Part 8

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.

OTHER SQUARES AND PARKS

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;

[Illustration: 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.

HISTORIC INSTITUTIONS OF PHILADELPHIA

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

[Illustration: GEORGE WASHINGTON

From the collection in Independence Hall

_Painted by Rembrandt Peale_]