MONTGOMERY COUNTY AUTOMOBILE TRIP TO VALLEY FORGE
(Return by Schuylkill River Drive to Philadelphia)
From Thirty-second and Market Streets, Philadelphia, out Lancaster Avenue, first turnpike in United States, completed in 1794, pattern for all subsequent roadbeds; main highway to Pittsburgh, once thronged with teams, coaches, and Conestoga wagons with six horses, making twenty miles a day; trip from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh and return, 333 miles, in six weeks; wayside inns were located a mile apart. Originally part of Indian trail; later King’s Highway; Lancaster Pike; Main Line; now Lincoln Highway, made free of tolls July 15, 1917. Overbrook, Roman Catholic Theological Seminary, St. Charles Borromeo, contains painting, “Crucifixion,” by the late Thomas Eakens. The Pennsylvania Institution for the Instruction of the Blind, designed by E. A. Allen, Spanish Renaissance, 1898, architects, Cope & Stewardson, considered finest residential school for blind in the world, particularly well-equipped for the purpose. Montgomery County, near Narberth station, old Merion meeting house, built, 1695, stone, sharp roof, curious pointed gables over doors, peg is still shown where William Penn hung his hat when he rose to preach; beyond is site of Penn cottage, built, 1695. Merion, Dr. Barnes’ Art Museum, built of imported French limestone; modern art. Ardmore, St. Paul’s Lutheran Church and burial ground, log church, built, 1769, present church, 1873. Red Lion Inn, still standing.
Haverford, Haverford College for boys, founded in 1833 by Society of Orthodox Friends, life is focused inward, neither sight nor sound of the outer world reaches the campus of 225 acres, on which are farm and woodland, cricket and football fields, tennis courts, a running track and skating pond; the arrangement of buildings, chiefly modern colonial, from 1833-1912, shows the result that comes only by slow growth and care; architects, W. S. Vaux; Cope & Stewardson; W. F. Price; Baily & Bassett. Library contains over four hundred Babylonian clay tablets, from 2500 B.C.; Harris collection of Oriental manuscripts; seven hundred reproductions in fictile ivory, of ancient and medieval carved ivories in British Museum, from second to eighteenth centuries; Roberts autographs, more than 11,000 items, covering period from late fifteenth century to present day; some portraits of Haverford alumni. Old Haverford meeting house, near Cobb’s Creek, stone, built, 1696, has horse block used by William Penn in dismounting; chimney had curious openings in outside wall, through which fire wood was introduced to the hearth, their position is still traceable. The Buck Tavern, built, 1732, now Haverford House.
Bryn Mawr, 415 feet above sea level (Welsh, great hill). Bryn Mawr College, founded by Dr. Joseph W. Taylor, of Burlington, New Jersey, in 1880, to establish “An institute for advanced learning, for women to have equal advantages with men.” The college has continued a high standard of academic work, and maintains graduate school for women doing research work in all branches. Buildings, chiefly varieties of Gothic architecture, stone, date from 1882-1913, architects, Addison Hutton, Cope & Stewardson, C. Francis Osborne, Lockwood de Forest, and Winsor Soule; the Library, Jacobean Gothic, period, 1630, incloses cloister garden with center fountain, bosses of cloister arches are carved by hand, sculptor, Alec Miller from England. Memorial brasses, set in wall, were designed by Lockwood de Forest. Reading room contains portraits of President M. Carey Thomas, by John S. Sargent, and ex-President James E. Rhoads, by William M. Chase.
Rosemont, residence, Alba Johnson, Esq., late Tudor, is typical of Main Line residences, many of them Norman or English; grounds in woodland and best traditions of English landscape gardening; marble statue of Eve, made 1855, by Bartholomew, Rome; lead statuary, Neptune and horses fountain, from Bronze Grove Guild, Worcester, England, Walter Gilbert, sculptor; the grounds may sometimes be seen by writing to owner for permission. Villa Nova, Roman Catholic College and monastery. Bernard Corr Memorial Hall, old English Gothic, built, 1912-14; architects, Durang & Son.
Radnor, Delaware County, Friends meeting house, built, 1718, used as hospital for Morgan’s riflemen and Potter’s brigade in 1778; St. David’s Church, built, 1715, by the congregation, named for patron Saint of Wales; native stone, used as hospital in Revolutionary War, leaden sash, melted for bullets; Swedish missionary at Wicaco held first services here; General Anthony Wayne, vestryman, is buried in church grounds; his monument was erected by Pennsylvania Society of the Cincinnati in 1809; Judge William Moore and wife, buried under the door-step; their daughter was the wife of the first Provost, William Smith, U. of P. Communion service given by Queen Anne. Wayne, General Wayne Inn, hotel since 1707, Wayne’s encampment near in 1792, before his western campaign against Indians. Chester County, Lincoln Highway to Strafford, Township Line Road to Valley Forge, see page 253.
Return, Montgomery County, Valley Forge road to “King of Prussia” Inn, built, 1749; continue on Gulph Road to Gulph Mills, stone, built, 1747, Boulder Monument, inscription, “Gulph mills, the main Continental Army commanded by General George Washington, encamped in this vicinity December 13 to December 19, 1777, on way to Valley Forge, erected by the Pennsylvania Society, Sons of the Revolution, 1892.” Over Gulph Creek near Gulph station, Philadelphia & Western Railroad, is stone bridge, inscription “Montgomery County, Upper Merian (Merion) Township, 1787; In the second year of the Foederal (Federal) Union.” West Conshohocken. Matson’s Ford, over which Lafayette retreated from the British in 1778, continue along Schuylkill River drive to Belmont Avenue, through Fairmount Park to Philadelphia.
MONTGOMERY COUNTY AUTOMOBILE TRIP ON OLD YORK ROAD, TO DOYLESTOWN, BUCKS COUNTY, LEADING TO CENTER BRIDGE
Old York Road, original stage route to New York, laid out in 1711, from city line to Center Bridge. Elkins Park station. Residence of the late P. A. B. Widener, “Lynnewood Hall,” notable for one of the finest art collections in the United States; near by, residence of William L. Elkins has notable art gallery, both galleries may sometimes be seen by writing to owners for cards of admission. South of Chelten Avenue, stone bridge, two arches, date, 1793; opposite is only milestone of old series south of the Neshaminy, it is the seventh milestone mentioned in Washington’s orders for the attack on Germantown. West, is residence of the late Lucretia Mott, Oak Farm, near La Mott, now Latham Park. Ogontz, residence of the late Jay Cooke, financier of the Civil War; named for an Indian chief whom he had met. Over Tacony Creek is stone bridge, inscription, “Cheltenham bridge, 1798, 7½ miles to Phila.” Church Road, near Myers Mill, Cheltenham, site, country residence of William Penn; on part of this land is country residence of the late John Wanamaker. At Washington Lane, southeast boundary of Jenkintown, is large oak tree where Washington rested his white horse.