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.
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.