A Walk Down the Parkway

It has been reported that when William Penn landed at Port Richmond, late October in 1682, a European colony of Swedish traders had already been established within the borders of Penn's land grant from the English monarcy. The result is that Philadelphians spend a lifetime trying to learn the spelling of the Schuylkill river (kill being Swedish for river). To commemorate this the city flag is a combination of blue (described as UN blue) and yellow, the colors of Sweden. This web site has continued this tradition by alternating blue and yellow as its background and foreground colors although we are using a darker blue.

ddd is a map, created in 1777, of the township of Philadelphia and its surroundings. This was the year in July that the British, under General Howe, would occupy the city and George Washington would retreat to Valley Forge. By this point Philadelphia was almost celebrating a centennial of its founding in 1682. You can see that the streets of the township of Philadelphia (capital of the County) have theoretically been laid out but the darker squares represent the extent of the urbanization. All the activities of the Continental Congress that one reads about when studying the revolution would have centered on fifth to sixth street in the middle of the tree-named east-west streets, not that far away from what probably was forestry (as will also be represented below).

We have cropped the map above (and enlarged it) to look more fully at the township of Philadelphia. Philadelphia county was made up of a significant number of townships but its business center, capital and core was this township of Philadelphia. As opposed to European cities, William Penn had laid out the city in what is now a familiar pattern of north-south, east-west streets creating a grid. He extended the pattern by naming the east-west streets after the local flora (the native trees) with the north-south streets consectutively numbered from and to each river. As an example: fifth street - fifth from the Delaware river, fifth from Schuylkill - today's Seventeenth street. Broad Street was designed to be the widest street in this grid somewhat in the middle and substituted for 14th. Notice that the dark patterns show urban usage with 7th street being the line between urban and rural (probably forrest). City parks/squares are possible to make out here and we have added to the effect by indicating such with blue dots. Center Square (in those days designated with the British spelling of Centre) in a hundred years would see the largest masonry building ever erected become City Hall. East of Centre square would eventually see Franklin square to the north and Washington square to the south. Ferry service to roads leading possibly to Trenton and New York, (but assuredly to South Jersey settlements) is indicated in Green across the Delaware. The Green line above the township would be the land route to a crossing of the Delaware that would lead to Trenton and points north. The Fairmount hill where the Art Museum would rise in a hundred and fifty years is indicated in red. Yellow probably indicates the route of Washington's retreat to Valley Forge. The brown square is the area of the Continental Congress and the government quarters for Pennsylvania which would be abandoned during the British occupation. What you cannot see is plans for what we now call the Benjamin Franklin Parkway. The city was not laid out to accomodate this and it would have violated Penn's grid concept which was a rejection of the then European concept of winding long roads possibly encircling a city. Given this grid, notice that there is no provision for what we now call traffic circles. The idea of the Parkway would come from 1880's Paris, a city of grand boulevards full of art and landscapping.

Here we see some maps from the 1800's in this montage. On the left is a map of the city when the townships were consolidated into one political unit in 1854. The right most maps consist of a map from the 1890's and a cropped version concentrating on Center City and West Phila. The blue circle shows the buildings and fixtures that were a part of the City's centennial celebration of the independence of the country in 1876. Many of the buildings became the origin of what is now the Art Museum. The red circle concentrates on the Fairmount hill section where the city had its waterworks. At that time, and even today, most municipal fresh water and city waste was handled by gravity. The Fairmount section of the city was the highest point along the schuylkill and water taken from the Schuylkill could work its way down into Center city and then into the peninsula of South Philadelphia (where most residents of the city resided). Waste and sewage were dumped out close to the point where the Schuylkill merged with the Delaware.

While we are dealing with maps, another source of information about the street network of Philadelphia is through the work of Philadelphia Rapid Transit (PRT). This was a company formed out of the Union Traction company which merged all the traction lines (what the early trolley lines were designated as in that day) throughout the city and much of the suburbs. Omnibuses were carriages on rails pulled by horses and had been a mainstay of transportation in the township and then city from the early 1800's and by the 1890's there was considerable such services throughout the Philadelphia region. Progress here came in the form of the electric motors and power lines as carriages were altered to include this equipment and already existing rail lines had power lines erected above them. With a new term, trolley, the device that rides the power line at the end of the pole and supplies electricity to the carriage, the era of modern transport began and PRT led the way. Prt was the first American transit company to use numbers to indicate the routes of its line and below you will see another example of PRT at its best - its transit maps which will be the basis of the next montage. The pictures here start with Peter Widener and William Elkins who were the co-owners of PRT. We've added several pictures of various PRT busses and trollies.

Every so often the transit company would create a transit map of Philadlephia. One edition was in 1904. It was important for the company to adequately and accurately show the road structure that its vehicles travelled on. The three maps here show parts of the city in 1904. The first shows the west, near what is now Parkside ave, where the then Art Museum is easily observed. Obviously, and this is verified on the museum's own website, the museum spent considerable time in this west Philadelphia location. Further, we have enlarged the center city portion of the transit map. Lines are drawn to indicate the route of the parkway but the gridlike manner of the existing streets remain. The Parkway design, as we see it today, would have changed this gridlike structure. Notice also that the present museum location houses a reservoir and the water works.

We finish our map usage showing a portion of the 1913 PRT transit map. Notice the parkway is now very prominently displayed. The Parkway was conceived in the late 1800's as a alternative to Center City's rather boring layout of streets in its grid like pattern. The broad boulevards of Paris was the example that the Parkway was to emulate. It would be the home of the city's cultural events. Of course, nothing progresses quickly in the city and actual work on it was delayed until 1904 with final completion of the street and circle patterns in 1919 it is said. To be fair, it's apparent that large tracts of land had to be seized by eminent domain for the Parkway to be completed and this was not a welcome event for those land owners affected. There are two things to notice. First, the transit company is not using the Parkway on any of its routes. The reason for this would be that an agreement with the city precluded trolley tracks on certain City streets and by 1913 the use of busses was still limited. Secondly, the Art Museum is not yet in the picture as an anchor for this new street pattern.

So, let's do some research on the Art Museum in its prior locale in West Philadelphia. For this we have to credit a big citywide (and countrywide) festival marking the 100th year of American Independence. We are talking about the Centennial celebration of 1876. Much of what we know today as Memorial Hall continuing through to the grounds used by the Mann Music center were a part of the celebration. Multiple buildings, many of them the largest in usable square footage in the world at the time were a part of what was officially a World's fair and exposition (some say it was the first of these). The only major building presently surviving was what was then known as the Art Gallery (now Memorial Hall) used to exhibit art and photography during the celebration that lasted 6 months (May through November) in 1876. This montage shows a map found on the internet and an illustration (of the time) and a later picture of Memorial Hall. One Note however: the Elm street indicated as a street name no longer exists and this may be the Parkside avenue of the present era.

As we can determine through various sources including the museum's own web site, most of these building were eventually demolished except for the Art Galary now known throughout Philadelphia as Memorial hall. It had been decided to use this for a type of art gallary designated as the Pennsylvania Museum and School of Industrial Arts to be opened the next year (1877). Much of its collections during this period followed the example of the centennial: specialization in industrial arts including textiles given that Philadlephia was a major world wide producer of such at the time. Among its educational offerings, housed in another building, were textile classes for those interested in such a career in addition to the study of the fine arts. The years would see a split in this organizational structure with the museum portion becoming the Philadelphia Art Museum and several schools including an independent school now known as The University Of The Arts. We have indicated the present logos from both entities as indicated on their respective web sites.

One other spinoff should be discussed here. We did mention textiles in the previous montage. The textile portion of the school was spun off in 1949 to become Textile college and then in 1999, Philadelphia college. A major claim to fame for the school pertains to the achievement of its basketball coach, Herb McGee, who holds the NCAA record for most victories. On an educational note, the decision in 1877 to interweave art, industry and education into one organization, the Pennsylvania Museum and School of Industrial Arts, has had a great effect on present day Philadelphia with the creation of two schools and considerable art venues.

Eventually, the directors of the museum proper, overseeing several expansive projects in addition to the various schools, looked around for another venue to showcase their various and growing selections. An example of this is this montage which features a small subset of the works of Thomas Eakins, the famous Philadelphia artist, that the museum holds in its collections. Eventually the city made known that the waterworks would be moving to the Delaware river so it seemed that the Fairmount hill site might become available. In addition, by the late 1890's, it was obvious that another city project near Fairmount, the creation of the Parkway, was moving forward and would fit nicely in the plans for the museum's future.

The montage above represents a sampling of Thomas Eakins' work. As mentioned the museum has a set of collections by him. We should add a little bio on this great artist. Eakins was similar to Michelangelo in his study of anotomy and its application to art. Whilke he didn't have Michelangelo's facility for engineering, Eakins did apply a realism in art in many varied locales. Eakins visited hospitals and operating rooms to denote by art what this entailed and it was a rare sport in Philadelphia during his lifetime that Eakins did not take an interest in. Eakins and Pennypacker, mentioned above, were born within 2 months of each other and died in a similar manner. Both had connections to the Valley Forge area where Pennypacker was born and from where Eakins' father grew up. The one way that the two were different was in terms of their fame or lack of it. Pennypacker became famous in becoming the youngest general in the army but a forced retirement due to his civil war injuries slowed (if not eventually stopped) later accomplishments. Eakins was never famous until his death and repeated accusations of his sexual harressment of students and models alike tarnished whatever reputation he had while alive.

The leftmost composite photo dd is somewhat famous. It attempts to show the same section of the city from the top of City Hall before and while the Parkway was under construction. The camera angle of the two pictures are not the same. We've enhanced the two photos using colors to indicate the changes. The red rectangle is the Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul which is on 18th st near Race and has been at the same location since its completion in 1864. Some sources claim most of its construction to the auspices of then Cardinal, now Saint, John Neumann although other histories credit Neumann's predecessor, Bishop Francis Kenrick. The Orange is Logan square modified to a circle (although officially this is still called Logan Square). At the time this second photo was taken, we think that the fountain had not been put in. We think the purple indicates Fairmount hill and the green lines in the before picture indicate the street grid while the after picture shows the length of the parkway. You can see that this was a massive project affecting many land owners who could not have been too happy in relinquishing their land holdings. The city deserves great credit in resolving this project although it is said that it was at least 12 years in the making just in terms of construction.

But, what about the Art Museum construction. There is a story that the museum put the initial funding from the city into building the wings first to force the city to fund the middle in order to finish the structure. It looks like this story is true when viewing the left most photo. It certainly does seem as it the middle was the last to be finished. The next two photographs are the same except for the superimposed graphics on the rightmost. The two pale circles denote Eakins oval (where the parkway meets what at that point was East and West river drives) and further down Logan Square/Circle. The red box outlines the basilica of Saints Peter and Paul.

We turn our attention to the present time and start our tour at a movie icon since 1976. The movie Rocky, starring Sylvester Stallone, revolved around a South Philadelphia boxer hoping for his big break. In the movie Stallone trained by hitting slabs of beef and running up and down the Art Museum steps, the same steps that lead to the East Terrace where during the summer Don holds his Israeli dance classes on Thursday nights. This montage does homage to Rocky and the steps of the Art Museum. The Rocky statue originally was placed at the Art Museum but moved in the early 80's to the Spectrum, the home of the Sixers and Flyers, in South Philadelphia. With the demolition of the Spectrum the statue was returned to the museum area. This montage shows the steps, the Rocky statue at both locations and the movie poster.

Moving up the steps we are looking at the East Terrace and its fountain. Many tourists will turn around at the top of the steps and admire the skyline of center city. Others use the terrace for running and other group activities and during the summer, in the late afternoon after work, it is not unusual to see exercise classes breing held. We are in search of a more musically inclined exercise regimen which takes place in the shadow of the steps that ascend to the main entrance.

These pictures show Don's equipment waiting for him and the other dancers on the East Terrace on Thursday night. Don starts his Art Museum sessions at 7:30 so we'd guess that it must be around 7:15 as the equipment awaits its use. Notice the extension cord moving to the right. The DJs are allowed to use a outdoor socket midway distance to the wall of the main hall of the Art Museum (in essence under the steps leading to the doors upstairs). But, be warned, in practice this means a long, long extension cord given the setup of the music equipment

Given that the museum site is on a hill, and that the rest of Philadelphia is generally flat except for the Roxborough/Manayunk area, we've already indicated that the best skyline views of much of the city are here. On one side you can watch the activities on the Schuylkill river, a little to the left provides views of the 30th street station area which includes Drexel and Comcast, and of course the Rocky steps overlook the view into the center of the city. The last view indicated here is north along the Schuylkill river and the Schuylkill Expressway.

Let's pause for a bit as our photographer is about to leave the museum by the back road. We think you should know that in 1982 the museum nominated Anne d’Harnoncourt as its director. Ms d’Harnoncourt had already been a curator at the museum during the 70's specializing in the art of Marcel Duchamp. By the time of her appointment to lead the Art Museum, she already had an impressive resume that included the Tate museum in London and the Art Institute of Chicago. Her mother had been the director of MOMA in New York. d’Harnoncourt would lead the Art Museum from 1982 until her unexpected death in 2008. We have included several pictures of her from Internet sources with the last picture a still from an interview she did with Drexel University.

Marcel Duchamp is considered one of the three most influencial artists of the early 1900's. Moving from impressionism, he became a master of a type of combination scupture/painting that he invented. As he grew older he became a master in the game of chess and moved to the United States. The two pictures that accompany Duchamp's portrait (and this represents a 2D display of a 3D object) are works owned by and on display at the museum. Just on this collection one can see the influence of d’Harnoncourt on the museum collections.

In honor of the long standing museum director, recently the drive used to access the back of the museum, and the one used by our photographer, has been renamed in her honor. The road was being paved and expanded when our photographer was there and this had been a problem for the 2014 session dancers all summer long. These pictures show the access to the road from Kelly drive (looking from Pennsylvania Avenue), looking down on this access road from the back of the museum and a look at the entrance to the first floor level parking area that encircles the building.

We should add that we are moving east at this point. If our photographer would have moved north in exiting the Art Museum, he would have been in the midst of a scupture garden representing many of the heroes of the Revolutionary war. This montage is taken among the statues. And among these statues are the images of Nathanial Greene, Von Steuben and Lafayette, all heroes of the war for Independence. This area is also well maintained as a by the grounds crew as you should be able to see.

Besides the change to the skyline that occurred with the building of what we know as the Art Museum, there was also a change in the transportation grid. Prior to the construction Spring Garden street ran through Fairmount and the Rt 43 trolley, running from the Delaware river through West Phila to Parkside ave used Spring Garden Street. With the construction of the Art Museum, Spring Garden street (and the trolley line) were relocated to a tunnel running under the museum. This photo shows the entrance to this tunnel on the east side. Present day drivers get an advantage of strictly eastbound two lane access but originally the tunnel was in both directions with Trolley tracks laid in both directions.

At 26th st and Pennsylvania aves - adjacent to Kelly Drive on the eastern approach to the Art Museum - stands the Art museum annex building. The Art Museum uses the building for administrative offices and for storage of art not currently displayed. But this building has its own unique history dating back from its construction in 1928, just before the great depression. The color scheme at one time (perhaps even now) was designed to match the museum's building just up the hill. The building dates back to 1928 and was owned by the Fidelity Mutual Life Insurance company. Philadelphia at the time was a leading center of insurance operations in the country. Fidelity moved out to another location in the city (a memory is triggered that this was first in the 46th and Market area and then in Radnor. More recently it seems to have found a location around Broad and Chestnut as a shell corporation) and by 2002 was essentially bankrupt although it had already been seized by Pa. regulators in the early '90s. After Fidelity moved out, the building was the headquarters of Reliance Insurance company until sold to the Art Museum just after the start of the millenium.

When talking about Reliance, one is really talking about one of the most interesting U of P grads, Saul Steinberg, who started a computer leasing business while still at the school. Part of his empire was the Reliance insurance group. Steinberg was a master of deficit funding and partnered with Michael Milken{ pictured far right|am2014/milken} in the junk bond craze of the eighties. The arrests of many of the junk bond proponents such as Milken in the early nineties put an end to this type of investing and by the middle nineties the finances holding up the Reliance group was unraveling. To be fair, it would take a while before this unraveling would affect Steinberg's social life style {and we've included a picture of Steinberg and his third wife at one of their social dinner parties|am2014/steinberg4}.

The Reliance building shares Pennsylvania avenue, the street that parallels Kelly Drive and then the Parkway from 28th through 20 streets, with several other large structures. From the start the Parkway has been a prestigious address for anyone or anything in the vicinity. A set of large Residential apartments and condos line up with the Reliance Building. Most northern is 2601. Below the Reliance building is the Philadelphian{ which has its own bus to provide transportation for its residents into center city|am2014/res5a}. Two blocks south of this is 2201. This montage shows these residential complexes in this order.

While there are no sculptures on the Parkway (or Art Museum) honoring Saul Steinberg - or for that matter Maria Bartiromo - there are scuptures galore celebrating all sorts of folks and cultures on this span of terrain. We've included four here: A helmeted Joanne D'Arc on her horse in gold, Anthony Wayne similarly on horseback, a sculpture in honor of the great mathematician and astronomer, Nicolaus Copernicus, using his polish spelling and Gulusha Pennypacker, who at 20 was the youngest Brigidier General ever in the US Army during the civil war when he was seriously, and at one time seemingly fatally, wounded during several actions although he did survive. Pennypacker received the metal Of honor for his efforts. His is a very famous family name in the Philadelphia area and is the name of the large park in Northeast Philadelphia just below Welsh Road.

While the previous individuals are honored in sculpture, there is another name honored on the Parkway just across from the Museum over one of the saddest events in the city's history. In 1970 Frank Von Collns, a sergeant in the Philadelphia police, was shot down while manning the guard house in Cobbs Creek, another of the city parks on the stream that is the western boundary of the city. A field, generally used for baseball, is named after him. Walking along the parkway during the spring, summer and into fall one gets the impression that this park is continuously being used.

The great Philadelphia artist, Thomas Eakins, is mentioned above and he is remembered by the circle that is between the Museum building and Von Colln's memorial park. This circle was pointed out in one of the pictures above and a surface view is presented here. The Eakens circle is used in a variety of ways by the city and police authorities. Generally it is opened for parking but as you can see here it is being used as a storage area for police baricades (before they are stowed somewhere else) that are used for traffic control during city events - in this case the Labor day festivities.

In Eakins circle there are several other memorial scuptures with the biggest one pertaining to one of the country's founding fathers: George Washington. We all know the saying about Washington: First in war, first in peace and first in the hearts of his countrymen. Legends about Washington abound. There are many about his youth in Virginia as well as his subsequent service to England, the fledging colonial rebellion and the United States. It is a fact that he was a high ranking officer under General John Forbes when the French presence in what is now the Pittsburgh area was defeated by a combination of British and Colonial forces. Washington was a Virginia representative to the early Continental Congress sesssions in Philadelphia before becoming the General of the Continental army during the revolution and it was he and his army that accepted the British Surrender at Yorktown, Virginia in 1881. And, Washington was the nation's first president between 1789 and 1796. In honor of Washington's service to the nation, a massive sculpture celebrating all aspects of Washington's life, both legend and fact, was sculpted and dedicated by the German artist, Rudolf Siemering, in the late 1890's even before the completion of the Parkway and the Art Musuem as we know it. This massive scupture is located at the northwest side of Eakins circle, in full view of the traffic navigating the end of Kelly Drive and the Art Museum.

It is not just in Eakins circle or the scupture garden behind the Art Museum building where you will run into sculpture and artwork along the parkway and at the Art Museum. This montage pictures additional sculpture and art. To the left is the famous Philadelphian Stephen Girard. We also have the first Supreme Justice of the United States, John Marshall, in scupture pictured here as well as as a scuptured art piece titled 'Social Consciousness'. Our final pictures deal with a memorial to the Armemian community of Philadelphia.

Our photographer is heading south on the Parkway. He is about to encounter another landmark administered (although apparently not owned) by the Art Museum. If you look at the museum website, it appears that several historic houses in Fairmount park are part of the museum domain besides the museum proper and the Reliance building. But, the Art Museum also administers one more very famous location on the Parkway, pictured in this montage. Before we provide more details, we should denote another magnate of industry whose bears the responsibility for this.

Few people can recollect that among the many discoveries and inventions of Thomas Edison was the motion picture. Having created the concept, Edison tried his hand at making films but very shortly ceded this activity to others. The first movies were shot in outside locations near Menlo park, New Jersey, where Edison had his research facilities. As would have eventually happened at some point, one film was long delayed based on weather conditions and this provided the impetus for moving all of this fledging industry out west to Los Angeles where the weather conditions would be more predictable. Of course, who knows what the reaction was when these Easterners were subjected to California's seismic activity. But, how about the locations to view these new films from California. Like Edison, the man most responsible was back East and a Philadelphian. Jules Mastbaum had been very successful in real estate in this area but fell under the sway of cinema. He began to turn several of his properties into movie houses. This being the time of silent movies (Mastbaum died just as the transition to sound was occurring) opening a movie theatre involved investments in musical instruments - especially organs - and musicians to operate this equipment. In time, Mastbaum and his company, Stanley Entertainment, would be the largest movie theatre company in the world. One of the great achievements, although finished after Mastbaum had died, was the Mastbaum theater at 20th and Market said to be able to hold 4000 moviegoers at a time. Mastbaum has been honored in Philadelphia by having a Vo-Tech named after him and we have included a bit of the school's web site here.

Mastbaum had another passion, the sculpture of Auguste Rodin. Mastbaum had been to Paris in the early twenties, after Rodin had died, and was taken by the hands sculpture to the point that he began to collect everything he could find that had been crafted by Rodin. Within a few short years the collection was big enough for Mastbaum to consider housing this collection in its own building.

Auguste Rodin is the archetype today of what we would consider a sculptor. His technique was so pure per his depiction of anatomy, that his early career was affected by allegations that he used casts of his models as the anatomy seemed too perfect. Similar to Eakins, he advanced the concept of realism in the arts. As opposed to Eakins, Rodin was quite famous while alive and even helped create his own museum with the hrlp of the French Government. His works survive, possibly even multiply, as he allowed the French government to cast his pieces and you can see examples of his works, (we've included the Thinker and The Kiss in this montage) claimed to be originals from these castings, around the world. The largest assemblage of Rodin's works are at the Musee Rodin in Paris. The second largest collection in the world is presented in the next montage.

By 1926 plans are underway by Mastbaum to display his collection of Rodins in a museum that he would construct. He commissioned several architects to create the building he would never live to see as he died that same year, in 1926. Negotiations between the city, Mastbaum's widow and the Art Museum placed administrative control of this new museum under the Art Museum's aegis. We should note that the largest amount of Rodin sculpture is located at the Rodin Musee in Paris as a result of direct gifts by Rodin while alive and bequeathed at death. Since he allowed casting of his sculptures by this museum, you can see his works throughout the world but, in terms of number, Philadelphia's Rodin museum ranks second to the Paris institution.

Our photographer is moving toward City Hall along the Parkway, away from the Art Museum building. He is about to encounter the newest museum along the route, one that was relocated to its new site, after considerable judicial process, in 2012. For this museum we have to thank a man who was a very smart chemist and an even smarter, and perhaps brilliant, timer of events. We are of course talking about Albert Barnes. Barnes, a native Philadelphia, was educated to be a physician but he never practiced, moving into chemistry instead as a researcher. He and a colleague made a discovery of a drug that would cure one of the venereal diseases and created a business to distribute this discovery. In showing the prescience that would be the hallmark of his successful life, he sold the business just before the depression and even more importantly before the discovery of antibiotics that would have replaced his drug as the standard treatment. Barnes was different than others who made fortunes before the depression. He had already been collecting art work over the years and he husbanded his new wealth, refusing to join the other wealthy in their various investments in the Stock Markets. When the crash came with the resultant depression, Barnes pounced on art work owned by the prior noveau rich, now newly poor in desparate need of money for possibly tenths of cents on the dollar. He amassed Picasso's, Cezanne's, Matisse's and Renoir's etc by the dozens (if not hundreds) to the point that his collection today, an integral part of the Barnes foundation, is said to be worth 20 to 30 billion dollars. Barnes had been married in 1901 and forty years later the couple turned their estate in Lower Merion, not far from Adath Israel, into both a museum displaying his art and a horticultural center managed by his wife. While the horticultural concerns remain in Lower Merion, the art work has been transported to this new museum on the Parkway. This montage pictures Barnes at the top and various pictures of the artists he specialized in collecting below.

Here are several pictures of the outside of the new museum. The location is where the Youth Study Center stood for many years for those of you that know the area. Needless to say, the clientele is very different between the two. One of the problems of the old museum in Lower Merion was the restricted hours. It's difficult to determine if this restriction was done because of the complaints of the neighbors on Latches lane or just the contradictory nature of Dr Barnes. In addition, there was a need to be pre-approved to be admitted and Barnes, when alive, apparently took great pleasure is denying access to those who were quite prominent. The new museum's web site indicates that it is open 9 to 4 daily and apparently you can even walk up and purchase tickets that same day. It would be hard to believe that Dr Barnes would approve if he were alive today (He died in a traffic accident in 1951)

As mentioned above, William Penn had set aside provision for 5 squares designated as Centre, Northeast, Southeast, Northwest and Southwest. In practice the squares interrupted the north-south flow of the streets creating bracket designs for 7th, Broad and 19th streets at these points. Centre square became City Hall and over the years the other four squares were named after these gentleman, James Logan, Benjamin Franklin, David Rittenhouse and George Washington. As we descend below the present day Barnes Museum, we are in the realm of Logan Square (or Circle as it is physically now) named after an assistant to William Penn and the individual charged with selling Penn's land from the original King Charles II land grant. Logan Square is quite different today from the other squares (which retain Penn's original design) because of the creation of the Parkway. Around its contours are many famous Philadelphia landmarks.

ddd, left most, is a google map of our last area of interest in this script. We want to look at the Swann fountain, The Franklin Institute, The Free Library and the Academy Of Natural Sciences in the next few montages. These last three, long time cultural icons of Philadelphia, in addition to the museums already indicated in this script, make the Parkway from Logan Square to the Art Museum the cultural center of the city as we expect was one of the underlying intentions of the original plans for the Parkway's construction.

The epicenter of all of this activity around Logan Square is the Swann fountain discussed below. As far as the dates of completion of the fountain, look at the last two pictures dd. The first is the parkway in 1921. While not perfectly clear, it looks like the square, now circle, has been completed but there doesn't seem to be any construction on it. The rightmost picture shows that the fountain is in place and you can even see the water is flowing. It is said that the water can reach a maximum height of 50ft although normally it is set for a height of 25 ft. Today, a poster near the fountain indicates 1924 as the completion date, squarely in the middle of our two rightmost pictures.

Alexander Stirling Calder is the second in line of three generations of sculptors. His son is well known for the concept of mobiles. The father, who went by the name of Stirling, was well known for larger types of sculptures. Now, the parkway is the home to many scuptures by many sculptors but most are not native to the States. Stirling was born in this country and his father also was famous for his work. This montage pays homage to Calder's creativity as he lit up Swann fountain with nymphs, mermaids, sea gods and aquatic life as you can discern from these pictures. Calder also affect the younger at heart as the Swann fountain is also used annually by high school senior students for a clothed dip into the waters at the time of their graduation.
We should add the the fountain is in memorial of a local doctor who advocated for more water, in the form of pools and fountains, in the fabric of Philadlephia society. We're sure that he would be proud of Calder's work done in his honor.

Half of hollywood today seems to have born and raised in Philadelphia. There is the actors Bradley Cooper, Will Smith, Kevin Bacon, Richard Gere and Blythe Danner among many others. Singers abound including Bobby Rydell and Frankie Avalon not to mention Daryl Hall of Hall and Oates. The Roots band on the Tonight show is for the most part native to Philadelphia. In the past we can indicate that the Kelly family produced a queen (Grace) and an olympic rower (Jack). In the 1800's it is said that Henry George was the most famous American in the world and he was native to this area although he moved as a young adult to San Francisco. But, most would concede that the most famous Philadelphian was born in Boston and of course we are referencing Benjamin Franklin. It's difficult to indicate an area that Franklin was not involved in while he was alive but perhaps his most important role, although probably the least known, was being the Continental Congress' representative in France where he helped enlist the French fleet to aid in the defeat of the British at Yorktown. Our next two (or you can look at it as three) institutions that we will highlight owe their fame to Franklin, one that was founded by him and the other(s) that was inspired by him.

In 2012, the former Atwater Kent museum reopened as the Phildelphia History museum. The Atwater Kent museum had occupied its present location at 7th and Randolph since 1938. The building they occupied at that point was the former headquarters of the Franklin Institute. The Institute had moved to its present location at 20th and the Parkway in 1934 during the heights of the depression. The institute had originally been established in 1824/1825 and named for the most famous Philadelphia scientist to that time, the aforementioned Ben Franklin. During the time period between the creation of the institute and its movement to its new building Philadelphia was a center of science and technology. Many new discoveries were originated within the city boundaries and it is said that many of these were first displayed at the museum in its old building. With the new building, and the added space it provided, the museum would expand over the years. For example, a railroad engine, the Baldwin 60000, was in essence donated for display in the new building in 1933. Coincident with the purchase of the engine was the donation by Samuel Fels of the funds needed for a planetarium in the new building. The Fels planetarium is well known and has had a substantial reconfiguaration in 2002. And, of course, we would be remiss if we didn't mention the Heart exhibit. Generations of Philadelphia school children have travelled through this model of the human heart and it continues to be a big attraction to this day.

The origin of the Baldwin 60000 locamotive is as interesting as the origin of the company that created it. The 60000 was the 60000th locomotive created by the Baldwin Locomotive works located in the heart of Philadelphia centered around 15th and Spring Garden. The locomotive was built in 1926 or thereabouts with plenty of new steam age technology. It was shown around the United States for several years soliciting oohs and aahs by the public but no buyers among the railroads that tested and demoed it. The new technologies made this an expensive, if not difficult, engine to run on a regular basis as did its weight. When Baldwin built this engine, they probably didn't realize that steam itself was a fading industry. They were bringing new ideas to a dying world. Within 20 years it would become apparent that diesel fuel was taking over.

Since the 1800's the Baldwin plant had encompassed multiple city blocks centering around 15th and Spring Garden creating underpasses and dead ends to certain city streets and requiring other city streets to be dedicated to railroad tracks. Baldwin was not the only railroad oriented enterprise to affect the city such. The old Pennsylvania Rialroad's Broad Street Station at 15th and Market tied up streets in a similar manner from 22nd through 15th for a few blocks above Market Street. But, probably the success of the Parkway project had an effect on these plants and equipment. Philadelphia was now into an era of open, somewhat majestic vistas. Baldwin would move out of its offices in 1928 (abandoning at least 8 buildings) southward to Eddystone, and the Pennsylvania Railroad would start a project in 1936 (completed by 1953), the Penn Center project, to move its rail lines underground to alleviate the street congestion in center city.

When you say "library" in the city of Philadelphia, the oldest one is generally not the one that the question implies as Philadelphia proper is somewhat served by two independent Library systems. The first, the Library Company of Philadlephia, was founded by Franklin around 1730 and now resides at 1314 Locust St. That Franklin would found a library should not come as a surprise as Franklin was a man of letters in many ways through and through. Besides a prolific author, Franklin had one of the first franchises in this country's history originating from his own publishing/print empire which included the publication of the Poor Richard's Almanac. As a sideline, although quite lucritive, Franklin would provide funds (today known as startup capital) for new printing shops throughout the colonies/states, for a part of the ownership and profits going forward. It's not surprising that this was a man involved with manuscripts.

The Library company is a respository of historic information. We have used its web site to search its collections on Franklin himself as an author which you can see dd .

However, when library is mentioned, most local residents would have our next building, prominent along the Parkway and adjacent to Logan Square, in mind and that would be the Free Library Of Philadelphia. Since 1927 the library has served the public in this building answering questions of all sorts (including answers to crossword puzzle questions from various daily papers). In this montage we show the building in 1927 during its early days and other pictures through the years. {As you can see in our last picture, the Library also has its own store, The Book Corner, to sell used books donated by area residents.|am2014/library3}

Except for the gentleman in the last picture of this montage, all of these men have had the opportunity to utter the famous words "Bond, James Bond" on some sound stage. The gentleman indicated previously could have said this in real life although we doubt he ever did. Meet a real James Bond! His was supposedly the name appropriated by an author looking for the most boring name he could find for his proposed hero as he sat down to write a book eventually designated as "Casino Royale" while in Jamaica in 1952. How did this author come to find this name?

And this takes us to our last montage! This is about the last building we will discuss and this building's most famous scientist (thanks to the author indicated above, Ian Fleming, in the opinion of this web site's historical editor). As to the building, we are of course discussing the Academy of Natural Sciences which has been a part of Drexel University since 2011. As for the scientist referenced, James Bond joined the academy in the 1920's and after a while specialized in ornithology (following in the footsteps of his father who also had an interest in the study of birds and their habitats). James Bond led expeditions to discover the extent of avian migration across the world. This led to his discovery of the Jamaica line (also known as the James Bond Line) which demarks the boundary between North American and South American birds as they respectively winter in the small islands that surround the island of Jamaica. This also led to his 1936 book (reissued in 1948 and 1960), Birds Of The West Indies, that Fleming swore he used to appropriate the name for the hero of his own books. This scientist himself would laugh off, if not be embarassed, by this claim of being the most renown Academy scientist by indicating the fame of other in-house and corresponding members of the Academy over the years such as William Bartram, Thomas Jefferson, Charles Darwin, Thomas Huxley and Thomas Audoban, among many others. But then again, few of these names have been the hero of numerous books and movies since 1952. So, anyway, leftmost in this montage is the cover of this book on ornithology that gets involved in movie legend (and has a cameo in Die Another Day for Bomd trivia fans) followed by several pictures of the Academy's building.

And we thank you the reader for following our little tour of the parkway starting at the Art Museum and moving along to Logan Square. We think we've proved that the Parkway was not the brain child of William Penn although he certainly deserves credit for the founding of this city. It's also interesting how the Centennial continues to influence the lives of Philadlephians as it led to the Art Museum, the University Of The Arts and Philadelphia University. The Parkway project itself probably led to the impetus that changed the Broad and Spring Garden area not to mention what is now called Penn Center. And, of course, for all who enjoy dancing the night away on the East Terrace of the museum, we have to thank the dance leaders who surmount much red tape to stage their sessions there.