Part 11

THE WISTAR INSTITUTE OF ANATOMY AND BIOLOGY, Thirty-sixth Street and Woodland Avenue, founded, 1892, for extension of Wistar and Homer Museums; first university institute exclusively for research in anatomy and biology, buff brick and light terra cotta, fireproof, built, 1808, architects, George W. and W. D. Hewitt; in 1905 this institute became the clearing house for anatomy in America, and in 1906 was appointed Central United States Institute for Brain Investigation; the five principal independent anatomical journals of the United States are published here. Open to the public daily, except Sundays and holidays, 9.00 A.M. to 4.00 P.M., Saturdays, 9.00 A.M. to 12.00 M. Contains bronze bust, sculptor, Samuel Murray, 1890, of General Isaac J. Wistar, Sc.D., who gave the building and endowment; in bronze vase are his ashes; also in three bronze vases are the ashes of Joseph Leidy, M.D., LL.D., John Adams Ryder, Ph.D., and Professor Edward Drinker Cope. Opposite is THE ARCHITECTURAL SCHOOL, Thirty-sixth Street and Woodland Avenue, second only in importance and numbers to the _Ecole des Beaux Arts_, Paris: the _esprit de corps_ of faculty and students is most pronounced; students and graduates, of late years, have won more competitive prizes, and scholarships, than those of all other American schools combined. The four years’ course leads to degree; special two years’ course, and summer six weeks’ course.

THE BOTANIC GARDENS, established, 1894, face Hamilton Walk, open to visitors from sunrise to sunset; greenhouses filled with rare plants from all the world; lily and lotus ponds are attractive feature of the campus. Open-air plays are given here. The Vivarium, established 1898, has fresh and salt water aquaria, first vivarium ever connected with any educational institution. ZOÖLOGICAL LABORATORY, on Hamilton Walk and Thirty-ninth Street, built, 1910; architects, Cope & Stewardson, hard burnt brick and Indiana limestone, English Collegiate, of middle seventeenth century; considered best working laboratory for its purpose in this country, contains many famous collections.

VETERINARY BUILDING AND HOSPITAL, Thirty-ninth Street and Woodland Avenue, constructed about a square courtyard; one of best equipped of its kind. Architects, Cope & Stewardson, English Collegiate, seventeenth century, hard burnt yellow brick and limestone trimmings, roof green slate, built, 1906-07.

SCHOOL OF DENTISTRY, “Thomas W. Evans Museum and Dental Institute,” Fortieth and Spruce Streets, Collegiate Gothic, time of Henry VIII, hard burnt red and black brick and Indiana limestone, built, 1914, architect, John T. Windrim; the grotesques ornamenting the band courses, while in the spirit of the Middle Ages, are modern in subject and caricature; most complete edifice in the world, devoted to the science of dentistry. Museum contains the priceless Evans collection, gifts from the nobility of Europe, portraits and busts of Dr. Evans.

HENRY PHIPPS INSTITUTE for the study, prevention, and treatment of tuberculosis, founded, 1903, northeast corner of Seventh and Lombard Streets; facing Starr Garden Park, a civic center of the Playgrounds Commission; is colonial style, designed by Grosvenor Atterbury, New York, brick trimmed with white marble.

FLOWER ASTRONOMICAL OBSERVATORY at Llanerch on West Chester Pike, architect, Edgar V. Seeler, 1895. Open to visitors every Thursday evening during collegiate year, 7.00 P.M. to 10.00 P.M.; is equipped with an 18 inch equatorial telescope, and other instruments of latest and most approved design.

DORMITORY HOUSES, Jacobean, thirty in number, begun in 1895, suggest the Oxford and Cambridge colleges; carved grotesque bosses on main cornices are reminiscent of the Gothic period; they are amusing, and display an unusual amount of imagination; material, hard burnt yellow brick and Indiana limestone; architects, Cope & Stewardson; entrance through two gateways known as Memorial Tower, gift of the Alumni, dedicated in 1901, in memory of University of Pennsylvania men who served in the Spanish-American War, corner-stone was laid by General Miles, in 1900; and the Provosts’ Tower, named as memorial to the Provosts of the University of Pennsylvania, whose twelve names are carved on medallions, from William Smith to Charles Custis Harrison.

WILLIAM PENN CHARTER SCHOOL, 8 to 10 South Twelfth Street, was planned in 1684 at a meeting of the Provincial Council, Governor Penn presiding. In 1689, William Penn, writing from England to Thomas Lloyd, President of Council, instructed him to set up a “Public Grammar School in Philadelphia,” the school was incorporated in 1698, and George Keith engaged as head master, 1699. In 1701, William Penn, while on a visit to America, granted the school a charter from his own hand; on the same day he chartered the city itself. This school is the oldest existing chartered school in America; a second and more liberal charter was granted, 1708, and a third charter, under which the school is still conducted, 1711; the originals of all three of these charters are in the school’s possession. The school will be moved to Pinehurst, the Waln estate, twenty-two acres on School Lane near Wissahickon Avenue, Germantown, acquired by gift; field now used for their athletic sports, surface having been adapted for the purpose by the Newhall Engineering Company, Philadelphia, who made there a football oval; an eighteen foot quarter-mile track; and an eighteen foot 220 yard straightway; drainage of these tracks and oval is such, that in eight years, not one scheduled contest has been postponed on account of condition of the ground.

CENTRAL HIGH SCHOOL, Broad and Green Streets; established, 1836. In view of the increasing income and diminishing debt of the nation, the United States Congress in 1836 passed a law, authorizing the distribution of surplus revenue among the states, to be disposed of as their legislatures might enact; Pennsylvania devoted her share, over $70,000, to public education, and the controllers erected a high school in Philadelphia, which was completed, 1838, east side of Juniper Street, below Market Street. In 1853, the original building was sold; present structure occupied in 1900. Conferring of academic degrees dates from 1849. Memorial window to Edward T. Steel in assembly room.

GIRARD COLLEGE, College and Corinthian Avenues, for the care and training of orphan boys; founded by Stephen Girard, a native of France, who at his death, in 1831, left his estate for this purpose. Main building, architect, Thomas Ustick Walter, architect of the Capitol at Washington, probably the finest architectural specimen in Philadelphia, modeled after a Greek temple, white marble, covers an area of 34,344 feet, exclusive of eleven marble steps by which it is approached on every side; a colonnade of 34 Corinthian columns aid in supporting the marble roof, each column 6 feet in diameter and 55 feet high, the diameter of corner columns being increased 1½ inches to overcome apparent reduction of size from their insulated position; bases 9 feet 3 inches in diameter, 3 feet 2 inches high, capitals 8 feet 6 inches high and 9 feet 4 inches wide; each shaft, as well as the bases, consists of a single piece, without vertical joints; at each end of the three story building is a vestibule, the ceilings of which are supported by eight columns, whose shafts are composed of a single stone; corner-stone was laid July 4, 1834, and the completed building transferred to the Board of Directors, 1847. In the first vestibule is white marble sarcophagus, with body of Stephen Girard, and his statue by Gevelot; the memorial room contains portrait of Girard, by J. R. Lambdin, copy from posthumous portrait by Bass Otis in Masonic Temple; interesting collection of furniture; pictures; china; silverware, and fine marble bust of Napoleon I, by Canova, presented to Girard by Joseph Bonaparte.

Present capacity, 1520 boys, admitted from six to ten years of age and graduated fourteen to sixteen years of age, preference of admission is given to those born within the old Philadelphia city limits, next in consideration those born in Pennsylvania, and third group, boys born in the cities of New York and New Orleans. There are several hundred on waiting list.

Equipment comprises ten white marble buildings for school and house purposes, chapel seating 1600, and other buildings, also plant for heat, light, and power, inclosed on forty acres with a ten-foot high stone wall. Endowment now about $29,000,000. Soldiers’ and sailors’ monument on campus, in memory of the graduates who served in the Civil War; sculptor, J. Massey Rhind. Clergymen are excluded by Girard’s will, “that the boys might be kept free from denominational controversies.” Bible has always had a foremost place in the teaching of the college; Chapel speakers are laymen of prominence in the professional and business world.

OTHER PLACES OF HISTORIC INTEREST

RESIDENCE OF JOHN FITCH in 1791, 462 North Second Street; in 1790 John Fitch’s steamboats made regular trips; Petty’s Island was used as a port for the _Perseverance_, one of the five steamboats that Fitch constructed for use on the Delaware, before Robert Fulton placed his _Clermont_ on the Hudson; it was blown up at moorings on this island. RESIDENCE OF EDGAR ALLAN POE from 1843-44 west side of Seventh Street, above Spring Garden (old number 234). BUSH HILL MANSION, on west side of Seventeenth Street below Spring Garden, erected by Andrew Hamilton in 1740; front lawn sloping to Vine Street, was scene of a Fourth of July celebration held in 1788, after the last of the nine states that made the Constitution effective came in; the procession dispersed here at “Union Green,” James Wilson, a signer of the Constitution, delivered an oration, and there were other ceremonies. SPRINGETTSBURY, built 1736-39, called after the name of William Penn’s first wife, manor-house of the Penns; burnt in 1808; part of site is now occupied by the Preston Retreat, Eighteenth Street below Spring Garden. Northeast corner of Broad and Walnut Streets, site of VAUXHALL GARDEN; a ball was given here in honor of General Andrew Jackson after his victory at New Orleans, January 8, 1814. PENN TREATY PARK, Beach Street and East Columbia Avenue. KNIGHT’S WHARF at edge of Green Street, in Northern Liberties; near here Poole’s bridge crossed Pegg’s Run at Front Street, it was named after one Poole, a Friend, whose mansion was here, recalls the Mischianza invitation: “The favor of your meeting the subscribers to the Mischianza at Knight’s Wharf, near Poole’s Bridge, tomorrow at half past three, is desired. (Signed) Henry Calder. Sunday, 17th May, 1778. For river parade to the Garden.” Preparations for this magnificent entertainment, the erection of numerous and vast pavilions around the Wharton mansion, and their decorations by André, Delancey, and other gallant officers, was the talk of the town for weeks. The Wharton mansion, Walnut Grove, used by the family in summer, was where Fifth Street, near Washington Avenue, is now; the British had possession there in the spring of 1778; Miss Peggy Shippen’s portrait was sketched by Major André in Mischianza costume. Philadelphia then excelled all other colonial cities in size, culture, and importance. SOUTHWARK SHOT TOWER, built, 1809, Carpenter Street between Front and Second, first plant in the United States which made bullets. SITE OF HILL’S SHIPYARD, Queen Street wharf below Cathrine Street. Original Swedish houses on both sides of Queen Street below Front. Site of United States first navy yard, 1201 South Front Street.

Obelisk northeast corner Twenty-third and Market Streets gives a history of the old Market Street bridge, built 1801-05; inscriptions to be recut.

HISTORIC GERMANTOWN

Colonial and Revolutionary suburb, six miles from Philadelphia; founded in 1683 by Francis Daniel Pastorius from Sommerhausen, Germany, one of the best educated men in the Colonies; he had received the degree of Doctor of Laws at Nuremberg; was a member of the Assembly from 1687-91. Earliest settlers were Friends and German Religionists, highly cultivated, and skilled in weaving, paper-making, printing, and other trades. First railroad in America to use steam was the Philadelphia and Reading to Germantown in 1832. First successful locomotive made in America was Matthias Baldwin’s “Old Ironsides,” used on this road, only taken out in fair weather. GERMANTOWN AVENUE follows an old Indian trail, made a turnpike in 1800, on which are still many historic houses of quaint colonial architecture; rough native stone with overhanging hipped roofs and a projecting pent, over doorstep. STENTON, built in 1728, brick, colonial, near Wayne Junction, residence of James Logan, Secretary to William Penn, 1727-34;

President of Council, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania; his guests were Franklin, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, Lafayette, John Randolph; occupied by General Washington, August, 1777, on way to the Battle of Brandywine; by General Howe during Battle of Germantown; Washington dined here with Dr. Logan, July, 1787, while the Constitutional Convention was in session. There is a curious underground passage from cellar to stable; the stream on the place was named “Wingohocking” for an Indian chief, who himself took the name of Logan; now in charge of the Pennsylvania Society of Colonial Dames, who have refurnished it with original pieces and relics of the Logan family; open daily 1.00 P.M. to 6.00 P.M., excepting Sunday and Thursday. Admission fee, fifteen cents. Northwest corner of Apsley Street and Germantown Avenue, LOUDOUN, built in 1801, residence of Thomas Armat, now occupied by Armat and Logan descendants; many wounded Americans died and were buried here in Battle of Germantown. 4825 Germantown Avenue, house built by Christopher Ottinger in 1781; walls two feet thick; rafters unhewn trees; his son, born here in 1804, was Captain Douglas Ottinger in the United States Revenue Marine; he invented the Ottinger life car which, in 1849, equipped eight life-saving stations on the New Jersey coast. 4810 Germantown Avenue, site of Wagner house, built, 1747; used as hospital after the Battle of Germantown, stable doors were taken for operating tables; many died and were buried in a trench in the rear. 4908 Germantown Avenue, built in 1760, was bought, 1828, by John S. Henry, whose son, Alexander Henry, was three times Mayor of Philadelphia and a member of Congress.

Northeast corner of East Logan and Germantown Avenue, Lower or HOOD’S BURIAL GROUND, presented to borough in 1693 by Jan Streepers; John F. Watson placed stones over graves of General Agnew and Colonel Bird, British officers killed in Battle of Germantown; see Burial Grounds. 5109 Germantown Avenue, site of Thones Kunder’s home, part of original north wall is still standing; first meetings of the Society of Friends in Germantown were held here; and a public protest against slavery was made in 1688; the paper, written and signed by Pastorius and three others, was forwarded to the Yearly Meeting in Burlington; Thones Kunder, by trade a dyer, was the ancestor of the Conard and Conrad families, also of Sir Samuel Cunard, founder of the Cunard Steamship Line; he died in 1729.

South side of Manheim Street, west of Germantown Avenue, residence of Jacques Marie Roset, who came to America in 1792, first to introduce the tomato plant into Germantown; his granddaughter was the wife of Anthony J. Drexel, Esq.; opposite, 153 Manheim Street was Taggert’s field; British Infantry encamped here. Manheim Street, corner of Morris Street, GERMANTOWN CRICKET CLUB, organized in 1854; William Rotch Wister, was the first American to study the science and points of the play, and teach it; he was known as “The father of American cricket”; first American field, “Belfield Cricket Club,” Stenton and Olney Avenues, was the Wister pasture and orchard; second club, “Young America,” field, rear of residence of Thomas A. Newhall, Esq., Manheim and Hansberry Streets; they consolidated in 1889. Queen Lane, west of Pulaski Avenue, site of Potter’s Field in 1765, a burial place for “all strangers, negroes and mulattoes as die in any part of Germantown.”

5106 Germantown Avenue, residence of Commodore James Barron, Commandant Philadelphia Navy Yard in 1842; Captain of the _Chesapeake_, when captured by the British ship _Leopard_; in 1807 he killed Commodore Stephen Decatur in a duel at Bladensburg, Maryland. 5157 Germantown Avenue, residence and printing office, now altered, of Philip R. Freas; publisher of _The Village Telegraph_, in 1830; later _The Germantown Telegraph_. ST. STEPHEN’S METHODIST CHURCH, opened in 1856; site of Frederick Fraley’s carpenter shop; gun carriages were made here for the American Army; Washington was a frequent visitor. 5140 Germantown Avenue, residence of GILBERT STUART, 1794-95; the barn was used as his studio; portrait of Washington, now in the Athenaeum of Boston, was painted here; also a full length portrait of “Cornplanter,” the Indian chief. 5253-55 Germantown Avenue, formerly one dwelling, OWEN WISTER, novelist, was born here July 14, 1860, son of Dr. Owen J. and Sarah Butler Wister; his mother was a daughter of Pierce and Fanny Kemble Butler. 5219 Germantown Avenue, residence of John Bringhurst, carriage maker, 1775-95; a founder of the Germantown Academy; in 1780 he made a “chariot” for General Washington, whose arms and crest were properly displayed; cost £210 in gold; Martha Washington rode to Mount Vernon in it. Colonel Bird, British officer, died here. 5249 Germantown Avenue, built by Dr. Owen Wister, was his residence from 1860-70, he then moved to Butler Place on York Road; 5253 Germantown Avenue site of CHRISTOPHER SAUR’S residence and printing office, who arrived in Germantown, 1724; secured a printing outfit from Germany in 1738; published the first German newspaper in America, 1739; printed the first Bible in European language in America, 1743; Christopher Saur, Jr., was Bishop of the Dunkard Church, 1753. 5242-44 Germantown Avenue, site of Indian Queen Tavern, which gave the name to Queen Street. 5261 Germantown Avenue, erected by John Wister in 1744, stones were quarried from a hill in the rear; joists from oaks in Wister’s woods; family removed to Penllyn during occupancy by British, where SALLY WISTER, a daughter, wrote her charming “Diary.” The British General, James Agnew, lived here at the time of Battle of Germantown; was brought back wounded, and died here; now owned and occupied by Wister descendants. 5300 Germantown Avenue, corner of Queen Street, parsonage of TRINITY LUTHERAN CHURCH; was one of the Saur properties; first type cast in America, in 1772, was made in the cellar of this house; church built, 1837; many well-known Germantowners lie in the graveyard. 5275-77 Germantown Avenue, Germantown National Bank, 1825-68; John Fanning Watson was cashier, he lived at 5277; building was occupied by Thomas Jefferson, Secretary of State, and Edmund Randolph, Attorney General of the United States, in 1793, during the yellow fever in Philadelphia.

Northeast corner of Germantown Avenue and Coulter Street, ST. LUKE’S PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL CHURCH, first Episcopal Church in Germantown, built, 1811; land given by Thomas Armat, Esq.; John Fanning Watson, the annalist, is buried in the churchyard. Northwest corner of Germantown Avenue, and Coulter Street, FRIENDS’ MEETING, land given by Jacob Shoemaker, fifty acres, in 1693; in the library is a photograph of the first protest against slavery. 5425 Germantown Avenue, Masonic Lodge room; site, residence of A. Bronson Alcott, where LOUISA MAY ALCOTT, authoress, was born. 5430 Germantown Avenue, residence of Captain ALBERT ASHMEAD, of the Philadelphia County Troop who commanded a troop of cavalry, and escorted General Lafayette from Bristol to Philadelphia in 1824; French Embassy during 1793. 5434 Germantown Avenue, residence of John Ashmead, father of Captain Albert Ashmead; who designed and made the first carriages known as Germantown wagons, in 1824, in the shop at rear of house; also first plows with wrought iron mold board; Lafayette purchased four, for his La Grange farm in France.

MARKET SQUARE, Battle of Germantown fought here, September 25, 1777; here was the market house, prison, stocks, and public scales; in February, 1764, several hundred Paxtang boys, from banks of the Conestoga and Susquehanna Rivers, encamped here; they came east to murder the peaceful Moravian Indians, sheltered in Philadelphia, and were met by Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Willing, Benjamin Chew, and others, who persuaded them to return. Monument erected in 1883, to Civil War soldiers and sailors, pedestal with tablets, containing names of Germantown soldiers and sailors, at base are two coast defense mortars from the Civil War, two bronze cannon on wheels from the United States Arsenal; the enclosure is of musket barrels and bayonets, used during Civil War, and broken cannon from British frigate _Augusta_, sunk by American batteries during Revolutionary War. MARKET SQUARE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, originally German Reformed, built in 1733; Count Zinzendorf preached his first sermon in America here, December, 1741, and last on leaving, June, 1742; Washington worshiped here while living in the Morris house opposite; a battalion of Ninth Virginia, captured by the British, was confined here.

5442 Germantown Avenue, MORRIS HOUSE, Washington’s summer residence, in 1793-94, built by David Deshler, 1772-73; Sir William Howe occupied it after the battle in 1777; in 1804, it was bought by Mr. Perot for a country residence, and became the property of his son-in-law, Mr. Morris; the yard is kept in the simple elegance of colonial times. 5450 Germantown Avenue, in 1790 residence of Thomas Armat, who lived later at “Loudoun.” 5452 Germantown Avenue, erected in 1711 by John Ashmead, great grandfather of Captain Albert Ashmead; front rebuilt 1790. 5454 Germantown Avenue, occupied in 1742 by Count Zinzendorf; commencement of Moravian Seminary, now in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Saving Fund Building, site, residence of Jacob Tellner, first stone house built in Germantown; William Penn present at the roof raising; he once preached here.

School House Lane and Greene Street, GERMANTOWN ACADEMY, built, 1759; colonial, native stone; founded by Christopher Saur, and others of German birth, to furnish education in “English, High Dutch, and the German language.” It has always held high rank as a school; the bell was brought to Philadelphia in 1774, in the tea ship Polly, the cargo was not allowed to land, it was taken back to England, and returned here when the war was ended; telescope used by Washington during battle, when the building was used as a hospital, is here; several British soldiers were buried in the yard; cricket was first played in America here, by British officers; Bank of Pennsylvania was brought here, escorted by McPherson’s Blues in 1798, during the second yellow fever epidemic in Philadelphia; gymnasium on Green Street, modern. On School House Lane, farther west, is Cricket Field of the William Penn Charter School.