Just a few minutes from campus on Walnut and 20th Streets lies Rittenhouse Square. Surrounded by Victorian brownstones, the Curtis Music Institute, and the Ethical Society, Rittenhouse is one of the most delightful places to visit, especially in the spring and fall, when local artists, musicians, and associations come together to share their crafts with passersby. Washington Square is located in the southwestern corner of Center City at Walnut between Sixth and Seventh Streets. Hundreds of soldiers were also buried there during the Revolution and the square is appropriately distinguished today as the site of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier of the American Revolution. Marking more contemporary history, Washington Square is also the home of the first "moon tree" ever planted on earth. The seeds of the sycamore went to the moon on Apollo 14 in 1971, and the tree was planted here in Philadelphia in 1975.
Fairmount Park is the largest landscaped park within a city. In the late eighteenth century, Philadelphians were plagued by a severely contaminated water supply. Seeking to rectify the situation, Benjamin Latrobe designed and built the nation's first municipal waterworks in 1798. This steam-powered system soon proved inadequate for the expanding needs of the city, and in 1812 the city legislature purchased a site beside the Schuylkill River and commissioned Frederick Graff to construct a public waterworks and reservoir. Throughout the nineteenth century, adjacent tracts of land and historic sites were incorporated into this "Faire Mount" Park, resulting in what is now more than 8,000 acres of land and over 200 buildings.
A great place to explore on a nice day, Fairmount Park has something for everyone. It is a source of inspiration (Edgar Allan Poe wrote "The Elk" while contemplating the Wissahickon Creek), a haven for cyclists (a twenty-five mile bike path winds across the park), a history lesson for walkers, a Shangri-La for frisbee enthusiasts, and an easy escape from the city and campus.
Among the sites of Fairmount Park are:
Formerly housing the Philadelphia Aquarium, the Water Works were originally built as the first steam-pumping station of its kind in America.
Home of Penn's crew team, our boathouse is one of many that line the Schuylkill. At any time during the day, you can see one of Penn's boats or that of another team practicing on the river. This area is particularly pretty at night when all of the boathouses are lit up.
Built in 1875, Memorial Hall first served as an international art gallery and remained as a tribute to the nation's 100th birthday celebration. On May 10, 1876, President Ulysses S. Grant opened the Centennial in Memorial Hall's 150 foot-high "Great Hall." This is the only major building remaining from the Centennial celebrations. In the basement is an exhibition commemorating the Centennial fairground, the first World's Fair ever held in this country. Admission is free.
This arch was built in 1896 with statues honoring heros of the Civil War. If you sit at one end of its curved stone benches and a friend sits fifty feet away at the bench's other end, you will be able to hear all that your friend whispers. If this is the case, you have found the "whispering benches."
Located throughout Fairmount Park are the summer homes of several prominent eighteenth-century Philadelphians. Restored in the 1970s, each house has its own character and reflects the interests of its previous owner. Admission to each house is $1.
A Quaker farmhouse, this home was moved into the Fairmount Park in the 1920s from its original site in Frankford. Five generations of furnishings from a Quaker family are visible here. There is also an eighteenth-century herb garden and rumors of a female ghost living on the second floor.
Named for the laurel bushes surrounding the house and its lands, this home has an original Georgian style center section dating back to 1870 and an 1800 addition in the Federal style.
Built in 1800 by Henry Pratt, the house has three floors, with an oval salon on each. This house is known for its architectural design, which can be found in only three other buildings on the East Coast.
Bought by Benedict Arnold in 1779, this house is an important example of an elegant symmetrical Georgian style home. The furnishings include the finest examples of Chippendale furniture. This house also features an educational "touch-it" exhibit for children demonstrating colonial home-making skills.
The largest mansion in Fairmount Park, this home has a mixture of late eighteenth and nineteenth century furnishings that reflect its owners' various tastes.
A classic example of Federal-style architecture, Sweetbriar and its decor reflect the fine taste of the original owner, Samuel Breck, who came to Philadelphia from Boston to escape heavy taxes.
A student of Benjamin Franklin and John Logan, John Bartram bought the house in 1728, enlarged the existing stone house and started to develop what became America's first botanical gardens. Admission is $2.
Opened in 1979, the city's only multi-purpose horticultural exhibition center features permanent and changing exhibitions on seasonal plantings. Many of the more than 2,000 species of plantings are descendants of seeds that arrived in the dirt ballasts of ships from Asia, Europe, and the West Indies. On the grounds of the center is the Japanese House, an authentic reconstruction of a seventeenth-century Japanese scholar's house, tea house, and garden (open from April to October on Wednesday to Sunday 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.). A donation of $1 is requested.
On ninety-five acres of land adjoining East Fairmount Park with the Schuylkill River, the Laurel Hill Cemetery has at least one specimen of every rare tree that could grow in this climate. The Cemetery is also noted for its magnificent mausoleums, monuments, and sculptures created by Joseph A. Bailly and Alexander Milne Calder, among others. It is also the burial place of prominent Philadelphians including signers of the Declaration of Independence. Admission is $1.
A visit to the homestead offers a look into the lifestyle of our colonial ancestors and the Mennonite life. That's not all! More than 200 statues populate the park. Seventy-three baseball and softball diamonds, 105 all-weather tennis courts, six eighteen-hole golf courses, and seventy-five miles of bridle paths and hiking trails are open to the public. And for those who just feel like sitting, Victorian Fairmount Park trolley-cars offer a seventeen-mile tour which begins and ends at the Convention and Visitor's Center in Center City, 16th Street and JFK Boulevard. Trolleys leave every twenty minutes from 10 a.m. to 4:20 p.m., Wednesday through Sunday. For more information call 879-4044. Admission is 50 cents.
A gift to the University of Pennsylvania in 1933, the Arboretum is one Penn facility all students should visit. Located in nearby Chestnut Hill, the arboretum is a magnificent outdoor sanctuary of trees, shrubs, and flowers. The English landscape is particularly famous for its unusual trees of Japanese and Chinese origin. Admission is $2.
A 360-acre sanctuary of woodlands, thickets, wild birds, and animals, the center offers special walk-and-talk programs on the weekends as well as open celebrations of the Fall Harvest and Sheep Shearing in May. Admission is $2.
The 200-acre preserve is situated along Darby Creek and is a natural habitat for marsh plants and waterfowl. Walk or bike along Tinicum's nature trail and watch out for heron, gallinules, or muskrats. Admission is free.
America's oldest zoo is a fun place to spend a day for all. An all-weather attraction, every effort has been made to keep the animals in their natural settings. Within the fifty-two acres of the zoo are 1,600 mammals, birds, reptiles, and rare species from all over the world. On the African Plains, animals such as ostriches and zebras wander. Birds of the tropics fly through the Hummingbird House, and the Reptile House offers a unique experience of an electrical thunder storm. The grounds of the zoo are exquisitely landscaped, and you can get a better view of them by riding the Monorail Safari. Admission is $5.75 for adults, $4.75 for children aged 2-11 and senior citizens. Children under 2 are free.