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.