FAIRMOUNT PARK
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.