chestnut Street, site of Waln mansion.
615-17-19 Chestnut Street, site, The Arcade, built in 1826; the Public
Ledger issued its first number here March 25, 1836.
605 Chestnut Street, bronze tablet front, inscription: “Site of First
Chestnut Street Theatre, 1793-1855. ‘Hail! Columbia,’ composed by Joseph
Hopkinson, first sung here, April 25, 1798, by Gilbert Fox. Fanny
Elssler danced here in 1840; Jenny Lind sung, in 1850; Charlotte Cushman
acted, in 1851; erected by The City Historical Society of Philadelphia.”
Northwest corner of Sixth and Ranstead Streets, above Chestnut, site,
The Falstaff Hotel, from 1814-16; First City Troop met here.
130 South Sixth Street, site, residence Thomas G. Wharton; birthplace in
1824 of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania.
Southwest corner of Sixth and Walnut Streets, Curtis Publishing Company,
on site of the Ludwig Building, a school erected by Christopher Ludwig,
“Baker General” of the Revolution; see Architecture.
Southeast corner of Sixth and Walnut Streets, site, Walnut Street Gaol,
1775-1838; extended nearly to Fifth Street; in the rear, fronting Locust
Street, then Prune Street, was the debtors’ prison; Judge William Moore,
also Provost William Smith, were confined here, in 1758, for publishing
so-called seditious pamphlets on patriotism; the students went there to
recite their lessons to him; Robert Morris, financier of the
Revolution, was in prison here, in 1797, for debts incurred in a large
private transaction; first successful balloon ascension in America was
from the gaol yard, by J. P. Blanchard, French aëronaut, January, 1793.
Sixth to Seventh Streets, on Walnut, Washington Square, patented by
William Penn, 1704-05, as burial ground for strangers; hundreds of
Revolutionary soldiers were buried here, also victims of the great
yellow fever epidemic in 1793; in early times colored slaves gathered
here to sing their native songs, and give wild African dances among the
graves; named Washington Square by Councils, May, 1825, and improved for
public use; monument to the Washington Grays, bronze, life-size figure
of a private in original uniform.
215 South Sixth Street, site, residence of Hon. James Campbell, United
States Postmaster General, appointed by President Pierce.
219 South Sixth Street, The Athenaeum of Philadelphia, founded, 1813, by
students from the University, for a circulating library; first
president, William Tilghman, Chief Justice of Pennsylvania; the Law
Library was there many years, while Courts were Sixth and Chestnut
Streets; was great chess center; architect, John Notman.
245 South Sixth Street, site, residence Commodore Barry, who succeeded
John Paul Jones as head of the American Navy.
Locust Street below Sixth, south side, site, Prune Street Theatre; “Home
Sweet Home” was sung here for the first time in America.
Northwest corner of Sixth and Spruce Streets, Holy Trinity Roman
Catholic Church, built, 1739; circular building, alternate red and black
bricks; body of Stephen Girard was buried here for many years; later
removed to Girard College.
144-54 South Fifth Street, site, Free Quaker Cemetery.
127 South Fifth Street, site, Philadelphia Dispensary, oldest in United
States; founded by Dr. Benjamin Rush in 1786; now merged with
Pennsylvania Hospital.
Northeast corner of Fourth and Walnut Streets, residence General Stephen
Moylan, military secretary to Washington; Muster Master General of the
Continental Army in 1775.
South side Walnut Street, above Fourth. John Marshall, Chief Justice of
the United States, died here July 6, 1835.
Willing’s Alley, south of Walnut Street, east of Fourth, St. Joseph’s
Church; built in 1731; oldest Roman Catholic Church in Philadelphia; has
painting, “Hagar and Ishmael,” by Benjamin West; Washington is said to
have been first referred to as “The Father of his Country” by the
priest, in his sermon after Washington’s death; Lancaster County makes
the same claim.
309 Walnut Street, site, last residence of Bishop White.
212 South Fourth Street, Philadelphia Contributionship for the Insurance
of Houses from Loss by Fire, oldest fire-insurance company in America,
founded 1752, by Benjamin Franklin; known as “The Hand-in-Hand,” from
its seal; Classic architecture, built, 1835; portraits, Horace Binney by
Thomas Sully; painted in 1837, and by George B. A. Healy in 1857; Dr.
Charles Willing and Hon. John Welsh by Bernard Uhle; James Lewis Smith
by Henry Inman; William Sellers and Ellis Yarnall by Percy Bigland,
English; Alexander Biddle, Sydney P. Hutchinson and John T. Morris by
Vonnoh; James S. Smith, 2d, by Van Morcken.
218-22 South Fourth Street, site, Edward Shippen mansion; President,
Provisional Council, and First Mayor of Philadelphia; his daughter,
Peggy Shippen, was married to Benedict Arnold.
Southwest corner of Fourth and Prune Streets, or Locust, residence of
Dr. Caspar Wistar, in 1799; the garden extended to St. Mary’s
churchyard; is now headquarters of the Philadelphia Chapter No. 2 of
Colonial Dames.
244-50 South Fourth Street, St. Mary’s Roman Catholic Church, built,
1763, has a fine pieta by Boucher; in the graveyard are the tombs of
Commodore Barry and of Thomas Fitzsimmons, members Continental Congress.
338 Spruce Street, residence, Joseph Hopkinson, born 1770, died 1842;
author of “Hail! Columbia,” 1798; it was called “The President’s March,”
and always sung when Washington held state events; music by Henry Roth;
he also wrote “The Battle of the Kegs.”
Southwest corner of Fourth and Pine Streets, Old Pine Street
Presbyterian Church, brick, rough cast; classic; porch with Corinthian
columns; built, 1857; graveyard is on both sides; east portion belongs
to First Church, west to Old Pine.
Southwest corner of Leithgow Street, above Fourth and South Streets,
South Street Theatre, 1766-1821; now used as a business building.
East side of Leithgow Street, west of Fourth, between South and
Bainbridge Streets, site, Apollo Street Theatre, 1811.
Spruce to Pine Streets, Third to Fourth, site, Old Almshouse, 1731, and
Philadelphia Hospital, 1732.
Northwest corner of Third and Lombard Streets, residence of Charles
Willson Peale, 1741-1827.
Southwest corner of Third and Pine Streets, Saint Peter’s Church, built,
1761; in the Churchyard are the tombs of Rev. Jacob Duché and Charles
Willson Peale, artist, 1741-1827; it is often said, “To belong to old
Philadelphia Society one must have an ancestor who entered Paradise
through Saint Peter’s graveyard”; (see Churches).
Northwest corner of Third and Pine Streets, site, residence of Colonel
John Nixon, who read the Declaration of Independence.
Northeast corner of Third and Pine Streets, site, residence of Rev.
Jacob Duché; later, British Military Hospital.
224 Pine Street, site, residence, Mayor John Stamper, 1760; Governor
John Penn died here. “His funeral was very great, making quite a crowd.”
237 DeLancey Street, above Pine, site, residence of Horace Binney, the
great lawyer.
About 260 South Third Street, site, Bingham residence; later, in 1828,
Joseph Head’s Mansion House, known as the most sumptuous inn in
America; John Quincy Adams stayed here in 1811; Pennsylvania Society of
the Cincinnati gave a dinner in 1811, celebrating the unveiling of a
monument to General Wayne; “Sons of Washington” held their annual dinner
here on Washington’s Birthday; French citizens gave a dinner in 1830,
Peter Du Ponceau presiding, in popular demonstration after the French
Revolution of the overthrow of Charles X.
256 South Third Street, site, “Washington Hall,” built, 1814; erected by
the Washington Benevolent Society; here General Andrew Jackson was fêted
and dined, in February, 1819; Lafayette attended a dinner in 1824 given
to Richard Rush, envoy to England from the United States, afterward
member of Adams Cabinet; second Horticultural Exhibition was held in
1830.
244 South Third Street, residence of Samuel Powell, Mayor of
Philadelphia, 1775-89; fine colonial architecture; many functions were
held here during the Revolution; Washington celebrated his twentieth
wedding anniversary here, January 6, 1779.
228 South Third Street, site, Thomas Willing residence, in 1746.
217-31 South Third Street, St. Paul’s Protestant Episcopal Church,
built, 1761; Headquarters of Philadelphia City Mission; Edwin Forrest,
tragedian, is buried in the graveyard; (see Churches).
Southeast corner of Dock and Moravian Streets, below Walnut, publisher’s
office of Burton’s Gentleman’s Magazine, while Edgar Allan Poe was
editor.
Southeast corner of Third and Walnut Streets, site, residence of
Alexander Hamilton, and site of Fort Wilson, residence of James Wilson,
a signer of the Declaration of Independence.
301 Walnut Street, site, residence of Dr. Benjamin Rush, in 1791, a
signer of the Declaration of Independence.
307 Walnut Street, site, residence of Judge Richard Peters.
Back part of Walnut Court, between 314-318 Walnut Street, site, Friends’
Almshouse, 1713-1841.
Southeast corner of Third and Pear Streets (now Chancellor), Robert
Bell’s bookstore; Bell’s imprints are sought by collectors.
116-120 South Third Street, Girard National Bank, oldest banking
building in America; Stephen Girard, financier of the War of 1812,
bought it in 1812; it was his office until his death, December 26, 1831.
114 South Third Street, site, Jay Cooke’s Banking House, financier of
the Civil War.
Sansom Street, formerly Lodge Street, above Second; first successful
locomotive, Old Ironsides, built in America was made by Matthias Baldwin
in 1828.
Northwest corner of Second and Sansom Streets, site, residence of
William Logan, 1750-60.
Southeast corner of Second and Sansom Streets, site, Slate Roof House,
1698-1867, built for William Penn; his son John was born here, January
29, 1700; sold to William Trent, founder of Trenton, in 1803, for eight
hundred and fifty pounds; General Forbes, Governor of Pennsylvania, died
here. “His funeral was of great splendor.”
121 South Second Street, site, residence of Robert Fulton, artist and
engineer.
123 South Second Street, site, residence of Captain Joseph Anthony;
Assembly met here in 1828-30.
Back of 145-47 South Second Street, site of Indian reservation.
Second Street, southeast corner of Little Dock Street, site, Loxley
House in 1720; Lydia Darrach is supposed to have lived here; Benjamin
Franklin used the front door key in electricity experiment with a kite.
Water Street, between Walnut and Dock Streets, Hamilton’s Wharf. First
Assembly Balls were held here, in a large room, about 1740.
Second and Pine Streets, Second Street Market, built, 1745.
200 Pine Street, site, residence of Charles Elias Boudinot.
South Street from South Street, corner of American, between Second and
Third Streets, inscription on corner house: “In this street was
birthplace of Edwin Forrest; Commodore Joseph Cresson; Alexander Wilson;
and Joel B. Sutherland, first President of the Society of 1812.”
Second Street below South, west side, Southwark Bank, built, 1825.
30 South Street, site, Plumsted House; Mason and Dixon’s Observatory was
near here.
Front and Pine Streets; probable site of the Penny Pot House.
Northwest corner of Front and Dock Streets, probable site of the Blue
Anchor Inn, in 1682, where William Penn first landed in Philadelphia.
Architecture should comprise beauty, fitness, and stability. It is
classified by various styles from the past, necessarily developed by
modern characterists. Eras of great national vigor invariably express
themselves architecturally, by means of great scale. To illustrate, the
Pyramids at Gizeh and the great temple at Karnak mark the zenith of
Egyptian civilization; the Parthenon echoes the halcyon days of Greece;
Imperial Rome boasted the Baths of Caracalla and the Colosseum; the
glorious Renaissance in Italy culminated in the grandeur of St. Peter’s
Church; and the consecration and craftsmanship of Gothic builders
crashed to earth with the lofty vaulting of Beauvais. Also consider, in
chronological order, the buildings of our own time, they present a mute
record of the ever-increasing virility of the nation; in the lacelike
tower of the Woolworth Building, piercing the blue heaven for a thousand
feet, we read the tremendous advance and limitless possibilities of the
country whose dreams become realities. Among the early Colonial or
Georgian buildings are, Carpenters’ Hall, Chestnut Street below Fourth;
Christ Church, Second Street above Market; Hamilton Mansion in Woodlands
Cemetery, Thirty-ninth Street and Woodland Avenue; Independence Hall,
group, Chestnut Street between Fifth and Sixth; Old Swedes’ Church
(Gloria Dei), Swanson Street near Front and Christian Streets;
Pennsylvania Hospital, Eighth and Pine Streets; St. Peter’s Church,
Third and Pine Streets.
Egyptian. Synagogue Adath-Jeshurum, Broad and Diamond Streets; Indiana
limestone; architects, Thomas, Churchman, and Molitor.
Classic. Academy of Music, Broad and Locust Streets. Interior classic;
brick; built, 1850; architects, LeBrun & Runge; the audience room is
very large, modeled after celebrated opera houses in Europe; plan of the
balconies is now considered obsolete, but the general effect is
undeniably fine, and has a flavor of the Second Empire. Cathedral of SS.
Peter and Paul, Logan Square; brownstone, built about 1860; architects,
Napoleon LeBrun for the building, John Notman for the façade; it is
impressive and dignified. United States Custom House, Chestnut Street
below Fifth; architect, John Haviland. Girard College, Corinthian and
Girard Avenues; architect, Thomas U. Walters; modeled after the
Parthenon. Girard National Bank, 116 South Third Street; portico of the
Third Street front is Corinthian, studied from the Parthenon and Temple
of Saturnus; it stands on a stylobate, elevated above the pavement by
steps on three sides, which gives it emphasis and dignity, and marks it
as the feature of approach to the building; this portico is flanked on
either side by a pavilion of pilasters, of the same character as the
columns of the portico, the space between the pilasters being pierced
with windows which are adorned with architraves and cornices supported
by carved brackets; the pilasters and columns are surmounted by a
cornice pediment and balustrade of great elegance of detail and
proportion, studied from the best class of Roman antique work; the
tympanum of the pediment is enriched by the date of the erection, 1795,
and the American eagle in bas-relief carving, of excellent modeling;
from the pavement to the apex of the portico is fifty-six feet; entire
front is of Pennsylvania blue marble; the building was erected for the
Bank of the United States in 1797, and followed closely the lines of the
Dublin Exchange; architect, Samuel Blodgett; marble work was done by
Claudius LeGrand in his yard at Tenth and Market Streets; this was the
first building in Philadelphia to be erected with portico and pillars;
in 1901, it was carefully renovated by James H. Windrim. Girard Trust
Company, northwest corner of Broad and Chestnut Streets, built in 1908;
architects, McKim, Mead & White, New York; Furness & Evans,
Philadelphia; has steel frame and Gustavino dome faced with white
marble; while the form of this building was probably suggested by the
Pantheon at Rome, details of the order are rather Greek, and the
colonetts, forming the mullions of the windows, suggest the Certosa di
Pavia. Ridgway Library, South Broad and Christian Streets, Doric; built,
1880; granite; architect, Addison Hutton. Old Stock Exchange, Second,
Walnut and Dock Streets, white marble; has semicircular Corinthian
colonnade, and lantern modeled after the Temple of Lysicrates;
architect, William Strickland. St. Patrick’s Church, Twenty-first and
Locust Streets, Roman; classic; brick and granite; built, 1913;
architects, LaFarge & Morris, New York; façade of this church is big in
conception, full of dignity and repose, and forms a most successful
termination to the vista when viewed from Rittenhouse Street. United
States Mint, Seventeenth and Spring Garden Streets, built, 1898; light
gray granite; architect, James Knox Taylor.
Moorish. Horticultural Hall, Fairmount Park; built, 1876; architect,
Herman J. Schwarzmann. Rodeph Shalom Synagogue, Mt. Vernon and North
Broad Streets.
Byzantine. First Baptist Church, Seventeenth Street above Chestnut,
stone; Edgar V. Seeler, architect. Jacob Reed’s Sons, store, 1424
Chestnut Street, brick, marble, and tile; built, 1904; Price &
McLanahan, architects; façade is one of the most interesting in the
city; the column caps are symbolic of the business conducted therein, as
is also the tile work on the intrados of the arch, which depicts the
shearing and manufacturing of wool and has the richness of an Oriental
rug.
Gothic. Academy of the Fine Arts, Broad and Cherry Streets, Venetian
polychrome Gothic, brick, limestone, and tile; architects, Furness &
Hewitt; façade is interesting, as the most prominent example of the
Venetian Gothic style, used in Philadelphia in the latter part of the
nineteenth century. Broad and Arch Streets Methodist Episcopal Church,
white marble. St. Clement’s Protestant Episcopal Church, Twentieth and
Cherry Streets, Norman; built, 1857; brownstone; architect, John Notman;
later improvements; new roof; apse; Lady chapel and parish buildings by
Horace Wells Sellers. St. James’ Protestant Episcopal Church,
Twenty-second and Walnut Streets, English decorated Gothic, with
sculptured band around the tower; Ohio green sandstone and granite;
architect, G. W. Hewitt. St. Luke’s Protestant Episcopal Church,
Germantown Avenue and Coulter Street, granite and limestone; architect,
Richard Upjohn of New York, who first used the principles of Gothic
architecture in America; rectory, St. Margaret’s Home, parish house, and
the rood screen in the church are by Cope & Stewardson; organ screen is
by Pierson. St. Mark’s Protestant Episcopal Church, Locust Street below
Seventeenth, early decorated Gothic; brownstone; architect, John Notman;
later improvements include the Lady chapel, architects, Cope &
Stewardson. Second Presbyterian Church, Twenty-first and Walnut Streets,
French, with early English details; resembles the Parish Church in
Norfolk, England; architect, Henry Sims. St. Stephen’s Protestant
Episcopal Church, Tenth Street above Chestnut, early Gothic, with two
octagonal towers; stone; interior decorated by Frank Furness; rich and
unusual color. South Memorial Church of the Advocate, Eighteenth and
Diamond Streets, French; architect, C. M. Burns; built, 1897; interior
profusely adorned with carving; windows by Clayton & Bell.
Romanesque. Church of St. Francis de Sales, Roman Catholic,
Forty-seventh Street and Springfield Avenue, brick and terra cotta;
Gustavino dome and mosaic, a very beautiful example of the style; built,
1912; architect, Henry D. Daggit. Holy Trinity Protestant Episcopal
Church, Nineteenth and Walnut Streets, Norman, brownstone; architect,
John Notman. Masonic Temple, Broad and Filbert Streets, Norman with
elaborately carved porch; gray granite; built about 1870; architect,
James H. Windrim. Church of the Saviour, Protestant Episcopal,
Thirty-eighth Street, north of Chestnut Street, Norman; architect,
Charles M. Burns; the half dome and apse are decorated by Edwin H.
Blashfield; said to be one of the finest examples of mosaic work in this
country; alms boxes and reredos, designed by the late James Warner, are
also of considerable interest.
Renaissance. Art Club, southwest corner of Broad and Chancellor Streets,
Italian and French influences; brick and Indiana limestone; architect,
Frank Miles Day. City Hall, open daily, 9.00 A.M. to 3.00 P.M., Broad
and Market Streets, on site of Penn Square, formerly Centre Square, on
which was a Friends’ meeting-house in 1685; Rochambeau’s Encampment,
1781; Wayne’s Encampment, 1794; and the first city waterworks in 1801;
this is the largest single building in America; covers four and a half
acres, French, begun in 1871, white marble with granite base; built in
the form of a hollow square, with passageways connecting both Market and
Broad Streets; contains 662 rooms; the tower, on the north center, about
550 feet high, is surmounted by a colossal bronze statue of William
Penn; center and corner pavilions have attic stories, and hanging stairs
of polished granite; architect, John McArthur, Jr.; chief points of
interest are the council chambers; mayor’s reception room, with
portraits of Philadelphia mayors; and state court rooms; from the roof
is an excellent view of the city. To Alexander Milne Calder,
Philadelphia is indebted for the applied sculpture, the artistic feature
of the building, many scores of figures, symbolic of the history of this
nation
CAPTAIN NICHOLAS BIDDLE
In the Tower Gallery of City Hall
Alexander Milne Calder, Sculptor
and the world, fine types of Indians, and other races; the negro heads
being known among artists as the best of their kind; ornamentation
symbolic of music, art, science, and commerce, is used as an integral
part of this great public edifice, an inherent factor in true
decoration, where it comes into its own, as well as in gardens, parks,
boulevards, and plazas. Statues outside, on City Hall pavement, are,
General John F. Reynolds, by Rogers; General McClellan; the Pilgrim by
Saint Gaudens; the Quaker by Giuseppe Donato; Stephen Girard and John
Wanamaker by J. Massey Rhind; Joseph Leidy, M.D.; President McKinley,
and John C. Bullitt. College of Physicians, Twenty-second Street, above
Chestnut, English; built, 1910; architects, Cope & Stewardson. Dropsie
College, Broad Street below York, French; architects, Pitcher & Tachau.
Hamilton Court, Thirty-ninth and Chestnut Streets, Italian; steel frame
faced with brick and limestone; an apartment house built around an open
court, recalling very strongly, both in color and detail, the earlier
Venetian palaces. Memorial Hall, Fairmount Park, German, granite; built,
1876; architect, Herman J. Schwarzmann; one of the best designed
monumental buildings in the city. Union League addition, Fifteenth and
Sansom Streets, Italian; steel frame, faced with limestone; built, 1912;
architect, Horace Trumbauer: a very dignified and restrained elevation,
suggestive of a Roman palace.
Spanish. The First Church of Christ Scientist, Walnut Street above
Fortieth; architects, Carrere & Hastings. Pennsylvania Institute for
the Instruction of the Blind, Overbrook; Spanish mission; architects,
Cope & Stewardson.
English. Mellor, Meigs and Howe Office, 205 South Juniper Street, rough
brick; architects, Mellor & Meigs.
The Athenaeum of Philadelphia, 219 South Sixth Street; architect, John
Notman; has best points of work done in 1850, showing traditions of the
past, with developments and characteristics of its own; interior has a
most beautiful reading room. The University Buildings, from
Thirty-fourth to Fortieth Streets, Walnut Street to Woodland Avenue, add
much to the architectural attraction of West Philadelphia; entrances to
the campus, near the dormitories, are fine Tudor gateways, wrought iron,
with brick and stone piers. (See University of Pennsylvania.) Hon. James
Arthur Balfour said in 1917, “The Americans build Brobdignagian
cathedrals, and use them for office buildings.” The Skyscrapers.
Adelphia Hotel, Thirteenth and Chestnut Streets, Italian Renaissance,
brick and terra cotta; built, 1914; architect, Horace Trumbauer; the
arabesque detail on lower stories of the façade, and pattern formed by
projecting bricks, on the stories above, are worthy of notice; interiors
are pleasing and architecturally correct. Bell Telephone, a Parkway
building, corner of Seventeenth and Arch Streets; height above ground
273 feet; stone; with interesting façade; architect, John T. Windrim.
Bellevue-Stratford Hotel, southwest corner Broad and Walnut Streets,
French Renaissance; steel frame, faced with terra cotta; architects,
Hewitt Bros. Most beautifully proportioned and artistic business
building in Philadelphia. Bourse, Fourth to Fifth Streets, below Market;
adaptation of the François Premier; with fine feeling of dignity, in
placing within the broad paving; architects, Hewitt Bros. Bulletin
Building, Juniper and Filbert Streets, French; steel frame, faced with
terra cotta; architect, Edgar V. Seeler. Curtis Publishing Company,
Sixth and Walnut Streets, modern adaptation of Georgian; steel frame,
faced with white marble and brick; built, 1910; architect, Edgar V.
Seeler; faces Independence Square, and although thoroughly modern,
harmonizes perfectly, both in color and design, with the historic
Georgian group, of which Independence Hall is the center, and adds to
the quiet colonial atmosphere of the Square; interior is excellently
designed; entrance, lobby, editorial offices, and the employes’ dining
room being of particular interest. Mechanical equipment is the finest of
its kind in the world, producing an average of 5,558,600 complete paid
for publications per issue of the Ladies’ Home Journal, Saturday
Evening Post, and The Country Gentleman for six months ending June
30, 1924. Twenty original paintings, and the mosaic “The Dream Garden,”
by Maxfield Parrish, a mural made of Tiffany favrile glass, the work
proceeded through an entire year, in the Tiffany Studios, where each
piece of glass was fired under the personal supervision of Mr. Tiffany
and Mr. Briggs; time can never impair its freshness, color, or
luminosity. Visitors will be shown the entire plant daily, except
Saturdays and Sundays, between 9.00 A.M. and 5.00 P.M. Farm Journal,
Seventh Street and Washington Square, Georgian; colonial brick and
Indiana limestone; architects, Bunting & Shrigley. Harrison Building,
Fifteenth and Market Streets, François Premier; built, 1895; architects,
Cope & Stewardson; an unusual example of well-studied, though elaborate
Renaissance detail; notice the graceful roof, recalling the charming
chateaux along the Loire. Land Title Building, southwest corner of Broad
and Chestnut Streets, modern adaptation of classic; steel frame, faced
with gray granite and brick; architects, D. H. Burnham & Co., Chicago;
contrast the scale of the order, in the newer portion of the building on
Broad Street entrance, with the insignificant order in the old building.
Manufacturers’ Club, Broad and Walnut Streets, Italian Renaissance;
built, 1914; steel frame, faced with limestone; architects, Simon &
Bassett; has a handsome façade, crowned by a daring Florentine cornice;
interior unusually interesting in detail. Racquet Club, Sixteenth Street
below Walnut, Georgian; colonial brick, marble trimmings; architect,
Horace Trumbauer. Real Estate Trust Building, southeast corner of Broad
and Chestnut Streets, Renaissance; architect, Edgar V. Seeler.
Ritz-Carlton Hotel, Broad and Walnut Streets, modern adaptation, style
of the Adam Brothers; built, 1912; steel frame, faced with colonial
brick and Indiana limestone; architects, Warren & Wetmore, New York,
Horace Trumbauer, Philadelphia, associate. The keynote of this structure
is refinement and good taste; a recognition of the fact that
commercialism and good architecture are by no means incompatible.
Stephen Girard Building, Twelfth and Girard Streets, modern adaptation
of Greek classic; built about 1894; steel frame, faced with brick and
marble; architect, John T. Windrim; details of this building are
interesting; note the bronze caryatid figures which support the heads of
the second story windows; the wrought iron gates to the court on Girard
Street rank with the best modern wrought ironwork in the city. Wanamaker
Store, Chestnut, Market, Juniper, and Thirteenth Streets, modern
adaptation of Italian Renaissance, built, 1910; steel frame, with light
gray granite; architects, D. H. Burnham & Co., Chicago; exterior of this
store is one of the finest in the city, it is simple, dignified, and
impressive, without being monotonous; the great scale of the Doric order
at the base, the severe wall treatment, and the splendid cornice,
combine to express a purity and loftiness seldom equaled in commercial
buildings; a guide may be had, upon application, who will conduct
visitors through the entire building including the kitchens. West
Philadelphia High School, Forty-sixth and Walnut Streets, Tudor Gothic;
rough brick and Indiana limestone; built, 1913, by the City Architect.
Widener Memorial Home for crippled children, Broad Street and Olney
Avenue, Georgian, built, 1906; Harvard brick and marble trimmings;
architect, Horace Trumbauer; has a very beautifully designed wrought
iron gateway.
To make a “City Beautiful” is to give it wide streets, lined with
handsome buildings and houses, plenty of parks, boulevards, and to rid
it of rows upon rows of semi-shanty premises, small, ill-kept, and
unattractive. Each new building that is put up within the city limits
should, in its arrangements and architecture, help toward making the
locality in which it is erected more attractive than at the present
time. This idea has been carried out in the Carnegie Free Library
buildings, scattered about within the limits of the municipality, as
their varied exteriors are very distinguished, from an architectural
point. The interiors are designed to avoid the multiplication of
corridors; principal rooms used for reading, the art and reference
rooms, are stately and fine.
An interesting Gateway is the entrance to the Manheim Cricket Club,
Germantown, Georgian; consisting of massive brick piers, surmounted by
stone caps, connected at the top with a wrought iron supporting lantern,
below which are the heavy wrought iron central gates; this, with smaller
gateways, and a most attractive brick wall, forms the enclosure for the
grounds; architects, McKim, Mead & White.
Philadelphia being the seat of government of colonial times, is
extremely rich in historic portraits. They are in The Pennsylvania
Academy of the Fine Arts; Independence Hall; Historical Society of
Pennsylvania; Carpenters’ Hall; American Philosophical Society;
Pennsylvania Hospital; Academy of Natural Science; The Library Company
of Philadelphia; Mercantile Library; College of Physicians; United
States Mint; University of Pennsylvania; many banks and insurance
companies.
Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Broad Street above Arch; open
free daily, 9.00 A.M. to 5.00
A QUIET HOUR
Painted by John W. Alexander Courtesy of the Pennsylvania Academy of
the Fine Arts
P.M., Sundays, 1.00 P.M. to 5.00 P.M.; fee for special exhibitions; was
the first art institute in America, founded, 1805; its history is in no
small measure the history of American art itself, and dates back to
1791, when Charles Willson Peale attempted to organize in Philadelphia a
school of art; from this grew, in 1794, the Columbianum, which held the
first exhibition of paintings, in 1795, in Independence Hall. The
permanent collection of paintings and sculpture now includes the Gallery
of National Portraiture, with the largest number of portraits by Gilbert
Stuart to be seen in any museum; and notable works by other early
American painters—Benjamin West, Washington Allston, Matthew Pratt, the
Peales, Sully, Neagle, Inman, Eichholz, Trumbull, and Bass Otis; the
Gibson Collection, largely composed of the Continental schools; Temple
collection of modern American paintings; important works by many of the
world’s greatest artists; and the Phillips collection of about forty
thousand etchings and engravings. Annual exhibitions are, miniatures,
water colors, illustration, and etchings in November and December; oil
painting and sculpture in February and March, considered the salon of
living American artists; also special exhibitions and lectures on art.
The Academy coöperates with the system of International Catalogue
Exchange.
Since the beginning of the Academy’s existence, men and women whose
names have become illustrious in the annals of American art have been
enrolled as students. The schools are equipped in every way to teach the
technique of painting and sculpture, the faculty is composed of
representative artists of the day; collections, galleries, classrooms,
models, and casts are admirably fitted to afford instruction fully equal
to that obtainable in Europe. Many substantial prizes are awarded
annually to students upon the merits of their work. The William Emlen
Cresson Travelling Scholarships send, on an average, sixteen students
abroad yearly for four months, and enable them to return to the Academy
and continue their studies without payment of tuition fee. The
Fellowship of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, organized 1897,
sends out annually two exhibitions of original oil paintings by notable
artists; one to other cities, the other to the Philadelphia public
schools, where they remain one month in each school; while there, the
paintings are explained by a member of the Fellowship to school
children, thus teaching them true appreciation of art. A Picture
Purchase Fund was established in 1912, with which pictures have been
bought, from Fellowship Exhibitions, and placed in Philadelphia
libraries and public schools.
John Graver Johnson Museum of Paintings, 510 South Broad Street, left by
bequest April, 1917, to the City of Philadelphia, is open to the public;
throughout Europe and America this vast collection of old and modern
masters is famous for extent and merit. “No other American collection
has so wide a range and so even a quality,” says F. Mason Perkins; it
contains scores of examples which could not be duplicated at any price.
Noted for the completeness of different schools of painting.
Philadelphia School of Design for Women, southwest corner of Broad and
Master Streets; first industrial art school in this country; similar to
the “Ecoles Professionelles des Femmes,” in Paris; was founded in 1844
by Mrs. Sarah Peters, the American wife of the British Consul in
Philadelphia, in her own house; later, the Franklin Institute assumed
charge of the classes until 1853, when it was incorporated, and a Board
of Directors elected. Its aim is to put art students in touch with
business demands, as well as to cultivate, to the highest degree, their
artistic ability. The Normal Art Course embodies all the special studies
required by modern educators for teachers of art and design, and with
courses in the fine arts, illustration, and costume illustration; has
trained many women, now earning handsome emoluments and winning
distinction. The residence on Broad Street, forming entrance to the
school, which occupies large buildings in the rear, was the home of
Edwin Forrest, a famous tragedian; the fine gallery which he erected to
house his collection of paintings, now at the Forrest Home for Actors at
Holmesburg, is used for annual exhibitions of the school’s painting
classes. Edwin Forrest died here in 1872 and John Sartain in 1897; John
Sartain was celebrated as a mezzotint engraver, and lived here with his
daughter, Miss Emily Sartain, then principal of the school, herself a
skilled painter, and engraver in mezzotint; who with her well chosen
faculty of eminent artists, carried to a prosperous fulfilment Mrs.
Peters’ initiative effort.
Pennsylvania Museum and School of Industrial Art was founded in 1876, as
a concrete embodiment of the lessons taught by the Centennial
Exhibition, and has developed forms of artistic craftsmanship that were
practically unknown in America. The Museum is housed in Memorial Hall,
Fairmount Park, memorial of the Centennial; Modern Renaissance;
architect, Herman J. Schwarzmann. Open free, Mondays, 12.00 M., other
days 9.30 A.M., closing 5.00 P.M., Sundays, 1.00 P.M. to 6.00 P.M.
Established as a museum of art in all its branches and technical
application, with a special view to the development of the art
industries of the state. Among its important collections are the W. P.
Wilstach paintings, about five hundred old masters, with their schools;
and contemporary international paintings, belonging to the City of
Philadelphia; with $700,000 endowment, interest to be used for their
care and increase, by the Commissioners of Fairmount Park; among the
many brilliant artists represented are, Whistler, Munkácsy, Sorolla,
Zuloago, Velasquez, the Barbizon, Italian, and Dutch Schools of
Landscape. The famous Bayeux tapestry is here; laces; vestments;
porcelains; enamels; carved ivories; period furniture; some of the Edwin
Atlee Barber collection of American pottery and porcelains; Lewis
collection of Swiss stained glass, sixteenth and seventeenth centuries;
Frishmuth collection of colonial antiquities. A Bureau of Identification
is maintained where art objects may be classified.
The school is at the northwest corner of Broad and Pine Streets; porch
of this building, facing Broad Street, is a fine example of Tuscan
architecture, erected, 1828. The school has forty instructors. Free
scholarships are given in each county of this state. This is the leading
school in America in associating the study of art with practical
training; through its equipment students not only design, but actually
manufacture; it includes a complete textile plant with looms, dye house,
and all related appliances which make possible the production of most
artistic fabrics; other courses are cast and wrought metal; furniture;
leather work; pottery; garden furniture in cement; mosaic; also the
Normal Art Courses, illustration; architectural drawing; modeling;
interior decoration; book binding. Classes are attended by men and
women, who pursue exactly the same studies. Graduates are sought to fill
lucrative positions as designers; artistic craftsmen; and art teachers.
Drexel Institute, Thirty-second and Chestnut Streets. A day and evening
technical school of Art, Science, and Industry for men and women;
founded by Anthony J. Drexel, 1891; Renaissance, brick; architects,
Wilson Brothers. The leading American and European current periodicals
relating to art, science, and technology are in the library. Art Gallery
contains collections owned by John D. Lankenau, works by modern German
masters, and Anthony J. Drexel, works of International, contemporary,
modern painters. The Museum, open free 10.00 A.M. to 5.00 P.M. daily,
except Sundays, includes examples of Industrial Art and the Decorative
Arts of India, Egypt, China, Japan, and Europe.
Graphic Sketch Club, 719 Catharine Street, founded by Samuel S. Fleisher
in 1899, to provide, free, an art center which should give the culture
craved by many intelligent young people, to whom it had been denied by
circumstances. The Club House is open only at night, Saturday
afternoons, and all day Sundays. This is an Art Club in effect, as well
as name; rooms are artistically furnished in beautiful color harmonies,
and embellished with choice bronzes bought at our Academy exhibitions,
and fine porcelains. Students are educated in art, for the practical
good it will do them, and cultural growth; all are day workers. The
faculty is composed of well known artists; classes include portrait and
still life painting; illustration and sculpture. From this school have
gone some of the most original workers in the schools of the Academy of
the Fine Arts. Landscape classes are in session during the summer.
Lectures are given on art or musical topics. Membership in the Club is
attained by attendance in the classes for three years.
Public Art School, Park Avenue and Master Street, founded by Charles G.
Leland, now under the direction of the Board of Public Education; open
to pupils in grammar grades of public schools. A course of study was
planned, including drawing, clay modeling, and wood carving, to train
students to originate design, and do the manual work as well, so that
the designer should be the artisan also.
Art Club, 220 South Broad Street. Annual exhibition of paintings and
sculpture, gold medal awarded; and special shows by individual artists.
Art Jury, City Hall, Philadelphia, created by Act of Legislature, 1907,
providing, “That in every city of first class, there shall be an Art
Jury, composed of the Mayor and eight others, of whom shall be, one
each, painter, sculptor, architect, and Park Commissioner, to pass upon
design and location of all buildings; bridges; arches; fountains; or
fixtures to be erected in the city.”
City Parks Association, City Hall.
Darby School of Painting, Fort Washington, Montgomery County. Outdoor
classes. Hugh H. Breckenridge, 10 South 18th Street, Philadelphia.
Fairmount Park Art Association, organized, 1871. 320 S. Broad Street.
Pennsylvania Society of Miniature Painters, organized, 1901. Annual fall
exhibition, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.
Philadelphia Chapter, American Institute of Architects, 1301 Stephen
Girard Building; organized, 1869.
The Philadelphia Sketch Club (men), 235 South Camac Street, organized,
1860. Annual fall exhibitions of members’ work; also special
exhibitions.
Philadelphia Water-Color Club, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts,
annual international exhibitions; also Traveling exhibitions of members’
work.
Plastic Club, women, 247 South Camac Street; organized, 1897. Annual and
special exhibitions; lectures, and sketch classes.
T-Square Club, 204 South Quince Street, founded, 1881. Annual
architectural exhibition; drafting; decorative painting; modeling; and
architecture in coöperation with Society of Beaux-Arts Architects, New
York City.
The D’Ascenzo Studios, for Stained Glass, 1604 Summer Street, founded
twenty years ago, include designing; painting; firing; and glazing; work
is begun and completed, in both modern and antique, with preference for
the antique school, for architectural fitness and conventionality; also
glass mosaic and mural decoration. D’Ascenzo’s art may be seen in many
important churches and buildings in this country; in the Chapel at
Valley Forge, and in Philadelphia may be mentioned St. Mark’s Protestant
Episcopal Church, Frankford; St. James’ Protestant Episcopal Church,
Twenty-second and Walnut Streets; St. Patrick’s Roman Catholic Church,
Twentieth and Locust Streets; Synagogue Rodeph Shalom, Philadelphia.
William Willet and Annie Lee Willet Studios, for Stained Glass, 226
South Eleventh Street, formerly of Pittsburgh. While all the world is
deploring the loss of the magnificent old glass in the cathedrals of
Europe, here the art of fused glass has been raised to such perfection
that their great windows have all that the old work has, of depth, glow,
and shadow, under modern conditions of stability; among their notable
windows are, the Sanctuary Window, West Point Military Chapel, New York;
Proctor Hall, the Graduate School, Princeton, New Jersey, great west
window; many in the churches and public buildings of Pittsburgh, Chicago
and elsewhere; in and near Philadelphia, in Summit Presbyterian Church,
Carpenter and West View Streets, Germantown; St. Michael’s Sanctuary
window, High Street, Germantown; John Chambers Memorial Church; The
Buchanan Memorial, St. Nathaniel’s Church, Kensington; the Harrison
Memorial; Holy Trinity Church, Nineteenth and Walnut; the Leta Sullivan
in the Assumption, Strafford.
Notable private art collections in Philadelphia, that may sometimes be
seen by writing for permit, which for variety and value, have few peers
are:
THE TRAGIC MUSE
From the Edward Hornor Coates Memorial Collection
Painted by Violet Oakley Courtesy of the Pennsylvania Academy of the
Fine Arts
P. A. B. Widener’s, several hundred choice and rare paintings, mostly
masterpieces of great artists of the Renaissance, and modern.
The W. L. Elkins; many fine examples of medieval and modern portraiture,
landscape and genre painting.
The John McFadden, best collection of solely eighteenth century English
paintings in this country.
The Edward T. Stotesbury, masterpieces of the English School and
international contemporary art.
Should these collections accompany the Wilstach, now in Memorial Hall,
to the Municipal Art Museum in Fairmount Park, now under construction,
it would begin its career with a wealth of paintings, more comprehensive
and valuable than any that ever inaugurated a similar institution, not
excepting the Louvre, Pitti, Dresden, National in London, and
Metropolitan, New York, which grew from small beginnings, thus placing
the highest products of art within equal and easy reach of all classes.
This Museum will constitute the central feature of a comprehensive plan
in progress, at the head of the Parkway, for a real art center, more
imposing in scale and impressive in its entire effect than any similar
art center in any American City. The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine
Arts has been granted a site facing the Fairmount Plaza, also the
Pennsylvania Museum and School of Industrial Art.
The First City Troop, Armory, Twenty-third Street, above Chestnut;
founded in 1778. An exclusive social organization. Oldest military
command in the United States in continuous active service; its
traditions of active service are as loyally preserved as its rights as
escort of the President, and other distinguished men. In the
Spanish-American War in 1898, “The Troop” was the first body of cavalry
landed at Porto Rico. The “Gentlemen of Philadelphia” met in
Independence Hall, November 17, 1774, and formed a company of cavalry
called, “The Light Horse of the City of Philadelphia”; they were
dismissed by Washington after the Revolution in 1778, and reorganized
immediately as the First City Troop; the Troop voted to give the
certificate of dismissal, signed by Washington, to their captain, Samuel
Morris; the paper is now in possession of the decendants of Elliston P.
Morris, of Germantown. Frankford Arsenal, Bridge and Tacony Streets;
local station, Bridesburg; open, free, daily, 7.45 A.M. to sunset.
Established, 1814; President Madison was at the opening exercises.
Lafayette stopped at the Arsenal in 1824. Here are complete small arms
cartridge factory equipment; artillery cartridge factory equipment; and
machine plant for the manufacture of inspecting instruments; sights for
cannon; range finders; and other instruments for fire control at the
fortifications, etc. Philadelphia Navy Yard, League Island, about 1000
acres; junction of Delaware and Schuylkill Rivers; deeded to the
National Government by the City of Philadelphia in 1868. Open to the
public daily between 9.00 A.M. and 4.00 P.M. Established about 1794 on
the Delaware River front, at Prime Street. A large number of the old
wooden ships of the Navy were built here, such as the ships of the line,
Franklin, Pennsylvania and North Carolina; frigates, United
States, Raritan, and Guerriere; sloops of war, Vandalia,
Germantown, and Dale; screw steamers, Princeton, Wabash, and
Lancaster; side wheel steamers, Mississippi and Susquehanna. At
present there are two dry docks; shops employ 2000 men; three large
barrack buildings for the use of marines stationed at the Yard
accommodate 1400 men. Admiral Benson, former Commandant, considers this
the best Navy Yard in the Government’s possession, being in the center
of coal and iron industries, within short haul, both by rail and water,
for all material required by a great navy yard; its nearness to great
private shipyards on the Delaware provides skilled mechanics in the art
of ship-building, and the fresh water feature, being unique, is of great
importance; barnacles accumulated in salt water drop off in fresh water,
simply by docking here for short periods. There is also a large Reserve
Basin called the Back Channel, where ships out of commission can be laid
up until wanted. The berthing facilities may be indefinitely extended by
constructing additional sea wall and piers. Fort Mifflin, below mouth of
the Schuylkill, has casement dungeons, and earthen banks of early
warfare, and was prominent in the Revolutionary War; designed and built
by Major Louis de Tousard in 1798. Now, in the magazines, ammunition
from government battleships is stored, before they enter the Navy Yard;
the magazines are surrounded by poles, on each pole is a lightning rod.
United States Naval Asylum, Gray’s Ferry Avenue below Bainbridge Street,
classic, marble; has Museum of Uniforms.
The earliest were connected with churches; some date almost from the
beginning of the city.
Baptist. Blockley Cemetery, Meeting-House Lane, between Lancaster Avenue
and Haverford Street; ground given, 1804. Church is at Fifty-third
Street and Wyalusing Avenue. Dunker, Germantown, on Germantown Avenue
above Sharpnack Street; oldest meeting-house of the German Baptists, or
Dunkers, in America; erected, 1770. Burial ground opened, 1793; in it
lie Alexander Mack, founder of the sect, and Harriet Livermore, the
“Pilgrim Stranger” of Whittier’s “Snow Bound.” Mennonite, Germantown
Avenue above Herman Street; church was built, 1770; many early
Germantown settlers are buried in the yard. Pennypack, or Lower Dublin,
Krewston Road near Pennypack Creek, one mile from Bustleton; here is
oldest Baptist church edifice in Pennsylvania, built about 1707; in the
old time graveyard are many curious moss covered tombstones.
Friends. When the graves are marked the stones are always small and
inconspicuous. Fairhill Meeting, Germantown Avenue and Cambria Street;
ground granted by William Penn; a large and beautiful old cemetery and
near “Fairhill,” the great Norris estate. The Meeting House, Fourth and
Arch Streets, was built in 1804, but the ground was used for burials
many years before; it is one of the oldest cemeteries in Philadelphia.
Some of the most prominent citizens of very early days lie here with
nothing to mark their resting-place; it is computed that twenty thousand
persons are interred here.
Jewish. Mikveh Israel, on Spruce Street, near Ninth; ground was granted
to Nathan Levy by John Penn in 1738; here lies the beautiful Rebecca
Gratz, original of Rebecca in Scott’s “Ivanhoe.” In August, 1913, the
little burial ground was opened for the interment of her grandniece, the
first burial for thirty years. Mount Sinai, Frankford Avenue, near
Bridge Street, has imposing entrance, erected, 1854.
Lutheran. St. Michael’s, Germantown Avenue and Phil-Ellena Street, joins
the church built about 1730; a notable grave, with flat marble stone
resting on four columns, is that of Christopher Ludwig, “baker general”
to the American army during the Revolution.
Methodist. St. Paul’s, Catharine Street near Sixth. Church is now used
as an Italian mission; has a small graveyard.
Presbyterian. Of First and Third Churches, Southwest corner of Fourth
and Pine Streets, First Church, Seventh and Locust Streets, has the
eastern section. When the First Church abandoned its old Market Street
site for the present locality, the bodies were moved whenever possible,
and many of the old headstones were inserted in the south wall of the
new graveyard. The Third Church, called “Old Pine,” divides the grounds,
using the west section; both are most interesting, with many people of
note interred, including David Rittenhouse; William Hurry, who is said
to have rung the Liberty Bell when proclaiming independence; Dr. William
Shippen, Director General of Hospitals during the war for Independence;
many Revolutionary soldiers; and Captain Charles Ross of the First City
Troop.
Protestant Episcopal. All Saints, Bristol Turnpike, Torresdale.
Established 1772-73, when the first church edifice was built. Christ
Church has two burialgrounds, one attached to the church on Second
Street, North of Market, dating from the earliest days of the church,
the other southeast corner of Fifth and Arch Streets, where first
interment was made in 1730; graves of Benjamin Franklin and Deborah, his
wife, are in the northwest corner; may be seen from Arch Street through
an iron railing set in the brick wall; in these graveyards are buried
many distinguished Americans; among them Peyton Randolph, first
President of the Continental Congress; Commodores Truxton, Biddle,
Bainbridge, and Dale; Robert Morris; several signers of the Declaration
of Independence; Dr. Benjamin Rush, Dr. Philip Syng Physick, Bishop
White, and Dr. William Augustus Muhlenberg. Gloria Dei (Old Swedes’),
Front and Swanson Streets, south of Christian; church built, 1700, being
the oldest church building in Philadelphia; a most interesting graveyard
surrounds it; the celebrated ornithologist, Alexander Wilson, is buried
here. St. James, Kingsessing, Sixty-eighth Street and Paschall Avenue;
church erected, 1762; General Josiah Harmer, of the Revolution, is
buried in the graveyard. St. James the Less, Hunting Park Avenue and
Clearfield Street; this beautiful little Gothic church, brownstone,
built 1847, has a number of fine monuments in the burial ground; John
Wanamaker is buried here. St. Luke’s, Germantown Avenue and Coulter
Street, church dates from 1818; the famous Philadelphia annalist, John
Fanning Watson, is interred in the churchyard. St. Peter’s, southwest
corner of Third and Pine Streets; in the graveyard lies the body of
Commodore Stephen Decatur, the grave surmounted by an Ionic column
supporting an American eagle; other notable names here are Chew,
Cadwalader, Mifflin, Binney, Biddle, Peale, Waln, Meade, McCall, Duché,
Norris, Kuhn, Montgomery. Trinity, Oxford, near Fox Chase, east of old
Second Street Pike; present church dates from 1711; began as a log
meeting house, 1698; tombstones date as early as 1708; the inscriptions
on some are quaint and original.
Roman Catholic. Holy Trinity, northwest corner of Sixth and Spruce
Streets, dates from 1789; on the old tombstones may be deciphered names
of many of the early German and French inhabitants of Philadelphia.
Stephen Girard was buried here until 1851, later his body was removed to
Girard College. Most Holy Redeemer, Richmond Street, opposite Hedley
Street, Bridesburg; many of the Redemptorist Fathers are buried here.
North Cedar Hill, Frankford Avenue corner of Foust Street, incorporated,
1857; a soldiers’ monument to the Civil War soldiers from Frankford is
in the older part. Crispin, Holmesburg; contains grave of Thomas Holme,
who laid out the city of Philadelphia; plot is under care of the Crispin
Association, formed of descendants of Holme. Glenwood, Ridge Avenue and
Twenty-seventh Street, opened, 1850, has notable monument of the Scott
Legion Association, formed among the surviving soldiers of the Mexican
War. Greenwood, Asylum Pike and Arrott Street, Frankford; established,
1869, by the benevolent order of the Knights of Pythias, as a burial
place for members and their families; occupies the “Mount Airy” estate,
once residence of Commodore Stephen Decatur. Hood, or “The Lower Burial
Ground,” on Germantown Avenue at Logan Street, opened in 1693, having
been presented to the borough of Germantown by Jan Streepers. Many early
settlers of Germantown lie here; among them Frederic William Post, the
Moravian missionary to the Indians, and Condy Raguet, founder of the
Saving Fund in Philadelphia; in 1847, William Hood built the front
entrance, of Pennsylvania marble, the wall and railing. Ivy Hill, East
Mount Airy Avenue, above Stenton Avenue, chartered, 1867; about 80
acres; the Second Baptist Church has removed to Ivy Hill about 300
bodies from its old burial place on New Market Street; an imposing
monument is here in memory of David Lyle, Chief Engineer of the
Volunteer Fire Department from 1859-67. North Laurel Hill, East bank of
Schuylkill River and Ridge Avenue, organized, 1835; formerly “Laurel,”
country seat of Joseph Sims. “Fairy Hill,” seat of Pepper family, now
Central Laurel Hill, and “Harleigh,” William Rawle’s place, now South
Laurel Hill; historic dead and artistic monuments fill these cemeteries;
Commodores Murray and Hull, General George Gordon Meade, and Mrs.
Cornelius Stevenson, “Peggy Shippen” of the Ledger, are among those
who lie here; the Lea Memorial, sculptor A. Sterling Calder, is very
beautiful, the chapel is early English. Just across the Schuylkill
River, on Belmont Avenue, at Pencoyd Station, is West Laurel Hill,
opened in 1869. General Herman Haupt is among those buried here.
Monument, Broad Street and Montgomery Avenue, was laid out by Dr. John
A. Elkinton in 1836; an obelisk monument, on a pedestal, erected, 1859,
in honor of Washington and Lafayette, was designed by John Sartain,
artist, who is buried near base of shaft. Mount Moriah, Sixty-second
Street and Kingsessing Avenue, opened, 1855; has grave of Betsy Ross,
over which a flag floats perpetually. Mount Peace, Lehigh Avenue and
Thirty-first Street, was originally country seat of the Ralston family,
known as Mount Peace estate. Mount Vernon, Ridge and Lehigh Avenues,
opposite Laurel Hill, chartered, 1856; the Gardel monument was long
considered handsomest in the country. National Cemetery, Haines Street
and Limekiln Pike, land acquired by the United States Government in
1885, it is well wooded, and the grounds are laid out with flowering
plants; about 2700 Union soldiers are buried here; their graves marked
by long rows of small granite slabs, bearing their names and the States
from which they came. Soldiers of three wars lie here; a granite
monument, erected by the United States, marks the burial place of 184
Confederate soldiers and sailors. Palmer, at Palmer, Belgrade, and
Memphis Streets, owes its origin to Anthony Palmer; in 1730, he
purchased a large tract of land in “The Northern Liberties,” on which he
laid out a town and named it Kensington; his daughter carried out his
wishes, and bequeathed ground for a burial place for those living in
Kensington. Ronaldson’s, Tenth and Fitzwater Streets, now neglected,
was founded by James Ronaldson in 1826 as a burial place in which
persons of moderate means could find a grave without any of the
restrictions which attended interments in the churchyards; he gave the
ground, almost a city square, decorated it with trees and shrubbery; so
beautifully was it kept that it was considered “The model burial place
of the City,” until the opening of Laurel Hill. Upper Burial Ground, or
Ax’s, Germantown Avenue near Washington Lane. John Frederick Ax was
caretaker from 1724-56; many early settlers are buried here, the oldest
known grave being that of Cornelius Tyson, who died in 1716; there are
also graves of some American soldiers and officers, killed in the Battle
of Germantown; over them, John Fanning Watson placed a marble headstone.
Woodlands, Thirty-ninth Street and Woodland Avenue, was in early times
the country seat of William Hamilton, known as “The Woodlands”; acquired
by Woodlands Cemetery Company in 1840. Many distinguished men and women
are buried here, among them Commodore Thomas Stewart, who commanded the
Constitution in 1812; General John Stewart, Major Generals D. B.
Birney and Abercrombie of the Civil War; Rembrandt Peale; William K.
Hewitt and P. F. Rothermel, Artists; John Davenport, Actor; Colonel
Thomas A. Scott and J. Edgar Thomson; Frank and Louise Stockton; Dr. S.
Weir Mitchell and Anthony J. Drexel.
Among the eight hundred and five churches in Philadelphia, are:
The Philadelphia Baptist, whose Association celebrated its two
hundredth and tenth anniversary in 1917. First Church, Seventeenth
Street below Chestnut, open daily, is a consistent example of Byzantine
architecture with American modifications; stone; architect, Edgar V.
Seeler. Windows made by Heinecke & Bowen are copies of the Byzantine
leaded glass; lights and shadows in drapery are all done with leaded
strips of glass, not painted. Temple, Broad and Berks Streets, famous on
account of its pastor, Rev. Russell H. Conwell, was dedicated, 1901; at
that time it was the largest church edifice in the United States,
excepting the Mormon Temple at Salt Lake City; auditorium seats 3135
people: Romanesque, with two low towers on the front, surmounted by
large copper domes, which give an Oriental touch; architect, Thomas
Lonsdale. Fine rose window in front, said to have been made by John
LaFarge; other windows are by J. & R. Lamb and R. S. Groves: the
Hope-Jones organ, built by the Rudolph Wurlitzer Company, is one of the
largest in this country; it has all the orchestral accompaniments.
Tabernacle, Chestnut and Fortieth Streets, Gothic, stone, has a window
by William Willet. There are about one hundred Baptist churches in
Philadelphia.
Christian Science. First Church of Christ Scientist, Walnut Street near
Fortieth; Spanish architecture.
Congregational. Central, Eighteenth and Green Streets, Gothic, stone,
built in 1872; architect, D. Supplee; organized in 1864; first services
were held in old Concert Hall, 1217 Chestnut Street, afterwards used as
first Free Library Building; sermon “Recognition,” was preached by Rev.
Henry Ward Beecher; other sermons of early days, by Richard S. Storrs,
D.D. About nine or ten churches of this denomination are in
Philadelphia.
Friends’ or Quaker Meeting-Houses.
“What dignity breathes from the lofty space
And amplitude of hospitality
In these old-fashioned Quaker shrines!
Most friendly seems the long, high, sturdy roof,
Most friendly the all-welcoming old walls
Seen through the sheltering trees.
O mighty oaks and noble sycamores,
With trunks moss-silvered and with lichened limb,
Breathe soft to me the storied memories
And treasured records of the long rich years
That blessed the meeting-houses.”
(From “Old Meeting-Houses,”
by John Russell Hayes.)
For more than one hundred years there has been no change in the general
style of architecture; before that time, the earliest meeting-house in
Philadelphia, at Second and Market Streets, was built with a central
lantern or cupola; probably copied from a meeting-house of similar form
in Burlington, New Jersey, built, 1682; where the yearly meeting for New
Jersey and Pennsylvania was first held: later it met alternately at
Philadelphia and Burlington, but since 1750 in Philadelphia, Fourth and
Arch Streets. One of the most interesting old meeting-houses, built in
1696, is at Merion, near Narberth Station, Pennsylvania Railroad, in
which William Penn preached; another, that he attended, is the old
Haverford, built in the early eighteenth century, near Cobb’s Creek,
opposite St. Dennis Roman Catholic Church. Radnor and Plymouth are also
interesting old houses; all these last named are now owned by the
Hicksite Branch of Quakers, who also own over seventy other
meeting-houses throughout the state. Among those owned by the Orthodox
Branch within Philadelphia are the Fourth and Arch Streets, not only the
most important, but of great charm architecturally; it is very large and
stands on ground originally given by William Penn to George Fox, and by
the latter to Friends in America; and may be taken as typical of the
later and best Quaker architecture; built in 1804, following the style
of the pre-Revolutionary days of the houses just named, but adapted in
material and size to the increased numbers worshiping within; it is of
brick, set in ample grounds, with abundant shade; the ground about it,
and much also covered now by the building and by Arch Street, is a very
old burial ground, filled over several times. James Logan is buried
under the pavement of Arch Street. Twelfth Street Meeting-House, brick,
built in 1812, is second in importance, and one of the most beautiful
bits in old Philadelphia. The oak timbers in its roof are said to have
come from the “Great Meeting-House,” which succeeded that with the
cupola at Second and Market Streets; oak timbers are also exposed with
good effect in the upper room of the Arch Street house; the two houses
are of the same general type and severely plain, but form, together with
that at Sixth and Noble Streets, a most dignified trio of places for
worship; remarkable for true proportion and dignity of outline, they are
typical of the wealth and solidity of the Friends at their most
flourishing period. The Meeting House, Sixth and Noble Streets, known
as “North Meeting,” once accommodating a large congregation, has been
reduced in members by removals; the Yearly Meeting has therefore taken
over its use as an adjunct to the settlement work, carried on by Friends
at “Noble House.”
Jewish. Rosh Hashana, or the Jewish New Year’s Day, is the oldest
festival celebrated in the civilized world, 1917 will usher in the year
5678; it commences the great series of fall holidays: ten days later is
“Yom Kippur,” the Day of Atonement, most sacred of the year, when the
Jews fast from sunset to sunset and attend the synagogues, and a week
later “Succoth,” corresponding to our Thanksgiving Day, which lasts a
week. The principal synagogues are Adath-Jeshurun, Broad Street above
Diamond, Egyptian; limestone and brick; architects, Churchman, Thomas &
Molitar, has leaded glass windows by Nicolo D’Ascenzo. Keneseth Israel,
Broad Street above Columbia Avenue, Italian Renaissance, brick with
limestone trimmings; architect, Hickman. Mikveh Israel, Broad and York
Streets, organized, 1747; moved from Seventh Street near Arch; French
Renaissance, limestone; architects, Pitcher & Tachau. Rodeph Shalom,
southeast corner of Broad and Mt. Vernon Streets, Moorish, sandstone;
built, 1869; architects, Furness & Evans; has leaded glass windows by
Nicolo D’Ascenzo.
Lutheran. The Theological Seminary of Philadelphia, 7301 Germantown
Avenue, was founded in 1864; removed to present location, 1889; site,
residence of Chief Justice Allen; afterwards a military school of some
distinction, “Mount Airy College.” The administration building was
erected by James Gowen for a residence in 1848, and adapted to the wants
of the Seminary; on the grounds are twelve buildings, including Krauth
Memorial Library, perpendicular Gothic, stone, built, 1908; contains
portraits; the Refectory, once residence of the Miller family, built,
1792, colonial; and the Ashmead-Schaeffer Memorial Chapel, Gothic,
stone. St. Michael’s, Germantown Avenue and Phil-Ellena Street, first
church, built, 1730; British soldiers took refuge in the church and
demolished the organ during the Battle of Germantown; corner-stone of
present church laid, 1896. Old St. Johns, Race Street between Fifth and
Sixth, first English Lutheran Church in America, colonial, brick;
congregation organized in 1806, largely through efforts of General Peter
Muhlenberg; contains a fine oil portrait by John Neagle, painted in
1853, of Dr. Philip F. Mayer, first pastor 1806-58; and woodcarvings in
front of the gallery by William Rush. Zion (German), Franklin Street
above Race, Romanesque, brownstone, built, 1870, moved from southeast
corner of Fourth and Cherry, founded 1766; a memorial service was held
here for Washington in 1799, by General Charles Lee. The Mary J. Drexel
Home and Philadelphia Motherhouse of Deaconesses, Twenty-first Street
and South College Avenue, modified Gothic with numerous towers, brick
trimmed with sandstone, built, 1888; provides a training school for
Deaconesses of the Lutheran Church; home for the aged and a children’s
hospital; a Gothic chapel on the second floor, has altar cloths from
Neuendettelsau, Bavaria; and stained glass by Meyer, Munich; portraits
of the Lankenau and Drexel families are here, and an Italian marble
bust of Mr. Lankenau by Moses Ezekiel of Rome.
Methodist. Saint George’s, 229 North Fourth Street, oldest Methodist
church in the world, used continuously for worship; dedicated, 1769;
Bishop Francis Asbury preached his first sermon in America here; three
memorial tablets mark the front: to John Dickens, founder of the
Methodist Book Concern, buried rear of the church, in 1798; to Ezekiel
Cooper, his successor, buried in front, and one commemorating the first
Methodist Conference in America, held in this church July 14, 1773.
Calvary, Forty-eighth Street and Baltimore Avenue, Gothic, stone, has
mural painting, “Sermon on the Mount,” by H. Hanley Parker, and two
Tiffany windows. Other Methodist Episcopal churches with good
architecture are, Arch Street, Broad and Arch Streets, Gothic, white
marble, and Grace, Broad and Master Streets, Renaissance.
Presbyterian. First Church, Seventh and Locust Streets, facing
Washington Square; oldest Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia, founded,
1699; present building erected, 1820, classic, brick, rough cast; with
Ionic porch; architect, Theophilus P. Chandler: contains Paxton memorial
window by Frederick Wilson, interesting old tablets, and a copy of
Calvin’s “Institutes.” Second Church, Twenty-first and Walnut Streets,
French Gothic, with early English detail; erected, 1872; architect,
Henry Sims; Richmond granite is used in the base, the walls are of
Trenton stone, Cleveland sandstone for tracery of windows and moulding
of doors, with red sandstone, blue sandstone, and green serpentine for
special parts, in contrasts of color and decorative effects: interior is
faced with buff-colored brick imported from Raubon, Wales: the richly
ornamented pulpit is of Caen stone. Windows, a double one, by John
LaFarge; seven representing old Testament subjects, by Tiffany; and five
apse windows from England. Scotts, Broad Street below Morris, founded,
1766: third oldest organization in the Philadelphia Presbytery; is still
under its original charter; original church was at Fourth and Bainbridge
Streets, later on at Spruce Street above Third; Louis Philippe lived in
the parsonage during his residence in Philadelphia in 1796; John Purdon,
father of Purdon’s Digest, was its first elder; President John Adams
attended the church. Old Pine Street Church, Fourth and Pine Streets,
classic, brick, rough-cast, with Corinthian porch; erected, 1857, one of
the walls being that of the original church built in 1768; the first
pastor, George Duffield, was chaplain of all the Pennsylvania militia,
and also served as chaplain of the First Continental Congress after
Jacob Duché; he was with Washington during the retreat through New
Jersey; was in the battles of Princeton and Trenton, and the British
offered a price of 50 pounds sterling for his head; he is buried under
the central aisle of the lecture room, and his portrait is in
Independence Hall: John Adams, when President, was a communicant here;
when the British occupied the city, they used this church as a hospital;
pews and other woodwork were burned as fuel, and later the church was
used by the dragoons to stable their horses. Holland Memorial, Broad and
Federal Streets, Romanesque; buff Massillon stone, with red sandstone
trimmings, from the Ballaclunyle quarries of Scotland; architect, David
S. Grendell; windows by Tiffany, in the south arcade, are from originals
by Frederick Wilson; other windows are by Alfred Godwin and Maitland &
Armstrong; there are four large rose windows, in one, the patriarch
Joshua stands in the center, clad in full armor; color scheme is based
upon the rose window of Saint Chapelle, Paris; makers, William and Annie
Lee Willet: under each window is a group of five arcade windows, some of
them copies from originals of Sir Edwin Burne-Jones, for windows in
Brighton and Salisbury Cathedrals. Tabernacle, Thirty-seventh and
Chestnut Streets, is one of the finest Gothic church edifices in
Philadelphia, in decorative English style, with tower 130 feet high,
erected, 1886; granite, with Indiana limestone for tracery of windows
and doors; no wood being used in its construction, it thus resembles the
cathedrals of the old world; chapel is connected with the manse by a
cloistered porch. West Arch Street, Eighteenth and Arch Streets, Roman
classic, with dome 170 feet above the ground, stone, plastered; has fine
Corinthian porch. Market Square, Germantown, founded, 1738: President
Washington worshiped here, while living opposite in the old Morris
house, during the yellow fever epidemic in Philadelphia in 1793; during
the battle of Germantown, a battalion of Virginians, prisoners of the
English, were lodged in this church; the old bell, cast, 1725, which was
in the shingle roof steeple of the old church, is still intact, and
preserved as a relic; also the “Trumpet angels in their gold array,”
part of the original organ from Holland: present building, French
Gothic, stone, was erected in 1886.
The Witherspoon Building, Walnut Street below Broad, has sculpture by A.
Stirling Calder and Samuel Murray.
Protestant Episcopal. St. Alban’s, Olney, consecrated, 1915; decorated
French Gothic; buttresses run up to above the cornice line, ending in
gables with crockets and finials; there is a belfry tower and porch;
interior lines are very beautiful; the high arches and lofty piers give
an impression of great dignity and simplicity, well adapted for
rendering the services, with all the accompaniment of advanced
churchmanship; architect, George T. Pearson. Christ Church, Second
Street north of Market; first Protestant Episcopal Church in the
province; hours of service, September to July, Sundays 10.00 A.M., 11.00
A.M., 3.30 P.M., open daily 9.00 A.M. to 3.00 P.M.; founded in 1695,
under a provision in the original charter of King Charles II to William
Penn. John Penn, last male member of this line, is buried near the steps
of the pulpit. Present building, Georgian, erected 1747; Dr. John
Kearsley, Building Director; the old roof, its wooden balustrade with
carved spindles, and the steeple are ever of interest to architects and
antiquarians.
Here the colonial governors had their state pew, marked by coat of arms,
bearing the monogram of William and Mary; the parish was subsidized by
King William III, William of Orange; Communion silver presented in 1709
by Queen Anne; baptismal font dates from 1695, and was used for the
baptism of Bishop White in infancy. The chime of bells pealed forth the
Declaration of Independence, in response to the Liberty Bell, July 8,
1776; they were made in England, and came over in the same ship with the
Liberty Bell, were taken to Allentown with the Liberty Bell, and
subsequently rehung; are referred to by Longfellow in “Evangeline.”
George and Martha Washington regularly occupied pew 58 from 1790-97; it
was also the official pew of John Adams while President, and was used by
Lafayette in 1824; Franklin had pew 70, still used by his descendants;
Robert Morris’ pew was 52; Francis Hopkinson’s, 65. General Charles Lee,
of the Continental Army, is interred beside the southwest door, and near
by is General Hugh Mercer; Rt. Rev. William White, D.D., first Bishop of
Pennsylvania and long Presiding Bishop of the United States, is interred
before the chancel rail, and his Episcopal chair is beside the altar.
The church was organized; its constitution framed; and the amended
Prayer Book adopted in this church, in 1785; Bishop White and Provost
William Smith, D.D., were the Committee for revising and altering the
liturgy of the English Prayer Book, for use in America. Rev. Jacob Duché
was rector for many years. Windows illustrate the history of the
Christian Church; made by Heaton, Butler and Bains. St. Clement’s,
Twentieth and Cherry Streets, Norman Gothic, brownstone, built, 1857;
architect, John Notman; new roof of nave, apse, and high altar; choir
and lady chapel; architect, Horace Wells Sellers; the sanctuary is
beautifully designed, with effect heightened by a magnificent reredos;
artist, Frederick Wilson of Briarcliff, New York, leaded glass of apse,
and lady chapel, by Alfred Godwin,
BISHOP WILLIAM WHITE
Painted by Gilbert Stuart Courtesy of the Pennsylvania Academy of the
Fine Arts
Philadelphia. St. Elizabeth’s, corner of Sixteenth and Mifflin Streets,
early Italian, with high Campanile; medieval exterior and interior give
an exact idea of old Italian churches; brick; architects, Bailey and
Bassett; the choir is raised eight steps from the nave, giving view of
the crypt, and dignified elevation of the high altar; over the altar is
a copy of Correggio’s “Marriage of St. Catharine”; fine jeweled door of
the Pyx on the altar; Lady chapel has an altar of richly carved and
gilded wood, finished with a high reredos, copy of an original in Santo
Spirito, Florence; paintings set in are copies of works by Fra Filipo
Lippi. Church of the Evangelist, now part of Graphic Sketch Club,
Catharine Street above Seventh, brick, is a gem of medievalism; Italian
Basilican style; red brick, relieved by stone trimmings; pillars of
portico rest on backs of lions; architects, Furness & Evans; frescoes by
Nicolo d’Ascenzo and by Robert Henri; original compositions and
adaptations of great paintings in Italy; font, late English Gothic, with
a richly carved stone; above it is the Strasbourg window, containing a
figure of the prophet, Jonas; this piece of glass, before the
Franco-Prussian War, was in the Cathedral of Strasbourg, and was taken
from one of the windows after the Germans had directed their fire on the
church and smashed the glass: paving of the Chapel of the Holy Sepulchre
is of Mercer tiles; Rood screen of polished marble, is modeled after
that at St. Marco, Venice; Altar rail modeled after that in a chapel at
Monreale, Sicily; the reredos, of the high altar, is a copy of a famous
altar-piece by Carlo Crivelli; original now in the National Gallery,
London. Gloria Dei (Old Swedes’), on land given by Swan Swanson, corner
of Front and Swanson Streets, near Christian Street; formerly Wecacoa
(Indian name for pleasant place); was dedicated in 1700. Georgian
architecture, with steep pitched roof; brick work of walls, Flemish
bond, headers coated with vitreous, blue black glaze, doubtless the arch
bricks in the kiln; great square windows. Erected by the Swedish
Lutherans; after the Revolution, care of the Swedish churches was
committed to the American Church, and became part of the Diocese of
Pennsylvania. This congregation first worshiped in a block house, used
also as a fortress from 1677; the font used then is still in the present
church. Holy Trinity, Nineteenth and Walnut Streets; Norman Romanesque;
architect, John Notman; has fine memorial windows. St. James,
Twenty-second and Walnut Streets, founded, 1807; present building,
English decorated Gothic with sculptured band around the tower, from
which rises the graceful memorial spire; Ohio green sandstone and
granite, built, 1870; architect, G. W. Hewitt: pulpit; altar; reredos of
fine perpendicular work in Caen stone, rich in ornamentation and
sculpture, which also extends around the chancel, with two marble
pilasters having delicately carved capitals; all designed by Cram,
Goodhue and Ferguson; mosaics of the twelve apostles, in the walls of
the nave, suggest those of the Popes in the Church of St. Paul, outside
the walls, in Rome; leaded glass by Nicolo d’Ascenzo; font has a
bas-relief in white marble, angel scattering flowers, made in Florence,
Italy. St. James the Less, near main entrance to Laurel Hill Cemetery;
thirteenth century Gothic; brownstone; once said to be the choicest
specimen of church architecture in the United States. St. John
Chrysostom, corner Twenty-eighth Street and Susquehanna Avenue, almost
an exact copy of St. Stephen’s Church, London, designed by Sir
Christopher Wren; Renaissance, granite; architects, Bailey & Bassett;
adapted to a square lot, the interior shows form of Greek cross, with
inner octagon; rosettes and decorations of the dome are graceful and
beautiful; columns, placed on rather high pedestals, are Vermont marble,
with very beautiful veining, surmounted by Corinthian capitals: the
church is almost entirely white, with no stained glass, and gives an
impression of complete harmony. St. Mark’s, Locust Street above
Sixteenth, built, 1849; fine specimen of fourteenth century, decorated
Gothic, brownstone; plans furnished by the Ecclesiological Society of
Cambridge, England; modified by John Notman; altar and reredos are
richly carved stone; also the pulpit and choir screen; notable features
are the rood beam, with cross and figures; carved sanctuary door; choir
and clergy stalls; the altar at head of north aisle is alabaster. Lady
chapel, erected, 1900, contains a silver altar of elaborate
magnificence, probably finest in the world, of the same style as the one
at Florence, Italy, by Pallajnoli, but richer, containing twelve scenes
from the life of the Virgin, and studded with precious stones, some four
hundred emeralds, sapphires, and opals, a monumental work, which will
remain a very splendid presentation of twentieth century English
ecclesiastical art; altar rail is silver and bronze; stained glass
windows in the church are notable; the sacred vessels and vestments
surpass any in the Anglican Communion, in their extraordinary richness;
silver processional cross is supposed to be that of the Palermo
Cathedral, in 1520; among old vestments are the coronation robes of
Louis XV from Rheims Cathedral, of light blue velvet, heavily
embroidered with twenty-two karat gold bullion. The first curate was the
Rev. Morgan Dix, ordained priest in this church, who became the famous
rector of Trinity Church, New York. St. Mary’s, 3916 Locust Street, on
ground given by William Hamilton, of Woodlands; first Protestant
Episcopal Church in West Philadelphia, organized, 1820; frame church
erected, 1824; Bishop White laid the corner-stone; present building,
Gothic, consecrated, 1890. Memorial Gothic altar, retable, and reredos
are from famous studios in Rome, Italy, said to be the finest example of
ecclesiastical mosaic work in this country: windows are from London,
Paris, Munich, and Philadelphia. Rev. Thomas C. Yarnall celebrated his
fiftieth anniversary as rector of St. Mary’s in 1894. St. Paul’s, east
side of Third Street, below Walnut; classic; erected, 1761; third
Protestant Episcopal Church in Philadelphia and largest in the province;
now headquarters of the City Mission. The General Convention met here in
1814, when Bishop Moore of Virginia was consecrated; Bishop Hobart
preached the sermon. St. Paul’s Club, 411 Spruce Street, makes a
specialty of giving aid to the down and out drunkard, sobering him up,
fitting him for a job, and getting him one; in the five years of its
existence to 1917, it has registered 45,000 transient visitors and
temporary guests on its books. St. Peter’s, corner of Third and Pine
Streets, second church erected in Philadelphia, fine example of Georgian
architecture, in beauty of line; brick; built, 1761; tower and spire,
218 feet high, were added, 1842; stone finials of gateposts were cut in
England; present wall erected in 1784, after the old wooden fence had
been taken for fuel by the British. Interior still retains the
high-backed box pews, President Washington’s among them, pew 41; the
pulpit, surmounting the clerk’s desk, soars upward at the far end,
opposite the altar; Provost William Smith preached the consecration
sermon; very beautiful stained glass by Myeres, London; remarkable for
richness of color and design; many interesting relics in the church’s
history are in the sacristy. Church of the Saviour, Thirty-eighth Street
above Chestnut, architect, C. M. Burns, has a splendidly impressive
chancel; decoration by Edwin Howland Blashfield and furnishings are
memorial to Anthony J. Drexel. Memorial window by William and Annie Lee
Willet, “Christ and Nicodemus,” has strong decorative quality and
richness of color. South Memorial, Church of the Advocate, Eighteenth
and Diamond Streets, French Gothic, suggested by Amiens Cathedral;
built, 1897; stone; architect, Charles M. Burns; interior profusely
adorned with carving, and sixty-five stained glass windows by Clayton
and Bell, London. St. Stephen’s, Tenth Street above Chestnut; founded,
1823; early Gothic, with two octagonal towers; stone; designed by
William Strickland; contains notable sculpture; the Burd Memorial,
“Angel of the Resurrection,” finest Italian marble, by Carl Steinhauser,
native of Bremen, who studied in Rome under Thorwaldsen; and recumbent
effigy of Colonel Burd; also font by Steinhauser, represents three
cherubs supporting on their wings a large marble bowl, with sculpture in
relief; the church, decorated by Frank Furness, with color, rich and
unusual, sets off admirably the beauty of the memorial marbles; the
stately reredos, with its brilliant Venetian mosaic picture, “The Last
Supper,” was made in 1889, by Salviati, Venice, from cartoons by Henry
Holiday, London, and under his own supervision; large double window in
transept also by Holiday; a Tiffany window is, “Christ Among the
Lilies,” the only flower He mentions in the Evangels, and accepted as
symbol of the resurrection; the window, showing the angel sitting on the
edge of the tomb with partly unfolded wings, is copy of a picture by
Axel Ender, over the altar of a church in Molde, Northern Norway; near
the reredos is “The Angel of Purity,” sculptor Augustus Saint Gaudens,
which suggests his “Amor, Caritas,” owned by the French Government, now
in the Luxembourg; here is also a bas-relief by Charles Grafley of Dr.
David D. Wood, organist of St. Stephen’s for forty-six years; the great
organ was built by C. T. Haskell, Philadelphia, in consultation with Dr.
Wood; pipes were voiced in the church, resulting in a sweetness and just
proportion of tone; its echo organ, located about two hundred feet away,
is in the loft over the chancel. Parish house is on site of the old
graveyard, tombstones are in pavement of cloister; architect, George C.
Mason, Jr. Trinity, Oxford, Oxford Road and Second Street Pike;
colonial; founded, 1698. Present brick church erected 1711-12; the
transepts and tower later; was the first house of worship in
Pennsylvania, owned and occupied by the Quakers, and presented by them
to the Church of England, for Episcopal use and worship. Chalice and
paten sent by Queen Anne, engraved “Anne Regina,” 1713; she died in
1714, it is probably the last one she sent to America, and has been used
in every Holy Communion for over two centuries. Tiffany altar window,
“The Baptism of Christ.” The altar, of walnut and oak, is beautifully
carved. This is the mother of many flourishing missions, St. Luke’s,
Germantown; Our Saviour, Jenkintown; St. Mark’s, Frankford; Emmanuel,
Holmesburg; Holy Trinity, Rockledge; and Trinity Chapel, Crescentville;
today it stands, vigorous and full of life, in its old age, greatly
enlarged and carefully restored; the utmost care has been taken to
disturb none of the old walls, and to keep the historic features intact;
the glass, in the body of the church, is an opaque yellow, harmonizing
with the colonial buff of the walls and barrel ceiling. The churchyard
is of great interest, one stone, dated, 1686, is said to mark the grave
of an Indian.
The Reformed Church in the United States, which brought its beautiful
and significant emblem, “The lily among thorns,” from the fatherland, is
derived from the Reformed Churches of Switzerland and Germany; these
churches are largely to be found in the counties east of the Susquehanna
River. William Penn’s mother, Margaret Jasper, was reared in this faith;
noted members who came here were Michael Schlatter, in 1746, from St.
Gall, Switzerland; sent to establish an ecclesiastical organization; he
was practically the first superintendent of public instruction in
Pennsylvania; died, 1790, and was buried in the Reformed graveyard in
Philadelphia, now Franklin Square; Colonel Henry Bouquet, from
Switzerland, proved the saviour of the early settlers in Pontiac’s war
and obtained the restoration of all captives to their homes; three
hundred and seventy were brought back; and Baron von Steuben, who had
served on the staff of Frederick the Great at the siege of Prague,
drilled our men into efficiency to cope with the British regulars; later
he commanded at the Siege of Yorktown, which he pressed so vigorously
that Cornwallis was obliged to surrender. Zion Reformed Church at
Allentown sheltered our Liberty Bell and the Christ Church bells during
the Revolution; among their thirty churches in Philadelphia and
vicinity, of Gothic architecture, stone, are the First Church, Fiftieth
and Locust Streets; oldest of this denomination in Philadelphia; moved
from Tenth and Wallace Streets; Palatinate, Fifty-sixth Street and
Girard Avenue; St. John’s, Fortieth and Spring Garden Streets; and
Trinity, northeast corner of Broad and Venango Streets. There are also
five churches of the Dutch Reformed.
Roman Catholic. The churches of this denomination are all notable for
good architecture, interior sumptuous, ecclesiastical decoration.
Cathedral of SS. Peter and Paul, finely situated on Logan Square and the
Parkway; Classic Renaissance, brownstone; built 1846-64; architect,
Napoleon LeBrun; “The Crucifixion,” back of the high altar, genuine
fresco painting, is by Constantine Brumidi, who, about the same time,
executed important decorations, in the same medium, in the dome of the
Capitol at Washington; on entering the church, in chapels on both sides
of the door, are mural decorations by Henry J. Thouron, said, by high
authority, to be the best mural paintings in the United States; the
first was placed in 1911 as a fitting background for a statue of the
Virgin and Child by Louis Madrazzi, which Mr. Thouron brought from Paris
as a gift to the Cathedral; in the north transept is a painting, “The
Dead Christ,” attributed to Titian; a work of art of exceptional merit
is a large ivory crucifix, the master work of Carlo Pazenti, an
Augustinian lay brother, about 1840; acquired for the church, with much
difficulty, by the venerable John N. Neumann, fourth Bishop of
Philadelphia; when, during the Civil War, the Sanitary Fair was being
held in Logan Square, Archbishop Wood, then Bishop Wood, exhibited this
beautiful work daily, for the benefit of the great cause; it was
returned each evening to its place in the Cathedral. St. John the
Evangelist, Thirteenth Street above Chestnut, for a short time the
cathedral; early English, Gothic; interior, perpendicular Gothic;
cornerstone laid by Bishop Kenrick, third Bishop of Philadelphia; church
opened April 8, 1832: a flagellation of Christ, much darkened, by
Garacci, was presented to the church by Joseph Bonaparte soon after its
completion: Mozart’s “Requiem Mass” was rendered, for the first time in
America, at St. John’s Church, and the music there today, is said to be
the best church music in Philadelphia. St. Patrick’s, Twentieth Street
below Locust, originated in a frame church in 1839, on east side of
Nineteenth Street near Spruce; the seventy-fifth anniversary was
celebrated in 1916, was attended by many notable dignitaries of the
church. Windows by d’Ascenzo. St. Francis de Sales, Forty-seventh Street
and Springfield Avenue, Romanesque, with Byzantine details; built,
1907-10; architect, Henry D. Dagit, Philadelphia; the leaded glass is
particularly beautiful; windows are of the antique school and extremely
rich in color, including four rose windows, designed and made by Nicolo
d’Ascenzo, Philadelphia. Four old historic churches rather near
together, St. Joseph’s, on Willing’s Alley, south of Walnut, below
Fourth Street; built on site of first Roman Catholic Church in
Pennsylvania, established by a member of the “Society of Jesus” from
Maryland, in 1731; St. Mary’s, Fourth Street, above Spruce; St.
Augustine’s, Fourth Street, above Race; and Holy Trinity, northwest
corner of Sixth and Spruce Streets, had their origin in the eighteenth
century, the first two long before the Revolution. St. Augustine’s is on
site of a building erected in 1801, by the hermits of the Order of St.
Augustine; it had William Rush’s wooden sculpture “The Crucifixion,” but
this was burned in 1847. Holy Trinity, German, is of somewhat earlier
date; the wayfarer who now looks in on any of them may readily picture
them as they were over one hundred years ago. In St. Mary’s Church is a
very fine pieta by Boucher, a modern French sculptor.
Swedenborgian, or The New Church, grew out of the teachings of Emmanuel
Swedenborg, scholar, traveler, scientist, and religious writer, born in
Stockholm, Sweden, in 1688. A school of the New Church was started in
Philadelphia in 1854. First “New Jerusalem” Church, Twenty-second and
Chestnut Streets, Gothic, brownstone, was built in 1884; architect,
Theophilus P. Chandler. Connected with it is a free library and reading
room.
Unitarian. First Church, Chestnut Street near Twenty-second, built,
1885; was organized, 1796, in a room of the University of Pennsylvania;
in 1797 Dr. Joseph Priestly delivered an address to this Society, and
enrolled himself among the members. William Henry Furness was ordained
pastor in 1825, in the church at the corner of Tenth and Locust Streets;
present church contains some interesting memorials, Dr. Furness, bust by
M. Launt Thompson, New York; circular window to Dr. Priestly by John
LaFarge; other windows are English; and some are by Tiffany, New York.
Girard Avenue Unitarian, Girard Avenue above Fifteenth Street, organized
by the Rev. Charles G. Ames, in the late seventies; Gothic, granite.
Germantown Unitarian, corner of Chelten Avenue and Greene Street, built,
1866; Gothic; architect, Frank Furness; has good stained glass windows,
made by Heaton, Butler and Bayne, London. Rev. Samuel Longfellow,
brother of the poet, was pastor for some years; also the Rev. Charles G.
Ames.
On east and west banks of the Schuylkill River, and Wissahickon Creek;
second largest municipal park in the world, 3597 acres; its only
superior in acreage being Blue Hills Park, Boston, with 4906 acres. The
ravines, “unkempt and wild,” all have springs of clear, cold water. Main
entrance at Green Street is also approach to the proposed Philadelphia
Museum of Art, on a raised terrace, like a Greek Temple, facing the
Parkway; Horace Trumbauer, C. C. Zantzinger, and Charles L. Borie, Jr.,
architects; part of the plan for development of Philadelphia within a
radius of thirty miles: here also is the “Washington Monument,”
sculptor, Professor Siemering of Berlin, erected by the “Society of the
Cincinnati.” Continue drive, to the Schuylkill River, proposed Ericsson
Memorial, Paul B. Cret, architect, was commissioned to prepare a design
for development of the entire basin, from boat houses to Spring Garden
Street, including the Aquarium, formed, 1911, using the classic marble
buildings of the old waterworks; it is said to be the best equipped in
the world; walls of exhibition tanks are covered with calcareous tufa,
rock shell formation from the Ohio River Valley, full of holes, in which
deep water vegetation is planted to suggest sea bottom; Arctic and
tropical life have their own temperatures; also hatching rooms. This
tract and Rocky Hill, of the old waterworks, five acres, between Green
and Callowhill Streets, was named by William Penn, Fair Mount; it was
used as the terminal pillar of the British redoubts, stretching across
the city from the Schuylkill to the Delaware, in 1777-78. Acquired by
the city in 1812 as site for the city waterworks, moved from Centre
Square, for park purposes. This was the beginning of Fairmount Park; to
beautify the grounds, walks were laid out up to the reservoir, and the
rock decorated with sculpture, chiefly woodcarving, by William Rush,
including the groups, “The Schuylkill in an Improved State,” and “The
Schuylkill in Chains,” which are still over the entrances to the wheel
houses; “Justice” and “Wisdom,” full-length statues, carved for
decoration of the triumphal arch in front of the State House at
Lafayette’s reception in 1824, are now in the hatching room; and “Leda
and the Swan,” modeled in 1812 from Miss Vanuxen, a Philadelphia belle,
a bronze reproduction is here now. Boat houses are of decorative
construction. The Schuylkill Navy, said to be the most complete
association devoted to rowing in the world, is the center for test
trials of skill and endurance, of national interest; it is known as the
American Henley; the course above Columbia Avenue bridge is ideal for
oarsmen, and the banks rise like seats of an auditorium. On the main
drive from the Aquarium are the Lincoln Monument, bronze, sculptor,
Randolph Rogers, made in Rome, cast in Munich; Iron Spring, and a bronze
group, “Lioness Carrying to Her Young a Wild Boar,” sculptor, August
Cain; near Brown Street entrance is bronze group, “Silenus and the
Infant Bacchus”; original in the Louvre, credited to Praxiteles; and the
bronze group, “The Wrestlers,” from original antique in the Royal
Gallery, Florence; both reproduced by Barbedienne, Paris.
Lemon Hill Mansion, built by Henry Pratt about 1800, near site of
favorite home of Robert Morris. “The Hills,” planned by Major L’Enfant,
built, 1773; the property was bought by the city in 1844, and dedicated,
in 1855, as a Public Park. Northwest on main drive is Grant’s Cabin,
headquarters of General U. S. Grant in siege of Richmond, 1864-65,
brought to the Park from City Point, Virginia, at close of Civil War;
opposite is Sedgeley Guard House, formerly the porter’s lodge of the
Sedgeley Park Estate, site of a Gothic mansion, built, 1800, by William
Crammond; acquired for the Park by public-spirited citizens; on same
drive, near east end of Girard Avenue bridge, is the replica bronze
equestrian statue of “Jeanne D’Arc,” sculptor, Fremiet, Paris; among the
best examples of modern French equestrian sculpture. The original is in
“La Place des Pyramids,” Paris.
River Drive near boat houses, “Tam O’Shanter,” four figures, red
sandstone, sculptor, Thom; from the last boat house, or the Beacon
Light, to Girard Avenue bridge will be the Ellen Phillips Samuel
Memorial, for which she left $500,000 in 1913; Fairmount Park Art
Association, legatee; “On top of stone bulkhead I will have erected, 100
feet apart, on high granite pedestals, uniform in size and style, the
History of America, symbolized in a system of statuary”; model made by
Edgar V. Seeler. Near are the heroic bronze bust of James A. Garfield,
with allegorical figure, sculptor, Augustus Saint Gaudens; the colossal
bronze equestrian group, “Lion Fighter,” on natural jutting rock,
sculptor, Professor Albert Wolff, cast, 1893; and scattered along, five
bronzed iron fountains, replicas of those at Rond Point, Champs Elysees,
cast in Paris at foundry of Val D’Osne.
North of tunnel, above Girard Avenue bridge, on River Drive, bronze
equestrian statue, “Cowboy,” sculptor, Frederick Remington; a band of
cowboys and Indians participated in the unveiling; River and Fountain
Green Drive, heroic bronze equestrian statue, “General U. S. Grant”;
sculptors, Daniel Chester French for Grant, Edward C. Potter for horse,
modeled from the nineteen-year-old gelding, “General Grant,” sired by
an Arabian stallion (Leopold), presented to the General in 1878 by the
Sultan of Turkey; cast by Bureau Bros., Philadelphia, mounted on
Jonesboro granite pedestal, designed by Frank Miles Day and Brother.
Columbia Avenue entrance, fountain of “Orestes and Pylades,” bronze
group, on Richmond granite pedestal, with bronze masks; sculptor, Carl
Steinhauser, Calsruhe, Germany; cast in Philadelphia; near is the
Children’s Playground building, erected by Richard and Sarah Smith in
1898; and a park mansion, Mt. Pleasant, land bought from Phineas Bond by
John MacPherson, who built the house in 1761, after style of a house in
Scotland owned by the chief of his clan, the MacPhersons of Clunie; in
1779, purchased by Benedict Arnold; on his conviction for treason, it
was confiscated by the state; in 1781-82 Baron von Steuben occupied it,
and here wrote the army regulations which created the American Army; in
1868 it became property of the city, and was added to Fairmount Park.
Rockland comes next, on west side of Dairy Ball Field, occupied 1750-65
by John Lawrence, a notable mayor of Philadelphia; near Rockland is
Ormiston, colonial, owned by Edward Burd, prothonotary, Supreme Court of
Pennsylvania, named for Scotch home of Mrs. Burd, daughter of Lord
Haliburton of Ormiston, who founded the Burd Orphan Asylum; near Dauphin
Street entrance, Grand Fountain, bronze and iron, and park trolley
station.
Northwest is Woodford mansion; ground deeded by Penn to Dennis Rockford
in 1693; house built, 1742, by William Coleman, an original member of
the Junto Club; friend of Franklin and Judge of the Supreme Court of
Pennsylvania, colonial, brick; original oak floor is still in fine state
of preservation; boards doweled together; laths are hand-cut, and
handwork on cornices and wainscoting most beautiful; fireplace and
mantel in main room are worthy of attention, although now marred by
paint; later it became the home of the Franks family; Edgeley ball
field, site of residence built by Philip Syng Physick, 1828-36,
Professor of Surgery at University of Pennsylvania and first American to
be elected member of the Royal Academy of France; the Randolph Mansion
is west of Edgeley; interesting colonial house with beautiful handwork
in cornices.
Strawberry Mansion, near Dauphin Street entrance; residence of William
Lewis; then called Summerville, now used as a restaurant; name was given
when added to the park; fine colonial architecture; main hall shows
still how beautiful it must have been, with exquisite handwork on
cornices, wainscoting, and niches in the hall ornamented with hand
tracery.
Along the river drive we pass other country seats known as Harleigh,
Fairy Hill, and the Laurels, now South, Central, and North Laurel Hill.
Near the Falls on east side of Ridge Road, stood the home of Governor
Thomas Mifflin, the fighting Quaker; from the Falls bridge a fine view
is obtained of the Schuylkill Navy’s race course.
Farther up is the Wissahickon Creek, Wisamickan (Catfish Creek), or
Wisaucksickan (yellow colored stream); we enter the deep recesses of
this ravine, where the waters empty into the Schuylkill River;
tradition says that on the northwest bank stood a flour mill; in
Revolutionary times the owner ground glass or plaster, with the wheat,
for the patriot army, for this crime some of Washington’s soldiers
hanged him on a tree in front of his mill; here General Armstrong’s
corps attacked the Hessian and British soldiers, October 4, 1777, while
the Battle of Germantown was in progress: up the Wissahickon drive is
Maple Spring Hotel, decorated by grotesque figures of animals and birds,
carved out of native laurel; beyond this, across the stream, are abrupt
bluffs, from one, the most prominent, called Lover’s Leap, tradition
says, a young Indian and the girl whom he loved, being forbidden to
marry, plunged into the waters below and were drowned; a steep grade
leads to the six-mile stone; here Paper Mill Run empties into the
Wissahickon, and here Nicholas Rittenhouse had his grist mill; just
beyond, close beside an old bridge, is a quaint old house, inside is a
stone tablet marked “C. W. R. 1707,” here David Rittenhouse, the famous
astronomer, was born; on Paper Mill Run, the first paper mill in this
country was erected, about 1690, by William Rittenhouse: a portion of
this land near Tulpehocken Street, within park limits, once belonged to
the Queen of Spain; farther is the Blue Stone Bridge, and just beyond is
Lotus Inn.
Northward, the east shore becomes more steep, to Mom Rinker’s Rock, she
is said to have been a witch; upon the height stands a statue of William
Penn, with the single word “Toleration” cut on the pedestal; the statue
and land were given to the city, for park purposes, by Hon. John Welsh,
ex-minister to England.
One quarter mile farther is Kitchen Lane, and the Hermit’s Well, dug by
Johannes Kelpius, scholar and mystic, who came from Germany with his
followers, forty men, the number of perfection, in 1694, “to the new
world, to see the dawn of the millennium; the pathway to the Light
Illumitable, in the glory of religious liberty in Pennsylvania”; they
were followers of the Essenes who lived in the solitudes of the Dead
Sea, of which St. John the Baptist is said to have been a member; the
Ridge and Valley of the Wissahickon gave them a temple of sacred
grandeur; places there are now known as Hermit’s Land, and Hermit’s
Glen; the piety and humility of Kelpius made him renowned; John Rogers
of Connecticut and leaders of other colonies came long distances to
consult this great Magister, he lived wholly to the service of God and
his fellow men; the Baptistry, a place in the creek, is shown where the
monks immersed their converts; after Kelpius’ death, about 1710, his
followers built the monastery, replaced in 1752 by a stone house, built
by Joseph Gorgas, also called the monastery; ruins still there: the
bones of these faithful men are interred under the floor, in the chancel
of St. Michael’s Protestant Episcopal Church, High Street, Germantown;
also some of their original headstones are there: their books were
given, in 1728, to Christ Church, Philadelphia, where they may still be
seen: the cult is now found about Ephrata, among the Seventh Day
Baptists.
Beyond the monastery, near Livezey’s Lane, are caves, said to have been
the abode of hermits. Half a mile farther is Livezey’s mansion, built,
1698, said to have been neutral ground where British and American
officers met during 1777-78; now headquarters of the Valley Green Canoe
Club; above is Cresheim Creek, a small tributary flowing into the
Wissahickon Creek, among great masses of huge rocks, under tall pines,
making a dark pool, called the Devil’s Pool; said to be bottomless;
scene of an engagement during the Battle of Germantown. Just beyond is
Valley Green, a quaint old wayside inn; here is a stone bridge with
strong buttresses and single arch; the reflection makes a clear oval;
farther is the first drinking fountain erected in Philadelphia, “Pro
Bono Publico,” placed in 1854; white marble; half a mile beyond, at east
end of Rex Avenue Bridge, is Indian Rock, summit crowned by heroic
statue of Tedyuscung, last of Indian chiefs to leave the shores of the
Delaware. Northwest the ravine is deep and the hills steep, winding
toward Chestnut Hill. It is proposed by the city to extend Fairmount
Park, on both sides of the Wissahickon, to Fort Washington, and include
Militia Hill at Whitemarsh, famous in the Revolution, making the Park
one thousand acres larger.
West Park, west end of Girard Avenue Bridge, Zoölogical Gardens, open
daily, including Sundays; in front, bronze group, “The Dying Lioness”;
sculptor, Professor Wilhelm Wolff, Berlin, cast in Munich. The inclosure
embraces Solitude, a mansion built in 1785 by John Penn, the poet,
grandson of the founder and cousin of John Penn of Lansdowne; was last
property owned in America by the Penn family; notable decorations are in
the ground floor room; ceiling, fine example of French stucco, Louis XV
period. The Zoölogical Gardens were incorporated in 1859; oldest
incorporated body of its kind in America; on an area of forty-one acres
arranged by H. Schwarzmann in 1873, opened, 1874, with large and
attractive buildings, in which representative species of living animals
are shown; it is a private organization; the Pathological Laboratory has
for its objects, assistance in the hygienic control of the Garden;
collection of statistics upon diseases of wild animals; and research:
many species of water, and other birds, are on the large lake, and
inclosures scattered through the Garden.
Opposite, on Girard Avenue, is William Penn’s House, originally in
Letitia Street, near Second and Market; first brick house in
Philadelphia, built, 1683, removed in 1883; Landsdowne Entrance to the
Park, under two spacious elliptical arches of the Pennsylvania Railroad
viaduct, carrying the railroad across Girard Avenue, is a dignified and
handsome structure. Near is bronze group, “Hudson Bay Wolves,” sculptor,
Edward Kemeys, cast in Philadelphia.
In 1732, “The State in Schuylkill,” a fishing club, first social club in
Philadelphia, leased an acre of land near here, and built a hut; annual
rental, three sun perch, presented on a pewter plate; they were here for
ninety years; now in New Jersey; the members espoused the Revolutionary
cause, and in 1774 formed a Company, called “The Light Horse,”
afterwards, in 1778, became the First City Troop.
On Lansdowne Drive is Sweet Brier Mansion, built by Samuel Breck about
1810; colonial, in the hall is an interesting wrought iron grill; in
front is bronze Indian group, The Stone Age, sculptor, John J. Boyle;
cast in France. The Smith Memorial Gate, to Pennsylvania men
distinguished in the Civil War, is at entrance to the Esplanade;
architects, James and John T. Windrim, erected, with statuary,
1897-1912; sculpture all colossal; equestrian, Major General Hancock,
sculptor, J. Q. A. Ward; and Major General McClellan, sculptor, Edward
C. Potter; statues, Major General Meade, sculptor, Daniel Chester
French; Major General Reynolds, sculptor, Charles Grafly; Richard Smith,
sculptor, Herbert Adams; busts, Admiral Porter, sculptor, Charles
Grafly; Major General Hartranft, sculptor, A. Stirling Calder; Admiral
Dahlgren, sculptor, George E. Bissel; James H. Windrim, sculptor, Samuel
Murray; Major General S. W. Crawford, sculptor, Bessie O. Potter Vonnoh;
Governor Curtin, sculptor, Moses Ezekiel; General James A. Beaver,
sculptor, Katharine M. Cohen; John B. Gest, sculptor, Charles Grafly;
two eagles and globes, sculptor, J. Massey Rhind.
The John Welsh Memorial, President of the Centennial Expositon, formal
Garden, with fountain, on site of Centennial main building, Parkside
Avenue approach to Memorial Hall; “Florentine Lions,” cast by Harrison,
Winans and Eastwick at Alexandroffsky, Russia, in 1849, from pair at
entrance of Imperial Mechanical Works, originals at entrance to Loggia
di Lanzi, Florence; Memorial Hall, front terrace, bronze, Spanish
cannon, Miltiades, date, 1743; bronze, Spanish cannon, Semiramis, date,
1737; bronze, Spanish mortar, date, 1731, from fortifications in Cuba;
carved decorations with Spanish royal arms of Philip and Elizabeth
Farnese; two bronze groups: “Winged Horses,” led by muses of epic and
lyric poetry, Calliope and Clio; sculptor, Pilz, made for Vienna Opera
House, Austria; Memorial Hall, German Renaissance; architect, Hermann J.
Schwarzmann; contains complete model of the arrangement of the
Centennial buildings, made to scale by John Baird; first International
Exposition held in America; when our national art was invigorated by
competition with masterpieces of other lands, and now challenges
comparison with the best: also Pompeian collection of paintings,
illustrative of Pompeian life; and bronze face and hands of Abraham
Lincoln; casts taken from first replicas, of original casts from life,
in 1860; sculptor, Leonard W. Volk, Chicago; for collections, see Art.
North of Memorial Hall is heroic bronze equestrian statue, Major General
George Gordon Meade, sculptor, Alexander Milne Calder.
Horticultural Hall, erected 1876, on site of Lansdowne Mansion, built by
Governor John Penn in 1773; stone; Italian; in 1816, leased by Joseph
Bonaparte for two years, accidentally destroyed by fire in 1854. In
1866, the land was acquired from Barney family for the park; Moorish
style, architect, Hermann J. Schwarzmann, also responsible for plan of
adjacent sunken garden: no other building for similar purposes in this
country can approach it, in dignity of design: contains marble statue
“Il Penseroso,” sculptor, Mosier, acquired, 1874. Notable plants housed
in this building are a gigantic specimen of Attalea Cohiene, bay oil
palm, from Central America, possibly most superb palm to be seen under
glass anywhere; Phœnix Canariensis from the Canary Islands;
Seaforthias from Australia; Howeas from Lord Howe’s Island; Cocoa
palms; Ceroxylon, wax palms, towering sixty or seventy feet; giant
Rubber trees; Araucarias from Australia; Bamboos from the Orient; and
lofty Tree Ferns from New Zealand unite to produce a wonderfully
impressive scene, not unlike a glorified tropical forest, emphasized by
training creepers up the lofty stems, growing ferns and orchids in
crotches of the limbs, and by the strange aerial roots which reach down
from these clinging plants to seek nourishment in the soil below, as in
the tropical jungle. The Cactus house is arranged to give something the
effect of arid regions, by planting in sterile soil; the Fern houses,
with superb collections of Tree Ferns, and smaller growing Adiantums,
Nephrolepis, Acrostichums, recall the effect of mountain ravines. A
special house is given to the Cycads or Sago palms, survivals of
vegetation of fossil beds, of which this collection is unique in this
country. Another tropical house contains the Bromeliad or pineapple
family, collection unique in many respects.
In the gardens, most striking features are the rare trees, golden larch,
Pseudo-Larix; the Gordonias, Franklinias; oaks. East front has bronze
busts of Schubert, granite pedestal with bronze bas-relief; “Music,”
sculptor, Henry Baerer, New York; Hayden, a trophy won by United Singers
of Philadelphia at the National Saengerfest; Verdi, on artistic
sandstone pedestal, with carved figure; “Religious Liberty,” marble,
sculptor, Moses Ezekiel; presented by the Hebrew Society B’nai B’rith. A
short walk east, near Columbia Avenue bridge, is said to be Tom Moore’s
cottage; the poet was a frequent guest both at Belmont and Ormiston,
with communication by boat.
The Sunken Garden, west, rearranged to conform to Moorish ideals of
garden approaches, is now a pool, about eight hundred feet long, similar
to that before the Taj Mahal, flanked on both sides by spreading
Oriental planes; beyond this central feature are flower gardens,
following the Oriental in color arrangement, making an effect of noble
proportions. A bronze Sundial shows the variations for each month of the
year, and the time at twelve o’clock in twelve principal cities of the
world; on Tennessee marble pedestal, with four supporting female
figures, emblematic of the four seasons; sculptor, A. Sterling Calder.
Bronze statues of Schiller, made in 1886, granite pedestal with bronze
panels in bas-relief representing poetry, history, drama; and of his
friend Goethe, made in 1890, granite pedestal decorated with bronze
laurel wreaths.
Roman Catholic Centennial Fountain, erected by the Total Abstinence
Societies, sculptor, Herman Kern. Japanese Temple Gate and lotus pond,
near Belmont Avenue, part of Japanese exhibit in St. Louis, in 1904,
showing best Japanese work of three hundred years ago; also on way to
George’s Hill are, the Ohio, English, and Rhode Island Centennial
buildings. George’s Hill, eighty-three acres, acquired by bequest to the
City of Philadelphia, in 1868, through the Fairmount Park Commission,
for the health and enjoyment of the people forever.
Belmont Mansion, built, 1743, by William Peters, stone, on estate of two
hundred acres, approached by avenue of tall hemlocks, ninety feet high.
Washington and Lafayette both planted trees here; view down the
Schuylkill is like the Rhine; City Hall Tower focuses the eyes in the
distance; Richard Peters, his son, wit and scholar, born here, was made
Judge of the United States District Court of Pennsylvania by Washington;
who was entertained here; also Hancock, the Adamses, Jefferson, Steuben,
Talleyrand, and Louis Philippe.
North of Belmont is Ridgeland, once private residence; continue
northeast near Park Trolley Station, Chamounix mansion, formerly known
as Mount Prospect for its fine situation; built, 1802, by George
Plumstead, a Philadelphia merchant.
William Penn, in his city plan, laid out five squares. Penn Square,
Broad and Market Streets, site of early waterworks; now occupied by City
Hall; Washington, Sixth and Walnut Streets; first Potter’s Field;
Rittenhouse, Eighteenth and Walnut Streets, remodeled like a French
park; playground for children of city’s social center; Lion and Serpent,
bronze; sculptor, Barye; replica of one in the Garden of the Tuilleries,
Paris; The Duck Girl, bronze; sculptor, Paul Manship; Billy, sculptor,
Albert Laessle. Logan, on the Parkway; Swan Memorial Fountain to be in
center, sculptor, A. Sterling Calder. This was the second Potter’s
Field, and place of public executions; site of Sanitary Fair, in 1864,
for the Civil War, visited by President and Mrs. Lincoln, pronounced
most brilliant affair ever held in America. Franklin, Sixth and Race
Streets, formerly a burial ground.
Broad Street, running north and south, is 113 feet wide and 12 miles
long from League Island to City Line. Burholme, near Fox Chase, museum
and library given and maintained by provision in will of Robert W.
Ryerss; over forty-eight acres; opened to public in 1910. Clark’s,
Forty-third Street and Chester Avenue, has artistic bronze group,
Dickens and Little Nell, made in 1890; sculptor, Frank Edwin Elwell;
awarded gold medals, Philadelphia, 1891; Chicago, 1893. Cobb’s Creek,
338 acres, formed, 1904; follows Cobb’s Creek on east bank; chiefly
steep, tree-covered slopes for 107 acres; crossing at Mount Moriah
Cemetery; widens, north of Market Street, into rolling landscape; has
public golf links. Fernhill, ten acres, bounded by Wissahickon Avenue,
Roberts Avenue, Schuyler Street, and Abbottsford Avenue, Germantown;
memorial to Mr. and Mrs. Thomas McKean, part of their old homestead,
given by their children to Park Commissioners with endowment. Fisher,
twenty acres; near North Penn branch, Reading Railway; acquired by gift,
1909. Hunting Park, with lake, eighty-seven acres; crossing Northeast
Boulevard at Nicetown Lane. League Island and United States Navy Yard;
part of Southern Boulevard. Morris, twenty acres; extension of Cobb’s
Creek Park; beautiful forest, watered by Indian Run Creek, acquired by
gift, 1912. Pennypack, near mouth of Pennypack Creek to Rhawn Street,
532 acres, acquired in 1905; beautiful fertile valley with stream,
widened in places, with half ruined mill dams and their waterfalls;
quaint masonry bridges, either in single arch or series of spans.
Reynolds, Snyder Avenue and Seventeenth Street, contains memorial to
General John F. Reynolds, a hero of Gettysburg; granite shaft, six feet
high, with bronze medallion of General Reynolds; sculptor, H. K.
Bush-Brown;
THE DUCK GIRL
From the Fountain in Rittenhouse Square
Paul Manship, Sculptor
unveiled, 1915. Wister’s Woods, contains fine trees and profusion of
dogwood; forty-four acres; East Germantown; bird sanctuary.
Total amount of space devoted to park, square, and boulevard purposes
within city limits is 8,037.32 acres.
The Fairmount Park Art Association organized 1871, to express high civic
ideals, in forms of beauty and dignity, synonymous with art, have had
large mounted photographs of the sculpture in Fairmount Park placed in
Philadelphia public schools.
Academy of Natural Sciences, on the Parkway at Logan Circle, was
founded, 1812, in the house of Thomas Say, Esq., northwest corner of
Second and Market Streets. The Museum, for its historic value and extent
of its collection, is one of the most important in existence; arranged
in two series, an exhibition for the public, and reference for
specialists. Library contains about 60,000 volumes, nearly all on
natural sciences; several important publications are issued by the
Academy, and numerous lectures on natural history are given annually.
Contains portraits of founders, Thomas Say, Gerard Troost, William
Maclure, Charles Lesueur, Sir Joseph Banks, Samuel L. Mitchell. All
painted by Charles Willson Peale, and hung in Peale’s Museum; others by
noted artists are Robert Bridges, Isaac Lea, Joseph Leidy, by Bernard
Uhle; Jacob Gilliams by P. F. Rothermel; William Hempbell and George Ord
by John Neagle; Samuel G. Morton by Paul Weber; W. S. W. Ruschenberger
by William K. Hewitt; Isaac Wistar by Robert Vonnoh; also a fine study
model of Alexander Wilson, the ornithologist, by Charles Grafly, and
statuette of same by Alexander Calder.
American Philosophical Society, 103 South Fifth Street, on lot in State
House yard, given the Society by the state in 1785; colonial, brick;
built, 1789: originated in “The Junto” formed by Benjamin Franklin,
1727, with the object of mutual improvement; received its name 1769,
“The American Philosophical Society in Philadelphia, for Promoting
Useful Knowledge.” Benjamin Franklin, then in Europe, sole American
plenipotentiary to France from the thirteen provinces, was elected first
president, and continued until his death in 1790. David Rittenhouse,
second president, served until his death in 1796; he, with other
members, successfully observed the Transit of Venus, June 3, 1769,
giving the first approximately accurate results to the world, in the
measurements of the spheres; he also constructed an orrery for measuring
heavenly bodies. Thomas Jefferson, third president, served eighteen
years, while he was also Vice-President and President of the United
States, and established its library and cabinet. Present President, Dr.
W. W. Keen. Its membership is world wide. At the meetings, held
regularly, the most advanced thought in scientific investigation is
presented. The Society now owns most of the Franklin papers in
existence, recently calendared in five volumes by Dr. I. Minis Hays;
field notes of Lewis and Clark expedition; original copy of Penn’s
Charter of Privileges, dated 1701; manuscript volume, Laws of
Pennsylvania prior to 1700, and original broadside, Declaration of
Independence. Oil portraits of all its Presidents are here and of many
leading members; notably, George Washington, by Gilbert Stuart;
President Jefferson, Benjamin Rush, John Vaughn, Caspar Wistar, P. S.
DuPonceau, all by Thomas Sully; David Rittenhouse and Samuel Vaughn by
C. W. Peale; Joseph Priestly and Chief Justice William Tilghman by
Rembrandt Peale; Daniel G. Brinton by Thomas Aikens; Professor Alexander
Dallas Bache by Huntington; General Isaac Wistar and Joseph Henry by
Bernard Uhle; several notable busts of Jefferson, Turgot, and Condorcet
by Houdon; Benjamin Franklin by Caffieri; and of Lafayette, Alexander
Hamilton, and Nicholas Biddle.
The Franklin Institute, Seventh Street above Chestnut; organized, 1824;
open free daily; classic, marble, built, 1825; John Haviland, architect.
First organization in the United States to combine science with
practice; the lecture course presents, free to the public, latest
advances in useful arts and sciences, by distinguished technologists;
also popular illustrated addresses on topics of the day; school of
Mechanic Arts includes instruction in mechanical and architectural
drawing, said to be one of the most thorough and practical in the United
States. Library is second to none, in extent and completeness, as
reference for scientific literature; The Franklin Journal, published
since 1825, monthly, is the only record extant of a number of early
United States patents. They held first exhibition in America of American
manufactures, 1824, in Carpenters’ Hall, and first electrical exhibition
in America. Portraits include Dr. Benjamin Franklin and Matthias W.
Baldwin by Sully, Daguerre by Abraham Whiteside, and bust of Henry Clay
by William Rush, carved wood. Among relics are typesetting and
electrical machines, used by Benjamin Franklin, and early models of
machinery. Will be moved to Parkway, Race Street, east of Nineteenth
Street.
The Historical Society of Pennsylvania, 1300 Locust Street, in mansion
of General Robert Patterson, enlarged and made fireproof; founded, 1824.
Open 10.00 A.M. to 6.00 P.M.; July and August, closes at 4.00 P.M.;
publishes the Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography; contains
probably the largest collection of sources of American history assembled
in any one place; includes over 100,000 bound books, 250,000 pamphlets,
7000 volumes of manuscripts and some 3500 volumes of newspapers, which
are invaluable to the student of colonial and Revolutionary history; an
Index to the Marriages and Deaths, in Dunlap, Claypoole and Poulson’s
American Daily Advertiser, creates a constant demand for the files of
that newspaper for genealogical purposes; Tom Paine’s American Crisis,
1776, and many other rare imprints of Americans. The Society has a large
and exceedingly rich collection of oil paintings; practically all the
governors of the state are represented in portraiture on its walls, some
of the mayors of Philadelphia, and portraits of many Revolutionary
officers; a portrait of Johannes Kelpius, the “Hermit of the
Wissahickon,” by Christopher Wick, in 1704, is believed to be the
earliest portrait in oil painted in America; portraits of Gustavus
Hesselius, his wife, and of Robert Morris, Sr., father of the financier,
painted by Gustavus Hesselius, are of historic interest; a fine
collection of original
GEORGE WASHINGTON
From the collection in Independence Hall
Painted by Rembrandt Peale
portraits, drawings, studies, and manuscripts by Benjamin West, includes
the full length portrait of William Hamilton of the Woodlands, and his
niece, Mrs. Ann Hamilton Lyle, probably the most beautiful of West’s
portraits in this city; other artists represented are Charles Willson
Peale, Jacob Eicholtz, Thomas Sully, Rembrandt Peale, John Neagle,
Charles Gilbert Stuart, Robert Edge Pine, John Singleton Copley, Walter
G. Gould, Henry Inman, Paul Weber, and William E. Winner. Among the
miniatures are those by John Trumbull, James Peale, and Robert Fulton.
Marble busts are of Washington, Franklin, Milton, Henry Clay, Major
General Robert Patterson, T. Buchanan Read, and Dr. Joseph Parrish.
Relics of great historic interest include the Ephrata Printing Press,
the Charter of the City of Philadelphia, and the “Great Belt of Wampum,”
representing the famous Shackamaxon Treaty between William Penn and the
Indians, “never signed and never broken.”
Masonic Temple, Broad and Filbert Streets; Norman architecture; built,
1870; John T. Windrim, architect. Rooms with notable decorations are the
Egyptian; Oriental, Moorish style from sketches made in the Alhambra by
John Sartain; and Corinthian, copied from well-known standards of
architecture, ornament and familiar figure composition. Museum said to
be the greatest existing Masonic museum, contains aprons of Past Grand
Masters of the three oldest Lodges in the world; and George Washington’s
apron, made by Madame Lafayette and presented to him by the Marquis,
worn by Washington at laying of the corner-stone of the Capitol at
Washington; an ancient Templar Cross, original Crusader’s Cross, found
in a grave at Tyre, Syria, A.D. 1250; notable jewelers’ art of England,
Denmark, Germany, France, and Great Britain, in badges, including one
owned by Napoleon I; tablet from Temple of Herod; Sephar Torah, ancient
scroll of the law found in Germany, over eighteen feet long, and from
three hundred to five hundred years old. Library, Byzantine decorations,
with coats of arms, of various Guilds and Grand Lodges, in the ceiling.
The Great Hall, or front entrance, contains portraits and paintings,
among them “The Puritans” by F. J. Waugh and “A Marine Scene” by
Richards; Seals of the States of the Union, and paintings portraying the
Pan Athenia, Greek festival. On the second floor are the Grand Lodge
Room, representing a Corinthian temple, constructed to appear roofless;
the columns, reproductions of the Lysicrates, Athens; mural paintings
represent the mythology of the Greeks, “Weighing of the Soul,” “Ulysses
Passing the Island of the Sirens,” “Birth of Athena,” “Judgment of
Paris,” “The Golden Fleece.” Renaissance Hall, the Tabernacle, contains
the Veils of the Temple. Two paintings at either end represent a High
Priest, and a Scribe. Ionic Hall and Norman Hall have characteristic
ornamentation; Egyptian Hall, decorations are copied from Temples of
Karnak, Elephanta, Philae, Rameses, the Cataracts and Tombs; Ceiling
from Temple of Denderah; also the scene “Weighing the Soul,” showing
Egyptian mythology allied with Greek.
Mint of United States at Philadelphia, Sixteenth and Spring Garden
Streets, open daily, except Sundays and holidays, 9.00 A.M., to 3.00
P.M. Classic Ionic, granite, built, 1901, by the Supervising Architect
of Washington, D. C. Main lobby finished in Italian marble with mosaic
ceiling; panels illustrate ancient methods and processes of coinage;
artist, W. B. Van Ingen. Largest and most completely equipped Mint in
the world. Numismatic room, accessible to the public, contains large
collection of coins and medals; among them the widow’s mite, found in
ruins of Temple in Jerusalem.
Pennsylvania Bible Society, 701 Walnut Street, organized in
Philadelphia, 1808. First Bible Society on American continent; present
building erected, 1853. First President, Right Rev. William White, D.D.;
first meeting, called by Robert Ralston in his own home; object, to
further our country’s welfare through the Bible, the Book teaching love,
unity, and forbearance; therefore qualified to band the people together
and advance national betterment. The establishment of such an
organization in our land was recognized by gift of £200 by the British
and Foreign Bible Society, London. All denominations have been
represented in the line of Presidents; during Bishop Whitaker’s
incumbency the Pennsylvania Bible Society was connected with the
American Bible Society in New York, now the national organization.
General Lafayette in 1824 was presented by this Society with a specially
prepared copy of the Scriptures. At the centennial of this Society, in
1908, celebrated in the Academy of Music, Bishop Ozi W. Whitaker, D.D.,
presided; Right Hon. James Bryce, British Ambassador, made an address
and presented to Bishop Whitaker a beautifully embossed Bible, sent by
the British and Foreign Bible Society, emblems on the cover were from
early Christian examples, similar to those on the Coronation Bible given
to King Edward VII; Ambassador Bryce was in turn presented with a richly
made copy of the Scriptures, by the Pennsylvania Society; greetings were
received from President Theodore Roosevelt and Governor Edwin S. Stuart
of Pennsylvania, and from other Bible societies. At the Tercentenary
celebration of King James version of the English Bible, in the Academy
of Music, 1911, James A. MacDonald, LL.D., of Toronto, spoke of “The
Influence of the Bible Upon the Commonwealth.” Letters were read from
King George V of England, and President William H. Taft. This Society
now circulates between two and three hundred thousand Bibles per annum,
printed in over fifty languages and dialects, for Pennsylvania, New
Jersey, and Delaware, over which this house has especial jurisdiction.
Any separate book of the Bible may be obtained for two cents.
Philadelphia Commercial Museum, Thirty-fourth Street below Spruce,
organized, 1894, is the only Commercial Museum in the United States; it
received immense collections from the Chicago “Columbian Exposition,”
over forty governments being represented; many subsequent collections
from other international expositions; and special exhibits, illustrating
the people and products of the world. A free reference library is here,
of Foreign and American Commerce and Travel, which could not be
duplicated, and courses of free lectures are given which cover subjects
of geographic, commercial, and industrial importance, illustrated by
colored lantern slides and motion pictures; colored slides, with
lantern screen and type-written lectures, covering same field of
geography, commerce, and industry, are loaned, free of cost, to
public-school teachers, in all parts of Pennsylvania; they reach tens of
thousands; also collections of specimens, to aid teachers, are sent free
of cost, as a gift to Pennsylvania public schools; they are arranged,
showing important raw material, and process of manufacture.
Manufacturers are furnished with information on all matters pertaining
to foreign trade; the Foreign Trade Bureau is the acknowledged leader of
such organizations in the world.
The Pennsylvania Horticultural Society, 1600 Walnut Street; first in
America, organized at meeting in Franklin Institute, 1827, to promote
horticulture and create love for flowers, fruits, and vegetables by
their cultivation. Minutes of the Society and list of membership is
complete from formation to present time. Lectures by an expert in the
various branches of horticulture are given at each monthly meeting, from
November until May. Annual exhibitions are, Spring Flower Show before
Easter, three days; Peony, outdoor grown Rose and Sweet Pea Show in
Philadelphia suburbs, from May to July, according to season; Dahlia
Exhibition, in September; Chrysanthemum, early November. The Society has
a library of several thousand books on agriculture and horticulture,
some very rare and of great value, and all recommended works, of recent
publication, in Europe and America. “Great gardens educate people in
gentility as well as in horticulture.”
Wagner Institute, southwest corner of Seventeenth Street and Montgomery
Avenue; founded by Professor William Wagner, 1847. Circulating and
reference library open daily except Sunday, 9.00 A.M. to 9.00 P.M.
Museum collections, chiefly in reference to geology and mineralogy, open
Wednesday and Saturday afternoons. Courses of lectures conducted through
the collegiate year.
The Library Company of Philadelphia, Locust Street, east of Broad; first
circulating library in the United States; founded by subscription in
1731, by Benjamin Franklin and his friends of the Junto Club; charter
granted by John, Thomas, and Richard Penn in 1781; original building,
Fifth and Library Streets, designed by Dr. Thornton, now the Drexel
Building; present building, architect, Frank Furness in 1889; is a haven
for scholars interested in historical research; also has important
collections of books on costume, foreign literature, and complete set of
Punch, begun in 1840; among historic relics are original sketches made
for Watson’s Annals of Philadelphia; William Penn’s desk from Pennsburg;
John Dickinson’s reading desk, and Heraldic Hatchment, used at his
funeral; and the André collection. The Ridgeway Branch, Broad and
Christian Streets, founded by bequest of Dr. James Rush; architect,
Addison Hutton; built, 1878, Doric, granite; contains terra cotta bust
of Minerva, heroic size, probably French work; formerly behind the
Speaker’s chair in the Continental Congress, Sixth and Chestnut Streets,
given to the Philadelphia Library, 1783, also some articles of Boule,
and illuminated manuscripts.
Mercantile Library, Tenth Street above Chestnut; was established 1821,
at 100 Chestnut Street, present building, originally a market house,
with room seventy-four by two hundred feet, and high-arched ceiling,
makes ideal condition for library work on one floor; this is a
circulating library of general literature for stockholders and members,
who only are admitted into the reading room, where they have
unrestricted use of books.
Philadelphia City Institute, 218 South Nineteenth Street, was founded,
1852, by public-spirited citizens, for the purpose of benefiting young
men, by establishing a free library and night school; library free to
the public.
The Free Library of Philadelphia, northeast corner of Thirteenth and
Locust Streets, chartered, 1891, from endowment fund, left in will by
William Pepper, M.D., LL.D., for a free library in the city of
Philadelphia: opened temporarily in City Hall; removed to old Concert
Hall, 1217-21 Chestnut Street, now in old building of College of
Physicians; contains bust of Dr. Pepper, by Carl Bitter, and portraits;
a large new library building is in process of construction on the
Parkway, Nineteenth and Vine Streets. Growth and usefulness, from its
inception, are due to the management of the late Dr. John Thomson,
Librarian; now includes a main building, 26 branches, as well as deposit
stations and traveling libraries; total circulation for home use in
1916, 2,767,310. Hearty coöperation exists between the public schools
and the Free Library; school extension lectures are given to the
children of the grammar grades; and “story hours” are weekly events for
younger children in the branch libraries. Reference and periodical
departments contain works on art, architecture, and archæology,
extremely valuable to the practical student and designer; here are
facsimiles of many most noted, of early printed books and manuscripts,
Bible codices, etc.; the “open shelf” system is used in all departments.
Fine buildings of the branch libraries have been developed in their
architectural proportions and decoration, on the traditions of French
and English Renaissance, or local expression of the Georgian; always
with top lighting, considered extremely important: in the basement of
the branch at Seventeenth and Spring Garden Streets is a large and
valuable collection of government documents; the Josephine Widener
Memorial Branch, Broad Street and Girard Avenue, has reference books of
priceless nature and rare prints, issued before A.D. 1500.
Christ Chruch Hospital, Wynnefield Station, Park Trolley and P. R. R.;
Gothic stone building; organized, 1772, by Dr. John Kearsley; endowed by
Jacob Dobson in 1804; is a home for gentlewomen, communicants of the
Protestant Episcopal Church, in the Diocese of Pennsylvania; 150 acres;
the Board of Managers include three of the vestry, each, of Christ
Church and St. Peter’s Church.
College of Physicians of Philadelphia, Twenty-second Street, above
Chestnut; founded about 1787, and modeled on lines of The Royal College
of Physicians in London. A scientific paper was read by Dr. Benjamin
Rush at the first meeting. English Renaissance, brick, laid Flemish
bond, with basement, cornices, pilasters, and other trimmings of Indiana
limestone; finest building of a medical society in the world, with the
largest medical library, save one, in the United States, and a fine
collection of portraits of presidents of the Society, painted by most
notable artists. This is not a teaching institution, but a Medical
Society, composed of men of professional distinction.
Hahnemann Medical College and Hospital, 226 North Broad Street. Oldest
homeopathic college in the world; founded in 1848; first located at 229
Arch Street. Consolidated with the Homeopathic Medical College in 1869;
moved to present site in 1901. Its collections include the world-famous
dissection of entire cerebro-spinal nervous system by Dr. Rufus B.
Weaver; Dr. Hering’s complete writings of Paracelsus; Dr. A. R. Thomas’s
library of old and rare anatomical books; Hahnemann’s works in the
original; it has the most complete library of homeopathic literature in
existence. Portrait of Dr. W. B. VanLennep; artist, Henry Rittenberg.
Home of the Merciful Saviour, 4400 Baltimore Avenue, on grounds
adjoining the Clarence Clark Park; incorporated, 1882; eight houses and
chapel, all memorials, with a summer home at Avon-by-the-Sea. A home for
crippled, homeless, and helpless children. First of its kind in America
where vocational training is taught.
Hospital of the Protestant Episcopal Church, Front Street and Lehigh
Avenue. Main group of buildings, pure Norman. Founded by the Right Rev.
Alonzo Potter, Bishop of Pennsylvania, and Dr. Caspar Morris, in the
ancestral home of two parishioners on the present site. Jenny Lind made
the first cash contribution.
Jefferson Medical College, Tenth and Sansom Streets; founded through the
efforts of Dr. George B. McClellan; opened, 1825. Present building
erected, 1904.
Jefferson Hospital, Tenth and Sansom Streets; last word in hospital
construction and equipment; originated in the Infirmary established in
Jefferson College, 1825; present site was bought, 1875, and the building
opened for use in 1877. Amphitheatre is one of the largest in the world.
Museum contains casts and wax models of interesting cases. Notable
portraits in the building are Dr. Forbes, by Aikens; Dr. DaCosta, by
Vonnoh; Dr. Keen, by Chase; Mr. William Potter, by Breckenridge; Dr.
William Pancoast, by Uhle; also bronze bust of Dr. Marion Sims, by C.
Duboi, Paris, 1876; marble bust of Dr. George McClellan; bronze busts of
Daniel Webster and Thomas Jefferson.
Jewish Hospital, Logan Station; Old York Road and Olney Avenue, entrance
is marked with six granite columns from the old United States Mint,
formerly on Chestnut Street. Includes twenty buildings, on twenty-two
acres of ground, with modern scientific equipment for treatment of sick,
care of aged and incurable. A number of art works said to be of
considerable value are here.
Municipal Hospital, Luzerne, near Front Street, 4000 north; on
extensive grounds bisected by a well-wooded ravine. Established in 1774,
on State Island, for the isolation and treatment of contagious diseases;
probably most complete of its kind in the world.
Pennsylvania Hospital, between Spruce and Pine Streets, Eighth and Ninth
Streets; colonial; brick; with great trees and beautiful open spaces in
the grounds. First hospital in the United States, founded, 1751, by Dr.
Thomas Bond and Benjamin Franklin. Corner-stone on present site, laid,
1755, can still be seen; part of this land belonged to William Penn,
which he donated. In 1756, here was the first clinical amphitheatre in
America. Noah Webster delivered a lecture for the benefit of the
hospital in 1786; other benefits received about this time were, a
charity sermon preached by Rev. George Whitefield in St. Paul’s
Protestant Episcopal Church; and a painting by Benjamin West, “Christ
Healing the Sick,” made while he was in London; the English refused to
allow the original to come to America; they used it to start the
National Gallery; so a replica was painted; it now hangs in the hall;
for years the hospital made money by charging a fee to see it. At the
Pine Street front is a leaden statue of William Penn, presented by his
grandson, John Penn, from Wycombe Park, Bucks, England, estate of Lord
le Dispenser. Benjamin Franklin was the first Secretary and the second
President; his minute books are still to be seen there, with clear fine
handwriting; and interesting letters and documents of colonial and
Revolutionary times.
Philadelphia Almshouse and General Hospital, Thirty-fourth and Pine
Streets, Blockley; first almshouse was opened in 1713 by the Quakers;
not municipal, open only to their sect; located on Walnut, between Third
and Fourth Streets. First city almshouse was established in 1732; second
in 1767; in 1772 it was the most extensive hospital on the continent.
During the Revolutionary War, wounded were cared for here. In
Longfellow’s poem, Evangeline becomes a Sister of Mercy and ministers
here to the yellow fever sufferers in Philadelphia. Present institution
built, 1834; architecture of administration building, Corinthian,
marble. The Medical Department antedates the Pennsylvania Hospital.
Philadelphia College of Pharmacy, 145 North Tenth Street; established,
1821, at meeting in Carpenters’ Hall: consists of five large buildings
connected by a central building, Romanesque, Pompeian brick and Seneca
red stone; largest and first institution in the United States devoted to
pharmaceutical and chemical instruction. Laboratories and equipment are
without a peer, for most advanced training of men and women as
pharmacists and chemists. Museum has a large number of paintings of
famous scientists, also the Martindale Herbarium of over 200,000 plant
specimens. Library has about 14,000 volumes; around the gallery hang
portraits of men who have given largely of their time and substance to
the development and advancement of the College, and to the progress and
betterment of the city; artists represented, Charles Willson Peale, Hugh
H. Breckenridge, Henry R. Rittenberg. Collection of photographs of
pharmaceutical subjects, many rare and very valuable.
Preston Retreat, Twentieth and Hamilton Streets, on site of William
Penn’s residence; classic, marble: founded by Dr. James Preston in 1837,
for married women of good character and indigent circumstances, about to
be confined. One of the best equipped in the world.
St. Joseph’s Hospital, Girard Avenue and Sixteenth Street; colonial,
brick. Established first in the parish of St. Joseph’s Church, near
Fourth and Walnut Streets, for Irish famine refugees who became ill on
overcrowded and unventilated ships. Incorporated, 1849. Was third
general hospital in Philadelphia.
Wills’ Hospital, Eighteenth and Race Streets, facing Logan Circle;
classic, marble; founded, 1832, by James Wills, Jr., for the indigent
blind and lame. Now one of the best in the world as an institution for
the study and practice of ophthalmy.
Women’s Hospital of Philadelphia, North College Avenue. Oldest and
largest hospital in the world for women and children: organized, 1861.
Its motto is, “Woman’s work for woman by women.”
Woman’s Medical College of Philadelphia, Twenty-first Street and North
College Avenue; first college in the world organized for the education
of women for the medical profession. Incorporated, 1850. Dr. Ann
Preston, of first class to be graduated, was the founder of the Women’s
Hospital. Contains bas-relief tablet, “The Woman Physician”; sculptor,
Miss Clara Hill.
Academy of Music, Broad and Locust Streets. Seats 3000; established,
1857, for representation of operas in English, and distinguished
entertainments; opened with a magnificent ball, such as was never before
witnessed in Philadelphia; now home of the Philadelphia Orchestra, which
has had three conductors since its organization in 1900, Fritz Scheel,
Carl Pohlig, and Leopold Stokowski; all of whom have brought the
splendid body of players to a high standard of musical excellence. Dr.
Stokowski has said of the Academy: “The architect must have had great
knowledge of the laws governing sound, as the volumes are marvelously
arranged.”
The Mahler Symphony was given here in 1916, first time in America,
Stokowski, director, with chorus of 1000 voices. A memorial to Siegfried
Behrens will be in wall of lobby, portrait figure in relief, with Muse
of Music holding laurel wreath, Cararra marble, seven feet high, on base
of dark marble; sculptor, Guiseppe Donato.
The Maennerchor Society, 1643 North Broad Street. A men’s chorus of
active and associate members, founded, 1835, by Philip Mathias
Wolsieffer, director for eighteen years. The Maennerchor was the first
men’s chorus in America; they have sung for twenty-eight years at
opening of the German-American Charity Ball, in the Academy of Music.
They sang with the Vocal Union, choral parts of Beethoven’s Ninth
Symphony in 1874, first time given in America, William W. Wolsieffer
conducting. Won three prizes at National Saengerfest in Brooklyn,
Baltimore, and Newark.
Musical Fund Hall, Locust Street, west of Eighth Street, built, 1824.
Acoustic properties unsurpassed. Jenny Lind sang here. Now used by a
Labor Organization.
Philadelphia has over two hundred singing societies, and a long list of
very prominent musical organizations.
The Presser Foundation of Philadelphia, organized 1916, is the first
institution of its kind to be established in America. All of its
resources have been given by Mr. Theodore Presser. It includes a Home
for Retired Music Teachers, suggested by the Founder’s visit to the
Verdi “Casa di Riposo per Musicisti,” in Milan in 1899. Scholarships to
institutions of learning, the students to be selected by the President,
and Directors of the Musical Departments, and emergency aid relief to
musicians.
The University of Pennsylvania, Thirty-fourth Street and Woodland
Avenue, with a campus of one hundred and seventeen acres along the west
bank of the Schuylkill River and equipment of seventy buildings;
originated in the Charity School, organized, 1740, at Fourth and Arch
Streets; made an academy through the interest of Benjamin Franklin, in
1749; chartered, “The College of Philadelphia,” with power to confer
honorary and collegiate degrees, being the third oldest college in the
United States; in 1799 was organized and chartered as “The University of
the State of Pennsylvania,” making it the first institution in the
United States designated a university; also the first to establish
professional schools distinct from the college. The School of Medicine
was added in 1765, and has always maintained the most advanced
requirements and highest standards of scholarship for graduation; it was
founded by Dr. John Morgan, who held the first medical professorship in
America; he was physician in chief of the Continental Army, 1775-77. The
first American University Professorship in Law was established here,
1790; James Wilson held the position; President Washington attended his
lectures. In 1799, the University conferred on Washington the degree of
LL.D., and later, in 1826, set apart his birthday as University Day, on
which honorary degrees are conferred, with appropriate exercises. Nine
sons of this University signed the Declaration of Independence; seven,
the Constitution of the United States; twenty-one were members of the
Continental Congress; nine, in the United States Senate; eight were
Attorney-Generals of states or of the United States; six were Justices
of the Supreme Court; seven, Governors of states; and many others were
Officers in the Army and men in public life, who had received their
education in the old building, Fourth and Arch Streets, before 1800.
In 1802 the University was moved to Ninth and Chestnut Streets, and
occupied the presidential mansion, now site of the Post Office; in 1872,
moved to the present site in West Philadelphia. In 1912, under the
administration of Provost Edgar Fahs Smith, The University Extension
Courses were formed, and the college made into three departments with a
dean for each. The College, founded 1740, includes School of Arts;
Summer School; College Courses for Teachers; Courses in Biology and
Music. The Towne Scientific School, founded, 1875, includes,
Architecture, Chemistry, Science, Technology, Mechanical, Electrical and
Civil Engineering. Wharton School of Finance and Commerce, founded 1881,
includes, School of Accounts and Finance in Philadelphia; and the
Extension Schools of Finance and Accounts in Scranton and Wilkes-Barre.
Department of Music, through the unceasing and wise direction of Dr.
Hugh A. Clarke, has graduated hundreds of students in music, after a
four years’ course in Harmony, Counterpoint, Composition, and
Orchestration. The degree of Bachelor of Music has been conferred on
many who qualified to meet the requirements. The Graduate School was
founded, 1882; courses lead to degrees of master of arts, and doctor of
philosophy.
Other Departments are, the Law School, Thirty-fourth and Chestnut
Streets; building dedicated University Day, 1900, architects, Cope &
Stewardson, style similar to the English Renaissance as developed by Sir
Christopher Wren; Indiana limestone and dull red brick; contains the
Biddle Law Library, 55,000 volumes; The Black Memorial Collection of
English Legal Engravings, most complete in America; several original
documents by Benjamin Franklin, George Washington and other colonial
men; many objects of historical interest to members of the bar; a fine
collection of portraits include those of Algernon Sydney Biddle, by
Cecilia Beaux; Charles Chauncey, by Henry Inman; Thomas McKean, LL.D.,
by Robert W. Vonnoh; Richard Coxe McMurtrie, LL.D., by William M. Chase;
James Wilson, LL.D., by Albert Rosenthal, from a miniature; marble
busts of Daniel Webster and Jeremiah Sullivan; tablets and memorials.
Laboratory of Chemistry, Thirty-fourth and Spruce Streets; dedicated,
1894; shows the broad projecting eaves of brick architecture in the
Italian Renaissance; architects, Cope & Stewardson; it is one of the
best equipped chemical laboratories in America. The Engineering
building, Thirty-third and Locust Streets; dedicated, 1906; Georgian,
dark brick with limestone trimmings, architects, Cope & Stewardson;
houses the civil, electrical, and mechanical engineering departments;
best equipped of its kind. In its collection of portraits is that of
John Henry Towne, by William M. Hunt.
Laboratory of Hygiene, includes the Psychological Clinic; Department of
physical education; and Franklin Field, Thirty-third and Spruce Streets,
dedicated, 1895, seating capacity of the stadium about 62,000, was for
many years scene of annual football between the United States Military
and Naval Academies; gymnasium, facing Thirty-third Street, erected,
1903, English Collegiate, Gothic, dark red brick, with black headers
laid in Flemish bond, terra cotta and Indiana limestone trimmings,
floors and columns concrete; comprises Weightman Hall, exercising rooms,
and a large swimming pool; architects, Frank Miles Day & Brother; in
front on the terrace is statue of Benjamin Franklin at seventeen, as he
first entered Philadelphia in 1732; sculptor, Dr. R. Tait McKenzie,
pedestal designed by Professor Paul P. Cret. In the entrance is bronze
tablet in relief, full figure portrait of Charles S. Bayne in baseball
uniform, “1895 College,” sculptor, R. Tait McKenzie; also other
memorials.
Department of Archæology, founded, 1889, by the late Provost William
Pepper, M.D., LL.D., museum, Spruce Street, near Thirty-fourth Street,
open free daily, 10.00 A.M. to 5.00 P.M.; Sunday 2.00 to 6.00 P.M. The
treatment of this building and the courtyard, begun 1897, is among the
most successful works of architecture in this country; it was inspired
by the round, arched, brick architecture of Northern Italy, about
twelfth century; details especially suggesting the old Church of San
Stefano in Bologna; roof of Spanish tiles gives added charm; architects
in coöperation, Wilson Eyre, Jr., Cope & Stewardson, Frank Miles Day &
Brother. Has valuable collections illustrating the history of mankind;
Egyptian, Cretan, Etruscan, and Babylonian antiquities, famous tablets
from Nippur, and the Dillwyn-Parish collection of Græco-Roman papyri,
among which are the oldest known fragments of the Gospel of St. Matthew.
During 1916, the museum maintained four expeditions in the field: in
Egypt, China, Siberia, and one on the Amazon, which will return with
collections they have gathered. Among the portraits in the museum are,
Mrs. William D. Frismuth, donor of collection of musical instruments,
and Franklin Hamilton Cushing, ethnologist, both by Thomas Eakins;
bronze statue of Dr. William Pepper, by Carl Bitter, is in the Italian
garden; free public illustrated lectures are given Saturdays, 3.30 P.M.,
from November to March.
Library, founded, 1749, with volumes bearing accession dates of 1749,
given by Benjamin Franklin; First Provost, William Smith; Louis XVI of
France; and others, now contains about 450,000 volumes, and many special
collections; present building dedicated, 1891, Thirty-fourth and Locust
Streets, red brick, sandstone, and terra cotta, Furness, Evans &
Company, architects; among the portraits here are Benjamin Franklin,
LL.D., replica, by Thomas Gainsborough, R.A., of his original; William
Wordsworth, poet, from life, by Henry Inman in 1844; Joseph G.
Rosengarten, LL.D., by B. A. Osnis, and the entire class of 1811 minus
one, in silhouette, cut at Peale’s Museum; here also is the famous
orrery and large clock made by David Rittenhouse for this university.
Houston Hall, memorial to Henry Howard Houston, Jr., class of ’78,
Spruce Street above Thirty-fourth. North Conshohocken and Indiana
limestone; architect’s design of two students of the School of
Architecture, developed by Frank Miles Day; was planned by Provost C. C.
Harrison, to weld the cosmopolitan body of students into one democratic
brotherhood, which has now become a world-wide movement in college life;
contains trophy rooms, pool tables, and publication office of “Old
Penn,” until 1918 the official weekly; courses of Free Public Lectures
are given by members of the Faculty, and men from other American and
foreign Universities; services by eminent ministers are conducted each
Sunday morning. Among the many portraits in Houston Hall are, Henry
Howard Houston, Jr., by Cecilia Beaux; David Rittenhouse, by Charles
Willson Peale; Henry Reed, and Henry Vethake, both by Sully.
The University Hospital, Thirty-fourth and Spruce Streets; founded by
the late Provost Dr. William Pepper, 1874, covers two city blocks;
medical staff consists of more than one hundred and fifty physicians and
one hundred nurses; the Surgical Building erected, 1914; Jacobean style,
brick and limestone, architects, Brockie & Hastings, contains marble
bust on pedestal of Dr. William Pepper, Provost, 1881-94; bronze mural
tablet with portrait of late Dr. John H. Musser, sculptor, Dr. R. Tait
McKenzie; and many bronze memorials. The Medical Laboratory, dedicated,
1904, on Hamilton Walk, English Collegiate, of Middle seventeenth
century, hard burnt brick and buff Indiana limestone; architects, Cope &
Stewardson; interior finished in white Italian marble; is one of the
largest and best equipped in America. Contains nearly complete
collection of oil portraits of staff of physicians from 1765, including
painting of David Hayes Agnew, M.D., LL.D., at the close of a clinic in
Medical Hall, all the subordinate figures in the group are likenesses,
among them, Dr. J. William White, Dr. Joseph Leidy, Jr., and the artist,
Thomas Eakins; Professor John Morgan, founder of the Medical School,
after the original by Angelica Kauffman; Professor William Osler, LL.D.,
and De Forest Willard, by W. M. Chase; Professor Philip Syng Physick,
first American to be elected member of Royal Academy, France, by Henry
Inman, from life in 1836; Professor Benjamin Rush, by John Neagle; Dr.
J. William White, by John S. Sargent; and bronze bust on pedestal of Dr.
Joseph Leidy.
The Wistar Institute of Anatomy and Biology, Thirty-sixth Street and
Woodland Avenue, founded, 1892, for extension of Wistar and Homer
Museums; first university institute exclusively for research in anatomy
and biology, buff brick and light terra cotta, fireproof, built, 1808,
architects, George W. and W. D. Hewitt; in 1905 this institute became
the clearing house for anatomy in America, and in 1906 was appointed
Central United States Institute for Brain Investigation; the five
principal independent anatomical journals of the United States are
published here. Open to the public daily, except Sundays and holidays,
9.00 A.M. to 4.00 P.M., Saturdays, 9.00 A.M. to 12.00 M. Contains bronze
bust, sculptor, Samuel Murray, 1890, of General Isaac J. Wistar, Sc.D.,
who gave the building and endowment; in bronze vase are his ashes; also
in three bronze vases are the ashes of Joseph Leidy, M.D., LL.D., John
Adams Ryder, Ph.D., and Professor Edward Drinker Cope. Opposite is The
Architectural School, Thirty-sixth Street and Woodland Avenue, second
only in importance and numbers to the Ecole des Beaux Arts, Paris: the
esprit de corps of faculty and students is most pronounced; students
and graduates, of late years, have won more competitive prizes, and
scholarships, than those of all other American schools combined. The
four years’ course leads to degree; special two years’ course, and
summer six weeks’ course.
The Botanic Gardens, established, 1894, face Hamilton Walk, open to
visitors from sunrise to sunset; greenhouses filled with rare plants
from all the world; lily and lotus ponds are attractive feature of the
campus. Open-air plays are given here. The Vivarium, established 1898,
has fresh and salt water aquaria, first vivarium ever connected with any
educational institution. Zoölogical Laboratory, on Hamilton Walk and
Thirty-ninth Street, built, 1910; architects, Cope & Stewardson, hard
burnt brick and Indiana limestone, English Collegiate, of middle
seventeenth century; considered best working laboratory for its purpose
in this country, contains many famous collections.
Veterinary Building and Hospital, Thirty-ninth Street and Woodland
Avenue, constructed about a square courtyard; one of best equipped of
its kind. Architects, Cope & Stewardson, English Collegiate, seventeenth
century, hard burnt yellow brick and limestone trimmings, roof green
slate, built, 1906-07.
School of Dentistry, “Thomas W. Evans Museum and Dental Institute,”
Fortieth and Spruce Streets, Collegiate Gothic, time of Henry VIII, hard
burnt red and black brick and Indiana limestone, built, 1914, architect,
John T. Windrim; the grotesques ornamenting the band courses, while in
the spirit of the Middle Ages, are modern in subject and caricature;
most complete edifice in the world, devoted to the science of dentistry.
Museum contains the priceless Evans collection, gifts from the nobility
of Europe, portraits and busts of Dr. Evans.
Henry Phipps Institute for the study, prevention, and treatment of
tuberculosis, founded, 1903, northeast corner of Seventh and Lombard
Streets; facing Starr Garden Park, a civic center of the Playgrounds
Commission; is colonial style, designed by Grosvenor Atterbury, New
York, brick trimmed with white marble.
Flower Astronomical Observatory at Llanerch on West Chester Pike,
architect, Edgar V. Seeler, 1895. Open to visitors every Thursday
evening during collegiate year, 7.00 P.M. to 10.00 P.M.; is equipped
with an 18 inch equatorial telescope, and other instruments of latest
and most approved design.
Dormitory Houses, Jacobean, thirty in number, begun in 1895, suggest the
Oxford and Cambridge colleges; carved grotesque bosses on main cornices
are reminiscent of the Gothic period; they are amusing, and display an
unusual amount of imagination; material, hard burnt yellow brick and
Indiana limestone; architects, Cope & Stewardson; entrance through two
gateways known as Memorial Tower, gift of the Alumni, dedicated in 1901,
in memory of University of Pennsylvania men who served in the
Spanish-American War, corner-stone was laid by General Miles, in 1900;
and the Provosts’ Tower, named as memorial to the Provosts of the
University of Pennsylvania, whose twelve names are carved on medallions,
from William Smith to Charles Custis Harrison.
William Penn Charter School, 8 to 10 South Twelfth Street, was planned
in 1684 at a meeting of the Provincial Council, Governor Penn presiding.
In 1689, William Penn, writing from England to Thomas Lloyd, President
of Council, instructed him to set up a “Public Grammar School in
Philadelphia,” the school was incorporated in 1698, and George Keith
engaged as head master, 1699. In 1701, William Penn, while on a visit to
America, granted the school a charter from his own hand; on the same day
he chartered the city itself. This school is the oldest existing
chartered school in America; a second and more liberal charter was
granted, 1708, and a third charter, under which the school is still
conducted, 1711; the originals of all three of these charters are in the
school’s possession. The school will be moved to Pinehurst, the Waln
estate, twenty-two acres on School Lane near Wissahickon Avenue,
Germantown, acquired by gift; field now used for their athletic sports,
surface having been adapted for the purpose by the Newhall Engineering
Company, Philadelphia, who made there a football oval; an eighteen foot
quarter-mile track; and an eighteen foot 220 yard straightway; drainage
of these tracks and oval is such, that in eight years, not one scheduled
contest has been postponed on account of condition of the ground.
Central High School, Broad and Green Streets; established, 1836. In view
of the increasing income and diminishing debt of the nation, the United
States Congress in 1836 passed a law, authorizing the distribution of
surplus revenue among the states, to be disposed of as their
legislatures might enact; Pennsylvania devoted her share, over $70,000,
to public education, and the controllers erected a high school in
Philadelphia, which was completed, 1838, east side of Juniper Street,
below Market Street. In 1853, the original building was sold; present
structure occupied in 1900. Conferring of academic degrees dates from
1849. Memorial window to Edward T. Steel in assembly room.
Girard College, College and Corinthian Avenues, for the care and
training of orphan boys; founded by Stephen Girard, a native of France,
who at his death, in 1831, left his estate for this purpose. Main
building, architect, Thomas Ustick Walter, architect of the Capitol at
Washington, probably the finest architectural specimen in Philadelphia,
modeled after a Greek temple, white marble, covers an area of 34,344
feet, exclusive of eleven marble steps by which it is approached on
every side; a colonnade of 34 Corinthian columns aid in supporting the
marble roof, each column 6 feet in diameter and 55 feet high, the
diameter of corner columns being increased 1½ inches to overcome
apparent reduction of size from their insulated position; bases 9 feet 3
inches in diameter, 3 feet 2 inches high, capitals 8 feet 6 inches high
and 9 feet 4 inches wide; each shaft, as well as the bases, consists of
a single piece, without vertical joints; at each end of the three story
building is a vestibule, the ceilings of which are supported by eight
columns, whose shafts are composed of a single stone; corner-stone was
laid July 4, 1834, and the completed building transferred to the Board
of Directors, 1847. In the first vestibule is white marble sarcophagus,
with body of Stephen Girard, and his statue by Gevelot; the memorial
room contains portrait of Girard, by J. R. Lambdin, copy from posthumous
portrait by Bass Otis in Masonic Temple; interesting collection of
furniture; pictures; china; silverware, and fine marble bust of Napoleon
I, by Canova, presented to Girard by Joseph Bonaparte.
Present capacity, 1520 boys, admitted from six to ten years of age and
graduated fourteen to sixteen years of age, preference of admission is
given to those born within the old Philadelphia city limits, next in
consideration those born in Pennsylvania, and third group, boys born in
the cities of New York and New Orleans. There are several hundred on
waiting list.
Equipment comprises ten white marble buildings for school and house
purposes, chapel seating 1600, and other buildings, also plant for heat,
light, and power, inclosed on forty acres with a ten-foot high stone
wall. Endowment now about $29,000,000. Soldiers’ and sailors’ monument
on campus, in memory of the graduates who served in the Civil War;
sculptor, J. Massey Rhind. Clergymen are excluded by Girard’s will,
“that the boys might be kept free from denominational controversies.”
Bible has always had a foremost place in the teaching of the college;
Chapel speakers are laymen of prominence in the professional and
business world.
Residence of John Fitch in 1791, 462 North Second Street; in 1790 John
Fitch’s steamboats made regular trips; Petty’s Island was used as a port
for the Perseverance, one of the five steamboats that Fitch
constructed for use on the Delaware, before Robert Fulton placed his
Clermont on the Hudson; it was blown up at moorings on this island.
Residence of Edgar Allan Poe from 1843-44 west side of Seventh Street,
above Spring Garden (old number 234). Bush Hill Mansion, on west side of
Seventeenth Street below Spring Garden, erected by Andrew Hamilton in
1740; front lawn sloping to Vine Street, was scene of a Fourth of July
celebration held in 1788, after the last of the nine states that made
the Constitution effective came in; the procession dispersed here at
“Union Green,” James Wilson, a signer of the Constitution, delivered an
oration, and there were other ceremonies. Springettsbury, built 1736-39,
called after the name of William Penn’s first wife, manor-house of the
Penns; burnt in 1808; part of site is now occupied by the Preston
Retreat, Eighteenth Street below Spring Garden. Northeast corner of
Broad and Walnut Streets, site of Vauxhall Garden; a ball was given here
in honor of General Andrew Jackson after his victory at New Orleans,
January 8, 1814. Penn Treaty Park, Beach Street and East Columbia
Avenue. Knight’s Wharf at edge of Green Street, in Northern Liberties;
near here Poole’s bridge crossed Pegg’s Run at Front Street, it was
named after one Poole, a Friend, whose mansion was here, recalls the
Mischianza invitation: “The favor of your meeting the subscribers to the
Mischianza at Knight’s Wharf, near Poole’s Bridge, tomorrow at half past
three, is desired. (Signed) Henry Calder. Sunday, 17th May, 1778. For
river parade to the Garden.” Preparations for this magnificent
entertainment, the erection of numerous and vast pavilions around the
Wharton mansion, and their decorations by André, Delancey, and other
gallant officers, was the talk of the town for weeks. The Wharton
mansion, Walnut Grove, used by the family in summer, was where Fifth
Street, near Washington Avenue, is now; the British had possession there
in the spring of 1778; Miss Peggy Shippen’s portrait was sketched by
Major André in Mischianza costume. Philadelphia then excelled all other
colonial cities in size, culture, and importance. Southwark Shot Tower,
built, 1809, Carpenter Street between Front and Second, first plant in
the United States which made bullets. Site of Hill’s Shipyard, Queen
Street wharf below Cathrine Street. Original Swedish houses on both
sides of Queen Street below Front. Site of United States first navy
yard, 1201 South Front Street.
Obelisk northeast corner Twenty-third and Market Streets gives a history
of the old Market Street bridge, built 1801-05; inscriptions to be
recut.
Colonial and Revolutionary suburb, six miles from Philadelphia; founded
in 1683 by Francis Daniel Pastorius from Sommerhausen, Germany, one of
the best educated men in the Colonies; he had received the degree of
Doctor of Laws at Nuremberg; was a member of the Assembly from 1687-91.
Earliest settlers were Friends and German Religionists, highly
cultivated, and skilled in weaving, paper-making, printing, and other
trades. First railroad in America to use steam was the Philadelphia and
Reading to Germantown in 1832. First successful locomotive made in
America was Matthias Baldwin’s “Old Ironsides,” used on this road, only
taken out in fair weather. Germantown Avenue follows an old Indian
trail, made a turnpike in 1800, on which are still many historic houses
of quaint colonial architecture; rough native stone with overhanging
hipped roofs and a projecting pent, over doorstep. Stenton, built in
1728, brick, colonial, near Wayne Junction, residence of James Logan,
Secretary to William Penn, 1727-34;
President of Council, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of
Pennsylvania; his guests were Franklin, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe,
Lafayette, John Randolph; occupied by General Washington, August, 1777,
on way to the Battle of Brandywine; by General Howe during Battle of
Germantown; Washington dined here with Dr. Logan, July, 1787, while the
Constitutional Convention was in session. There is a curious underground
passage from cellar to stable; the stream on the place was named
“Wingohocking” for an Indian chief, who himself took the name of Logan;
now in charge of the Pennsylvania Society of Colonial Dames, who have
refurnished it with original pieces and relics of the Logan family; open
daily 1.00 P.M. to 6.00 P.M., excepting Sunday and Thursday. Admission
fee, fifteen cents. Northwest corner of Apsley Street and Germantown
Avenue, Loudoun, built in 1801, residence of Thomas Armat, now occupied
by Armat and Logan descendants; many wounded Americans died and were
buried here in Battle of Germantown. 4825 Germantown Avenue, house built
by Christopher Ottinger in 1781; walls two feet thick; rafters unhewn
trees; his son, born here in 1804, was Captain Douglas Ottinger in the
United States Revenue Marine; he invented the Ottinger life car which,
in 1849, equipped eight life-saving stations on the New Jersey coast.
4810 Germantown Avenue, site of Wagner house, built, 1747; used as
hospital after the Battle of Germantown, stable doors were taken for
operating tables; many died and were buried in a trench in the rear.
4908 Germantown Avenue, built in 1760, was bought, 1828, by John S.
Henry, whose son, Alexander Henry, was three times Mayor of
Philadelphia and a member of Congress.
Northeast corner of East Logan and Germantown Avenue, Lower or Hood’s
Burial Ground, presented to borough in 1693 by Jan Streepers; John F.
Watson placed stones over graves of General Agnew and Colonel Bird,
British officers killed in Battle of Germantown; see Burial Grounds.
5109 Germantown Avenue, site of Thones Kunder’s home, part of original
north wall is still standing; first meetings of the Society of Friends
in Germantown were held here; and a public protest against slavery was
made in 1688; the paper, written and signed by Pastorius and three
others, was forwarded to the Yearly Meeting in Burlington; Thones
Kunder, by trade a dyer, was the ancestor of the Conard and Conrad
families, also of Sir Samuel Cunard, founder of the Cunard Steamship
Line; he died in 1729.
South side of Manheim Street, west of Germantown Avenue, residence of
Jacques Marie Roset, who came to America in 1792, first to introduce the
tomato plant into Germantown; his granddaughter was the wife of Anthony
J. Drexel, Esq.; opposite, 153 Manheim Street was Taggert’s field;
British Infantry encamped here. Manheim Street, corner of Morris Street,
Germantown Cricket Club, organized in 1854; William Rotch Wister, was
the first American to study the science and points of the play, and
teach it; he was known as “The father of American cricket”; first
American field, “Belfield Cricket Club,” Stenton and Olney Avenues, was
the Wister pasture and orchard; second club, “Young America,” field,
rear of residence of Thomas A. Newhall, Esq., Manheim and Hansberry
Streets; they consolidated in 1889. Queen Lane, west of Pulaski Avenue,
site of Potter’s Field in 1765, a burial place for “all strangers,
negroes and mulattoes as die in any part of Germantown.”
5106 Germantown Avenue, residence of Commodore James Barron, Commandant
Philadelphia Navy Yard in 1842; Captain of the Chesapeake, when
captured by the British ship Leopard; in 1807 he killed Commodore
Stephen Decatur in a duel at Bladensburg, Maryland. 5157 Germantown
Avenue, residence and printing office, now altered, of Philip R. Freas;
publisher of The Village Telegraph, in 1830; later The Germantown
Telegraph. St. Stephen’s Methodist Church, opened in 1856; site of
Frederick Fraley’s carpenter shop; gun carriages were made here for the
American Army; Washington was a frequent visitor. 5140 Germantown
Avenue, residence of Gilbert Stuart, 1794-95; the barn was used as his
studio; portrait of Washington, now in the Athenaeum of Boston, was
painted here; also a full length portrait of “Cornplanter,” the Indian
chief. 5253-55 Germantown Avenue, formerly one dwelling, Owen Wister,
novelist, was born here July 14, 1860, son of Dr. Owen J. and Sarah
Butler Wister; his mother was a daughter of Pierce and Fanny Kemble
Butler. 5219 Germantown Avenue, residence of John Bringhurst, carriage
maker, 1775-95; a founder of the Germantown Academy; in 1780 he made a
“chariot” for General Washington, whose arms and crest were properly
displayed; cost £210 in gold; Martha Washington rode to Mount Vernon in
it. Colonel Bird, British officer, died here. 5249 Germantown Avenue,
built by Dr. Owen Wister, was his residence from 1860-70, he then moved
to Butler Place on York Road; 5253 Germantown Avenue site of Christopher
Saur’s residence and printing office, who arrived in Germantown, 1724;
secured a printing outfit from Germany in 1738; published the first
German newspaper in America, 1739; printed the first Bible in European
language in America, 1743; Christopher Saur, Jr., was Bishop of the
Dunkard Church, 1753. 5242-44 Germantown Avenue, site of Indian Queen
Tavern, which gave the name to Queen Street. 5261 Germantown Avenue,
erected by John Wister in 1744, stones were quarried from a hill in the
rear; joists from oaks in Wister’s woods; family removed to Penllyn
during occupancy by British, where Sally Wister, a daughter, wrote her
charming “Diary.” The British General, James Agnew, lived here at the
time of Battle of Germantown; was brought back wounded, and died here;
now owned and occupied by Wister descendants. 5300 Germantown Avenue,
corner of Queen Street, parsonage of Trinity Lutheran Church; was one of
the Saur properties; first type cast in America, in 1772, was made in
the cellar of this house; church built, 1837; many well-known
Germantowners lie in the graveyard. 5275-77 Germantown Avenue,
Germantown National Bank, 1825-68; John Fanning Watson was cashier, he
lived at 5277; building was occupied by Thomas Jefferson, Secretary of
State, and Edmund Randolph, Attorney General of the United States, in
1793, during the yellow fever in Philadelphia.
Northeast corner of Germantown Avenue and Coulter Street, St. Luke’s
Protestant Episcopal Church, first Episcopal Church in Germantown,
built, 1811; land given by Thomas Armat, Esq.; John Fanning Watson, the
annalist, is buried in the churchyard. Northwest corner of Germantown
Avenue, and Coulter Street, Friends’ Meeting, land given by Jacob
Shoemaker, fifty acres, in 1693; in the library is a photograph of the
first protest against slavery. 5425 Germantown Avenue, Masonic Lodge
room; site, residence of A. Bronson Alcott, where Louisa May Alcott,
authoress, was born. 5430 Germantown Avenue, residence of Captain Albert
Ashmead, of the Philadelphia County Troop who commanded a troop of
cavalry, and escorted General Lafayette from Bristol to Philadelphia in
1824; French Embassy during 1793. 5434 Germantown Avenue, residence of
John Ashmead, father of Captain Albert Ashmead; who designed and made
the first carriages known as Germantown wagons, in 1824, in the shop at
rear of house; also first plows with wrought iron mold board; Lafayette
purchased four, for his La Grange farm in France.
Market Square, Battle of Germantown fought here, September 25, 1777;
here was the market house, prison, stocks, and public scales; in
February, 1764, several hundred Paxtang boys, from banks of the
Conestoga and Susquehanna Rivers, encamped here; they came east to
murder the peaceful Moravian Indians, sheltered in Philadelphia, and
were met by Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Willing, Benjamin Chew, and
others, who persuaded them to return. Monument erected in 1883, to Civil
War soldiers and sailors, pedestal with tablets, containing names of
Germantown soldiers and sailors, at base are two coast defense mortars
from the Civil War, two bronze cannon on wheels from the United States
Arsenal; the enclosure is of musket barrels and bayonets, used during
Civil War, and broken cannon from British frigate Augusta, sunk by
American batteries during Revolutionary War. Market Square Presbyterian
Church, originally German Reformed, built in 1733; Count Zinzendorf
preached his first sermon in America here, December, 1741, and last on
leaving, June, 1742; Washington worshiped here while living in the
Morris house opposite; a battalion of Ninth Virginia, captured by the
British, was confined here.
5442 Germantown Avenue, Morris House, Washington’s summer residence, in
1793-94, built by David Deshler, 1772-73; Sir William Howe occupied it
after the battle in 1777; in 1804, it was bought by Mr. Perot for a
country residence, and became the property of his son-in-law, Mr.
Morris; the yard is kept in the simple elegance of colonial times. 5450
Germantown Avenue, in 1790 residence of Thomas Armat, who lived later at
“Loudoun.” 5452 Germantown Avenue, erected in 1711 by John Ashmead,
great grandfather of Captain Albert Ashmead; front rebuilt 1790. 5454
Germantown Avenue, occupied in 1742 by Count Zinzendorf; commencement of
Moravian Seminary, now in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Saving Fund Building,
site, residence of Jacob Tellner, first stone house built in Germantown;
William Penn present at the roof raising; he once preached here.
School House Lane and Greene Street, Germantown Academy, built, 1759;
colonial, native stone; founded by Christopher Saur, and others of
German birth, to furnish education in “English, High Dutch, and the
German language.” It has always held high rank as a school; the bell was
brought to Philadelphia in 1774, in the tea ship Polly, the cargo was
not allowed to land, it was taken back to England, and returned here
when the war was ended; telescope used by Washington during battle, when
the building was used as a hospital, is here; several British soldiers
were buried in the yard; cricket was first played in America here, by
British officers; Bank of Pennsylvania was brought here, escorted by
McPherson’s Blues in 1798, during the second yellow fever epidemic in
Philadelphia; gymnasium on Green Street, modern. On School House Lane,
farther west, is Cricket Field of the William Penn Charter School.
Northeast corner of School House Lane and Germantown Avenue, Mutual Fire
Insurance Company, in the office is “Shag Rag,” an old hand engine,
imported from England, 1764; site, De la Plaine house, Whitefield
preached from balcony to about 500 people in the Square. Northwest
corner of Germantown Avenue and School House Lane, Germantown Bank,
chartered, 1813; site of Germantown Library in 1806; used by United
States Bank in 1798, escorted from Philadelphia by body of Light Horse.
5516-18-20 Germantown Avenue, site, King of Prussia Tavern in 1757, the
sign was painted by Gilbert Stuart; a stage coach, with awning, ran from
King of Prussia to the “George Inn,” Second and Arch Streets, three
times a week. Germantown Avenue north of Chelten Avenue, Vernon Park,
residence of John Wister, member of Congress until 1883; now belongs to
the city; mansion, built in 1803, is used as museum by the Site Relic
Society; marble statue of John Wister, near the door, made in Italy,
given by his son, Jones Wister, who posed for the figure. Free library
building in Park. South side of Haines Street, east of Chew, still
stands a farmhouse; residence of Christopher Ludwig in 1777; appointed
“Baker General” to American Army; said to be the original of Harvey
Birch in Cooper’s novel, “The Spy.”
Southeast corner Germantown Avenue and High Street, site of the
Morris-Littell house, was residence of Dr. Christopher Witt, physician,
botanist, musician, artist, astronomer, poet; originally one of the
hermits of the Wissahickon; friend of John Bartram and Francis Daniel
Pastorius; an oil portrait of Johannes Kelpius, painted by Dr. Witt in
1705, is said to be the first oil portrait painted in America, now at
Pennsylvania Historical Society; he started the first botanical garden
in America, twenty years earlier than Bartram’s. Now yard of high school
building. South side of High Street, two squares east from Germantown
Avenue, St. Michael’s Protestant Episcopal Church; window of St. Michael
after Guido Reni by William and Annie Lee Willet; grave of Dr.
Christopher Witt is here; died in 1765, aged 90; site of old Warner
burial ground; British and American soldiers were buried here.
Methodist Church, 6019 Germantown Avenue, site, Green Tree Tavern in
1748, kept by Francis Daniel Pastorius until 1754; General Anthony
Wayne came this far, time of battle; Pastorius was the hero in
Whittier’s “Pennsylvania Pilgrim.” Died in 1719; was buried, probably,
in the Friends’ burial ground, Germantown Avenue above Coulter Street.
Southwest corner of Walnut Lane and Germantown Avenue, “Wyck,” built in
1690; thought to be the oldest house now in Germantown; was used as
hospital and operating room after battle; Lafayette was entertained here
July, 1825. 6043 Germantown Avenue, southeast corner of Walnut Lane, was
bought in 1775 by Dr. William Shippen as a summer home; center of fierce
skirmish during battle; Pennsylvania manual training school was here
under Dr. George Junkin, who was afterwards President of Washington and
Lee University; his daughter was married to General Stonewall Jackson;
in 1832, Dr. Junkin was President of Lafayette College, Easton; in 1851
this property was bought by Charlotte Cushman, actress.
Germantown Avenue above Herman Street, Mennonite Meeting House, founded,
1708; present building erected, 1770; William Rittenhouse, first pastor;
Brigadier General Agnew was mortally wounded near here. 6205 Germantown
Avenue, site of house built in 1738 by Dirck Keyser, a silk merchant,
who came from Amsterdam in 1688. 6239 Germantown Avenue, was known as
Washington Tavern in 1793. 6306 Germantown Avenue, Johnson House, in
thickest of fight; time of battle the British swarmed through, and
cleared everything edible; family fled to the cellar. Germantown Avenue,
north of Washington Lane, built, 1775, Concord School House; now
Charter Oak Library. North of library is the Upper Burial Ground; has
probably the oldest existing stone to a German in Pennsylvania,
Cornelius Tyson, buried in 1716; graves of the Lippard family are here,
ancestors of George Lippard, author; American soldiers’ memorial stone
was erected by John Fanning Watson. Southeast corner of Germantown
Avenue and Duval Street, site, “Pomona,” residence Colonel Thomas
Forrest, artillery officer; later member of the Sixteenth and
Seventeenth Congress. 6338 Germantown Avenue, site, the Ship House,
built, 1760; had representation of a ship on south gable; rear, site of
first public hall in Germantown.
Northeast corner of Germantown Avenue and Johnson Street, Chew House,
“Cliveden,” known as the “Germantown Battle Field,” built in 1760 by
Benjamin Chew, Attorney General of the Province, member of Council,
later Chief Justice; colonial, solid and heavy masonry; forming
admirable fortification; was the scene of most important battle in
Germantown, October 4, 1777; family were away; house partly furnished
was left in charge of servants, the building was battered with bullets,
holes still shown in the doors. Northwest corner of Germantown Avenue
and Johnson Streets, Upsala, one of the finest examples of colonial
architecture; built in 1798 by John Johnson; is still occupied by his
descendants; during the battle, Americans put their cannon in the yard
to fire on the Chew House, opposite. Northeast corner of Germantown
Avenue and Upsal Street, Billmyer house, built in 1727; Washington stood
on the horse block, telescope in hand, to penetrate the smoke of battle,
and discover force of the enemy at Chew House. Woodwork bears marks of
bullets and attempts by soldiers to set it on fire; bought by Michael
Billmyer in 1788, a celebrated German painter, whose business plant was
here; tablet placed by Site and Relic Society.
6611 Germantown Avenue, parsonage of Dunkard Meeting House, said to be
over two hundred years old; near it, in the battle, General Nash was
mortally wounded and Major Witherspoon, son of Rev. John Witherspoon,
President of Princeton College, killed by the same cannon ball; they
were buried in St. Michael’s Lutheran Churchyard. 6613 Germantown
Avenue, mother church of the Brethren, or Dunkards, in America; who came
here in 1719; Church was organized by Peter Becker, first pastor, in
1723, present building, erected, 1770, has tablet to Christopher Saur in
the meeting house, he published the first American quarto edition of the
Bible, 1743; in the graveyard is buried Alexander Mack, founder of the
Dunkard sect in Germany, who came to America, 1729.
Southeast corner of Germantown Avenue and Phil-Ellena Street, St.
Michael’s Lutheran Church, founded 1737; in 1742, Rev. Henry Melchoir
Muhlenberg had charge here, and of St. John’s in Philadelphia; pews were
placed in 1750; during the battle, the organ was destroyed by British
soldiers, who ran along the streets blowing the pipes; in the graveyard
is buried Christopher Ludwig, and other patriots. 6749 Germantown
Avenue, residence George Hesser; Elizabeth Drinker’s journal, written
while staying here in 1793, during yellow fever epidemic in
Philadelphia, gives interesting local details of life in Germantown.
7301 Germantown Avenue, opposite Allen’s Lane, Lutheran Theological
Seminary, site, “Mount Airy,” summer residence of Chief Justice William
Allen; Lafayette was entertained here; later a school was conducted by
Benjamin C. Constant, “The American Classical and Military Institute.”
General Meade and his brother, also General Beauregard, were educated
here. Southeast corner of Germantown and Gowen Avenues, now part of
Lutheran Theological Seminary; residence, in 1792, of Joseph Miller,
whose daughter was married to James Gowen; their son, Franklin B. Gowen,
was born and lived here many years, also his brother, James E. Gowen.
7406 Germantown Avenue, Mount Airy, Pennsylvania Institution for Deaf,
semi-deaf and blind-deaf; founded in 1820 by David G. Seixas, who
gathered deaf street roamers in his home, taught, fed, and clothed them;
a school was planned, Bishop White presiding; constitution adopted, and
directors chosen; now a splendidly equipped trade teaching department
for boys and girls; articulation, and lip reading taught; architecture,
Norman.
Queen Lane, two blocks west on Wissahickon Avenue, Carlton, residence of
Henry Hall; Washington’s headquarters, August, 1777, and two days in
September, before and immediately after the Battle of Brandywine; when
the British occupied Germantown, the Hessian detachment encamped from
here to the Schuylkill River: General Kuyphansen’s headquarters: beyond
the house, toward Queen Lane reservoir, is a granite monument erected by
Sons of the Revolution in 1895 to commemorate the earlier encampment of
the American army at this point. Corner of Rittenhouse Street and
Lincoln Drive, birthplace of David Rittenhouse, Pennsylvania’s first and
greatest astronomer, born April 8, 1732; house erected in 1707; his
grandfather, William Rittenhouse, came to America in 1690; first paper
maker in America; mill located near the house.
East Logan Street, across Wissahickon Avenue, the picturesque Wakefield
Mills and residence of Thomas and Sarah Fisher, née Logan, in 1795,
granddaughter of James Logan, of Stenton; passing Wakefield, Old York
Road is soon reached. Jewish Hospital on the right. Old York Road, on
left, residence of Pierce Butler, bought in 1812; he was a member of the
Constitutional Convention, and Senator from South Carolina; his son,
Pierce Butler, Jr., married Fanny Kemble; present residence of Owen
Wister, their grandson; the British outpost was stationed near here.
Church Lane and Wingohocking Creek, site of Roberts Mill, built in 1683;
first in the country; built by Richard Townsend, a passenger on the
Welcome with William Penn; back of mill, British had a small redoubt,
guarding their encampment in Germantown. Northeast corner of Church Lane
and Dunton Street, Spencer farmhouse; Thomas Godfrey, inventor of the
quadrant, was born here; he died in 1749. Northwest corner of Haines
Street and Limekiln Turnpike, Philadelphia National Cemetery, thirteen
acres, founded in 1885; soldiers of the War of the Rebellion are buried
here. Farther along Limekiln Turnpike left wing of Washington’s army
moved down this road, and a sharp encounter occurred with an outpost of
British.
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