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.