Last month His Madness and I decided to make an adventure out of a road trip. Mostly it was to deliver a lot of stuff to our son, Andy and his wife, Kristin. They had just bought a house so we assumed they would have room to store a few extra things and it gave us a good excuse to snoop around their new place. Since we just celebrated a national holiday, it reminded me of the time we spent in Philadelphia driving home. Our first stop on the journey was supposed to be a quick look around Sleepy Hollow, NY but Siri sent us off in a completely different direction and we ended up inching our way through the Bronx and upper Manhattan before we knew what was happening.
Much later than we had hoped, we arrived at the Fairfield Inn and Suites in Philadelphia, chosen because it was close to all the historic sites and they had valet parking. It happened to be a newly redone, 1920's Art Deco style building with this cute bunny motif everywhere. Turns out, the new owners have a really great sense of humor. In its previous life as the Parker Spruce Hotel, it had quite a notorious reputation, to which the bunnies allude. The former gay, sports bar is now a hip place called The Libertine. Happily, the big screens are almost gone. The staff was great and it was a fun and interesting place to stay.
The next morning we decided to tour Independence Hall, where the Second Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. The tickets are free but when we tried to reserve them online it kept showing that all of the tours were full. There are only so many tickets given out each day so we took a chance and went to the Visitors Center first thing in the morning and surprise, there were tickets available after all - with a group of fifty-six middle school kids, ha!
The tour was short, there are only two rooms to it. The one above is where the Declaration of Independence was signed. Our guide was knowledgeable and gave a thorough explanation about it and the importance of the Bill of Rights. He covered the 13th through the 15th Amendments to the Constitution that ended slavery and granted equal rights to former slaves in detail and then the tour was over. What? As we were leaving I thanked him and mentioned that I'd noticed he'd left out the 19th Amendment. He apologized and said he felt bad about that but they were doing more tours now so he didn't have enough time to talk about women not being allowed to vote until 1920. So, the fact that our government denied half of its citizens the right to participate in what is supposed to be a democracy, for the first 144 years of its existence, is no big deal? I disagree.
Meanwhile, back outside, on the opposite end of Independence Hall, HM is advancing the film in his cardboard camera. Nearly all of the historic buildings are clustered in one area so it's really easy to see everything in a short amount of time. I think the Park Service could do with some funding to spruce the area up a bit. The buildings looked a little shabby and a couple of them were permanently closed. The courtyard across the street is where the Declaration of Independence was first read to the citizens of Philadelphia. Wonder if they allowed any women to listen?
I have to say the zoning is Philadelphia is very interesting, this is the very edge of the historical park area. This photo was taken from the Magnolia Garden across the street. There are a lot of shade trees and quite a few gardens in the park that provided us with a welcome relief from the 90° heat. Unfortunately, there was no escaping the sauna-like humidity.
Next, we headed over to the Betsy Ross Museum for a feminist view of colonial times and some excellent air conditioning. This museum has come under scrutiny for many years because its premise is based on oral history. Whether or not she designed and made the first flag or even lived in this house really doesn't matter, it still offers an interesting look at how people lived in the late 1700's.
There is an actual record of her being paid for making flags for the Pennsylvania navy in 1778. Although Francis Hopkinson probably designed it, Betsy Ross is credited with changing the star from a six points to five and arranging them in a circle. She was an upholsterer by trade and had to hand sew the flags at night, alone in her room, to avoid being seen. If she had been caught making flags for the revolutionaries she would have been arrested for treason. Luckily, no one turned her in! Throughout the 84 years of her life she ran a successful business, had three husbands and produced seven daughters. I think she deserves a museum just for that!
Having cooled off a little we headed for Elfreth's Alley, the oldest continually inhabited residential street in the United States. It was named after Jeremiah Elfreth, a blacksmith and property owner. The homes were built between 1702 and 1830 as working class housing for tradespeople like glassblowers, silver and pewter smiths, furniture makers and shipwrights.
Today there are thirty-two residences, two serving as a museum and is all residential but 300 years ago the ground level rooms were used for business with the residents living above. In the 1770's one third of the households were headed by women. The museum recreates a colonial-era home of a pair of dress-makers but unfortunately it wasn't open the day we visited.
In fact, we pretty much had the place to ourselves, apart from a very friendly kitty. We hand just wandered off a side alleyway when I decided to take a photo and who walks into the picture?
A Minuteman dude. He was leading a tour of European tourists who were looking around skeptically and probably wondering why anyone would think these building were that old.
It's a cute place, if the cobblestones would have been more even, it could be in a Disney park! Given what the rest of the buildings look like in the surrounding blocks, it's a miracle it has survived.Thanks to many dedicated people, working diligently over the years, it was saved from real estate development and Interstate 95.
We finished off the day at the Philadelphia Museum of Art because they were open late that evening. This is the view from the top of the steps. Thankfully, the cheesy statue of Rocky has been moved to another place. There's a whole lot more to see and do in Philadelphia but we managed to get in quite a bit in just one day. Hopefully we will visit again, the gardens should be spectacular in the spring.
Thanks for stopping by!
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