I would never do anything to mar the floors or change the woodwork.” “This was a completely working class street for most of its history, which means people lived and worked right in their homes,” says Jennifer Boch, a staff member with Elfreth’s Alley’s two house museums with their narrow stairwells and low ceiling rooms. “They were dressmakers, shoemakers, bakers, and other types of artisan occupations. They built Philadelphia.” Philadelphia was founded by Quaker William Penn in 1682, between the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers. “Penn laid out the city in a nice orderly grid formation with wide streets and brick buildings because he grew up in London where things were cramped and streets were narrow and winding,” explains Mark Marano, the site manager of the 1804 Arch Street Meeting House on Arch Street which continues to host Quaker worship and meetings to the present day. Penn’s city grid with four outlying squares also included a center square where a statue of Penn stands atop the grand French Renaissance Revival Philadelphia City Hall. One of the others is Logan Square—now with a traffic circle—where the stunning Swann Memorial Fountain features sculptures in so- called “river god” tradition to highlight the city’s surrounding waterways. The square sits about halfway along the grand Benjamin Franklin Parkway that stretches from City Hall to the “Rocky Steps” of the Philadelphia Museum of
Rocky Statue at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
Art. Perched on a hill, the museum offers great views of the city skyline and Schuylkill River. And yes, a statue of the movie series’ Rocky character remains, often with crowds lined up for photos. Many of the city’s other prominent museums are also located along the parkway. In addition to paintings by Cézanne, Matisse, and Picasso, the Barnes Foundation’s Impressionist collection includes 181 Renoir artworks, the most anywhere in the world. The Rodin Museum houses one of the largest collections of sculptor Auguste Rodin’s works outside Paris. Kids will particularly enjoy the Franklin Institute with its interactive science and technology exhibits, and Dinosaur Hall with its 42-foot-long T-Rex fossil within the Academy of Natural Sciences. Both museums flank Logan Square. Of course, no visit to Philadelphia would be complete without biting into a Philly cheesesteak sandwich, which you can find at almost any corner pizzeria. For an extraordinary experience, head to South Philadelphia to Geno’s Steaks or Pat’s King of Steaks, both emblazoned with neon lights and located across the street from each other. Visitors are often hard pressed to make a choice!
FOR MORE INFORMATION www.visitphilly.com
Elfreth’s Alley is the place to see authentic examples of colonial Philadelphia.
PHILADELPHIA REVISITED
COAST TO COAST MAGAZINE SPRING 2024 | 12
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