You’ve seen it in photos, now see it in person | 12
America’s Best Bathroom
It’s just outside Philadelphia, and it’s alive | 14
Assembly
The swankiest rooftop in town | 16
Baleroy Mansion
Maybe a little too haunted | 18
Barnes Foundation
Black culture among the impressionists | 20
Bartram’s Garden
Colonial America’s first garden | 22
Batalá Philly
Philly’s most inclusive musical act | 24
BioPond
A shockingly secluded secret garden | 26
Black Vulture Gallery
Art for your skin, art for your walls | 28
Vintage cheese, anyone? | 30
Buist Sophora
A beloved tree that defies destruction | 32
Burlesque Academy
Get your Gypsy Rose Lee on | 34
Carmen’s
Where Obama went for a cheesesteak | 36
Cave of Kelpius
Where America’s first mystic cult awaited Doomsday | 38
Charles Dickens’ Desk
Not his only, but his last | 40
Cherry Street Pier
An abandoned space turned community inspiration | 42
Cherry Street Tavern
Is that a urinal trough along the bar? | 44
Cira Green
A complete park in the sky | 46
Circadium School of Contemporary Circus
The first state-accredited program for circus arts | 48
The Clay Studio
Learn, create, and “clay it forward” | 50
The Colored Girls Museum
A curated collection in a private home | 52
Congress Hall
Move over, Independence Hall | 54
Curtis Institute
Free education and free concerts | 56
DeLong Building
A stunning model of urban fire history | 58
Dirty Franks
Eye-popping dive with serious heart | 60
Discovery Center
From forgotten reservoir to city treasure | 62
Dream Garden
A masterpiece nearly lost | 64
Earliest US Serial Killer
The devil in the white city met his end in Philadelphia | 66
East Market
A full community in a single block | 68
Edgar Allan Poe’s House
Three stories and one creepy basement | 70
Eiffel Tower of Philly
It’s a milk bottle, but close enough | 72
Emmy the Mannequin
A local celeb hawking inside jokes | 74
Eternal Performance
Some seats come with an extra show | 76
Fairmount Groot
An enduring fixture in an evolving garden | 78
Fairmount Water Works
A hands-on learning center in a historic location | 80
FDR Skate Park
Where community and government agree | 82
First Antislavery Protest
An early petition against hypocrisy and injustice | 84
Assembly
The swankiest rooftop in town
Hotels are not just for out-of-towners, and the savviest city residents know exactly which ones boast the best restaurants and rooftops for an elevated (literally) removal from a stressful workday or dull routine. Quiet corners and secret enclaves can be welcome relief for these brief moments of staycation escapism, but it can be equally refreshing to recharge your romance with your hometown by hitting the heart of what makes it most famous. In Philly, this is best accomplished at Assembly, the rooftop bar of The Logan Hotel.
Sure, Philadelphia has plenty of famous streets and enough historical monuments to fill another book entirely, but the Philly view known ‘round the world, from local news to internationally broadcast parades, is that of the Philadelphia Museum of Art at the end of the Benjamin Franklin Parkway. From atop The Logan, you’ll not only catch a sweeping view of this stunner in the distance, but you’ll also be surrounded by the icons of Logan Circle, including The Franklin Institute, The Free Library (see ch. 16), The Academy of Natural Sciences, and the Swann Memorial Fountain in the center of the circle itself.
In summer, the cozy couches surrounding fire pits on the outdoor deck are the spot for frozen cocktails and sunset views, but the ceiling-to-floor glass walls of Assembly make it a year-round hotspot regardless of weather. Reconnect with your roots through locally-inspired cocktails with names like “Down the Shore” and “It’s Always Sunny,” or dive directly into the rooftop bar’s signature sip, champagne, perfect for celebrating anything from a promotion to a well-deserved moment of self-care. There aren’t a lot of gimmicks, OMG-moments, or fly-by-night trends here (though take advantage of pop-up collabs if you catch one). It’s simple Philadelphia sophistication with constant reminders of why you love Philly in the first place.
Address 1840 Benjamin Franklin Parkway, Philadelphia, PA 19103, +1 (215) 783-4171, www.assemblyrooftop.com | Getting there Bus 32, 33 to 19th & Cherry Streets | Hours Daily 4pm – midnight | Tip Both the hotel and circle are named for Philadelphia statesman James Logan, whose 3,000-volume library has been acquired by The Library Company of Philadelphia, which you can explore (1314 Locust Street, www.librarycompany.org).
Baleroy Mansion
Maybe a little too haunted
If you’re someone who prefers a tidy ending to every story, you might want to skip this one. Beyond a mere haunted house from which you can simply walk away, Baleroy Mansion was once home to a piece of furniture with the alleged power to kill – and you may be sitting on it now. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves.
This is a private home, and you can’t go in it. But you can certainly take a short trip to Chestnut Hill to marvel at its exterior from the street. Its mature landscaping and long, stone-walled driveway ooze a cemeterial vibe that may just give you the creeps as you ponder the events that have unfolded within. Start by understanding that this 32-room mansion wasn’t constructed until the early 20th-century. But note that it was soon purchased by the Easby family, who sailed with William Penn aboard the Welcome and count among their ancestors seven signers of the Declaration of Independence, as well as General George Meade, hero of the Battle of Gettysburg.
Legend holds that the first owner murdered his wife here, kicking off a cascade of mysterious illnesses and deaths that have never been explained. The youngest Easby son died of an unknown illness a few years after moving in, and his ghost is among the specters reported to inhabit the home still. Staff have been spooked, a minister was hit with a flying pot, and Easby family members claimed to have been pranked regularly by spirits through the generations. Even Thomas Jefferson is said to haunt the dining room occasionally.
Still, the most fascinating element of Baleroy is the 200-year-old “chair of death” that has claimed the lives of at least four unsuspecting sitters before the last Easby to live here banned anyone from using it. After his death in 2005, the antique contents of Baleroy were auctioned off, and the current location of this chair remains a potentially fatal mystery today.
Address 111 W Mermaid Lane, Philadelphia, PA 19118 | Getting there Bus 23 to Germantown Avenue & W Mermaid Lane | Hours Unrestricted from the outside only | Tip General Meade also died in Philadelphia, though without mystery and intrigue. A historical marker notes his 1872 death near Rittenhouse Square (1836 Delancey Place, www.hmdb.org).
Batalá Philly
Philly’s most inclusive musical act
When you first learn what Batalá is, it may sound almost prohibitively niche. It’s an Afro-Brazilian drum group specifically playing music from Salvador in Bahia, Brazil, and often the work of esteemed founder Giba Gonçalves. The art form incorporates both music and choreography. It takes some stamina, but it turns out to be remarkably accessible. There are chapters around the world, and international groups love to meet up and perform together, and there’s no need to speak the same language, even within one’s own group. In fact, you don’t even need to read music. All Batalá chapters teach their compositions and movements through universal hand signals that allow anyone to learn regardless of language or previous musical experience – and plenty of band members have joined with neither.
In Batalá Philly, President Rosa Barreca confirms you don’t need to be a drummer to join the drum band. “What I love most about Batalá is that it finds the drummer in you and brings that person out,” she says. Despite the physical demands of performance, members of Batalá Philly have ranged in age from 30 – 70. They meet twice weekly to rehearse and keep up with a schedule of paid performances that continues to grow with the city’s awareness of this fun-loving club.
Batalá is volunteer based, so those performance fees go towards drums, costumes, and operating expenses, as do monthly membership dues. It’s a welcoming bunch, as one member describes, “A group in which you can be wholly yourself, and you will be loved and celebrated for it. We are a family, and we lift each other up in drumming and in life.”
If you could use a little of that in yourself, then join! If you’d just like to check them out, they rehearse at the Lincoln Monument in Fairmount Park twice weekly, except in winter or inclement weather, when they move indoors. Their website maintains their performance schedule year-round.
Address Kelly & Sedgley Drive, Philadelphia, PA 19130, www.batalaphilly.com, batalaphillylove@gmail.com | Getting there Bus 7, 48, 49 to 29th & Pennsylvania Streets | Hours Seasonally Wed 6 – 8pm, Sun 11am – 1pm | Tip Learn more Afro-Brazilian art forms, like Capoeira, at the ASCAB Capoeira in Center City. All are welcome (1213 Race Street, www.projectcapoeira.com).
Congress Hall
Move over, Independence Hall
If you grew up in the Philadelphia area, you certainly took at least one class trip to Independence Hall to gaze upon the Assembly Room, where both the Declaration of Independence and the United States Constitution were signed. And even if you’re a transplant who’s only ever played tourist in your new home city once or twice, this destination was most likely on your itinerary. It’s well worth a visit, certainly, but the adjoining building on the corner of Chestnut and 6th Streets has even more to ogle and consider.
Sure, it’s essentially impossible to top the historical importance of both the Declaration and the Constitution, but neighboring Congress Hall is where many of the developments following these signings occurred, including the inaugurations of both Washington and Adams, the ratification of the Bill of Rights, and the creation of the United States Navy. Originally constructed as the Philadelphia County Courthouse in 1787, it was quickly expanded and repurposed to accommodate Congress for the 10 year period in which Philly served as the nation’s temporary capital, beginning in 1790.
The House of Representatives met on the first floor of Congress Hall, while the Senate convened on the slightly posher second floor. Among the contents are 28 original desks, where the Founding Fathers mapped out the new country’s path. And look for an impressive pair of portraits hanging in second-floor committee rooms. You may recognize them as France’s King Louis XVI and Queen Marie Antoinette, who provided financial and military support to the Americans and gifted the art to the newly-formed nation after the successful Revolution. Also on display is an early document bearing a banded red ink stain illustrating the 18th-century practice of binding official documents in red tape, giving rise to the notion of bureaucratic “red tape” that persists today.
Address Chestnut Street & 6th Street, Philadelphia, PA 19106, +1 (215) 965-2305, www.nps.gov | Getting there Subway to 5th Street / Independence Hall (Market – Frankford Line) | Hours Daily 9am – 5pm | Tip One block from Congress Hall, you’ll find the ruins of the first executive mansion, used by Washington and Adams during this period and now devoted to acknowledging the country’s hypocritical history with slavery (Market Street & 6th Street, www.nps.gov).
Eternal Performance
Some seats come with an extra show
The Academy of Music is no secret spot in Philadelphia. Opened in 1857, it’s the oldest opera house still holding performances in the US today, and it lays claim to the even more impressive title of oldest playhouse still performing in the entire English-speaking world. Modeled after La Scala in Milan, this dramatic treasure is respected worldwide and has long been loved by Philly residents. But some may adore The Academy a little too ardently.
It’s an old city (by American standards) and an old building, so rumors of hauntings are all but guaranteed. Reports from this venue aren’t the run-of-the-mill tales of phantom voices and mysterious footsteps. While plenty of older theaters report long-dead actors who continue to tread the boards or cause mischief for prop masters, the spirits who remain behind at The Academy are generally found among the audience. That’s good news if you’re looking for a supernatural encounter and can’t score a backstage tour! Even better news? The tickets you’ll need to purchase are among the least expensive in the house (not that you’ll regret taking in a world-class performance in his venerable hall, regardless).
Head to the amphitheater, the uppermost deck, if the performance you seek involves more than the stage alone. Here, patrons have reported unoccupied seats around them suddenly becoming indented or wrinkled in, well, the shape of someone’s butt, as though invisible music lovers had just arrived to take in the show. A bit less subtle, others have reported being pinched or having their hair pulled on the amphitheater level, and witnesses even claim to have seen the inexplicable hair-pulling happen to these unsuspecting audience members.
Unfortunately, there’s no solid record of who these victims or witnesses were, so this story is likely to be mere legend, but it certainly adds a new level of intrigue to a night at the theater here.
Address 240 S Broad Street, Philadelphia, PA 19102, +1 (215) 893-1999, www.academyofmusic.org | Getting there Subway to Walnut–Locust (Broad Street Line); Bus 4, 27, 32 to Broad & Locust Streets | Hours See website for performance schedule | Tip Swap the historical for the more contemporary across the street with a visit to The Wilma Theater, named for a fictional sister of Shakespeare imagined by Virginia Woolf (265 S Broad Street, www.wilmatheater.org).
Irish Memorial
A waterfront homage to those who came and went
Conversations about Philadelphia’s immigrant history often center around the Germans and British of the colonial period and the Italians of the early 20th century. But the city is also home to the country’s third largest Irish population, many of whose families arrived as a result of the Great Famine of the 1840s.
Upwards of one million Irish people fled to the United States to escape the starvation and disease that spread across their homeland during this period, and nearly 100,000 of them chose Philadelphia as their new home. Today, nearly 15% of the city claims Irish heritage, but it wasn’t until 2003, the sesquicentennial of the famine, that Philadelphia publicly honored one of its largest ethnic groups with the monumental Irish Memorial at Penn’s Landing, where many of the earliest Irish Americans first arrived.
Conceived and sculpted by Glenna Goodacre, best known for the Vietnam Women’s Memorial in Washington, DC, the memorial consists of a staggering 35 life-sized bronze figures across a 30-foot by 12-foot by 12-foot amalgamation of scenes depicting the scope of emigration from starvation in Ireland to arrival in America, including scores of deaths along the journey. Though the memorial and the surrounding park also honor the contributions of Irish Americans, this is not a celebratory memorial. It tells the tragic tale not just of famine and death, but of the British abuse that resulted in the loss of 25% of Ireland’s population, and of the brutal hostility America’s desperate new immigrants faced.
Part of the memorial’s emotional genius is that you can’t simply stand and observe this piece. You need to take an active role in the experience, moving about its full circumference and confronting new vignettes as you go. Find the eight informational plinths stationed among the surrounding walkways, each describing an element of the Great Hunger and its aftermath.
Address 100 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, PA 1910, www.irishmemorial.org | Getting there Bus 21, 42 to Chestnut & Front Streets | Hours Unrestricted | Tip Goodacre’s relief of Sacagawea appears on the golden dollar coin issued in the early 2000s and struck at the Philadelphia Mint, one of only two United States Mint locations to offer tours (151 N Independence Mall E, www.usmint.gov/about).
John E. Freyer Marker
A small testament to a monumental shift
With a prominent gayborhood including rainbow crosswalks and street signs, Philly is one of the most LGBTQIA+-friendly cities in the country, but it wasn’t always this way. In the early 1970s, homosexuality was still classified as a mental illness by the American Psychiatric Association (APA). Suggested cures included lobotomy and electroshock treatment, and being a homosexual was a firing offense nationwide. From these social, medical, and legal norms not even Philadelphia was immune. But one brave Philadelphian stood up to the establishment and instigated a major societal shift with one daring speech.
In 1972, closeted gay psychiatrist John E. Freyer joined a panel at the annual APA meeting to declare that he did not believe homosexuality was a “sociopathic personality disturbance,” as the APA officially labeled it. The real problem, he continued, was a pervasive societal disease of homophobia. As an untenured professor at Temple University School of Medicine, Freyer put his job and reputation at serious risk by placing himself in the national spotlight, so he spoke under the pseudonym of Dr. H. Anonymous, wearing a disguise of a rubber mask and wig with a baggy suit and speaking through a voice modifying microphone. His passionate appearance on the panel succeeded in prompting the APA to launch a committee investigating their designation. The following year, homosexuality was declassified as a mental illness in the APA’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, still used by all American psychiatric professionals for diagnoses today.
Freyer didn’t officially reveal his identity until the 1994 meeting of the APA, and he spent the later years of his career treating gay men with AIDS before passing in 2003. In 2017, the Historical Society of Pennsylvania installed this marker to honor the Philadelphian’s monumental contribution toward destigmatizing homosexuality nationwide.
Getting there Light Rail to 12/13th & Locust Street (PATCO Line); Subway to Walnut – Locust (Broad Street Line) | Hours Daily accessible 24 hours | Tip The Historical Society of Pennsylvania is located across the street from this marker. It contains 217 boxes of Freyer’s personal papers, available to the public (1300 Locust Street, www.hsp.org).
Neon Museum
Representing the “Workshop of the World”
Philadelphia was once an American hub of neon sign manufacturing. In the 1950s–1960s, the medium’s heyday, Philly was home to more than 40 shops producing these eye-catching advertisements. Len Davidson’s Neon Museum is devoted to collecting and preserving this rich heritage in the city dubbed “Workshop of the World” in a book of the same name.
Today, neon isn’t used nearly as prolifically as in the past, when brands in industries like paint, ice cream, and beverages would supply their vendors with small neon signs to advertise in their windows. Davidson believes neon’s modern appeal isn’t just due to the bright colors or delicate craftsmanship, but the nostalgia that harkens back to a time of local commerce before Amazon and big-box stores, when shopkeepers held deep connections with their communities. The Neon Museum has amassed more than 150 of these handmade works, with visitor favorites often including the animated signs, like a man donning a toupee, a dancing Elvis, and a running greyhound. However, the giant neon crown that once adorned Pat’s King of Steaks may be the locally favored crown jewel of the collection. It’s this kind of city heritage that really drives Davidson to continue preserving Philly’s neon.
Many of the pieces here are familiar to Philadelphia’s older residents, and the museum collects their stories as they visit. Some memories are added to the displays’ guide cards, while others are left behind on cork boards around the museum. All are lovingly amassed as the repository of local oral history grows. In addition to displaying the city’s colorful heritage, the museum offers design classes and neon demonstrations, arranges themed group tours, and even allows locals to contribute to, and occasionally curate, special exhibits there. For a truly memorable backdrop, you can even rent the space for photoshoots or special events.
Address 1800 N American Street, Unit E, Philadelphia, PA 19122, +1 (267) 534-3883, www.neonmuseumofphiladelphia.com, info@neonmuseumofphiladelphia.com | Getting there Bus 57 to American & Berks Streets | Hours See website for hours | Tip The Electric Street is a public installation using Flexineon LED lighting, and it’s a pretty cool walking experience with an effect quite like actual neon (1300 S Percy Street, www.percystreetproject.org).
Pulse Fountain
The train timetable you didn’t know existed
If you’ve passed through Dilworth Park at night during the warmer months since 2018, you’ve probably noticed the seemingly random bursts of green mist that occasionally shoot up from the park’s epic, 11,000-square-foot fountain of otherwise dancing jets. You may even have spotted them during the day, too, when the color is still somewhat visible, though considerably less vibrant. If you assumed they were just more fun for the kids frolicking among the fountains, you were wrong. They’re part of an intricate installation from artist Janet Echelman that not only recalls area history, but provides reliable information on some of the city’s public transportation.
Described by the artist as “a living x-ray of the city’s circulatory system,” the colored mist of Pulse follows the path of the trains traveling directly below – and in real time. When you see a four-foot eruption of green mist in the park, you can be sure a green line train is currently chugging along below. This track is for the subway-surface trolley lines that otherwise operate aboveground in most other parts of the city, and there are plans to illuminate both the Market Frankford-Line (blue) and Broad Street Line (orange) as funding becomes available.
Though it partially represents the steam from both the city’s first water pumping station (installed here in the 19th century) and the trains of the former Pennsylvania Railroad Station across the street, Pulse does not employ steam. The cool mist is colored only by LED lighting, so it’s completely harmless. You’re encouraged to interact with it (particularly if you’re a child, but nobody will be judging you).
Because Pulse tracks real train movement, the best way to ensure you’re in the right place at the right time to catch sight of the mist (or snap a snazzy photo of yourself inside it) is simply to check the train schedule.
Address 1 S 15th Street, Philadelphia, PA 19102, +1 (215) 440-5500, www.centercityphila.org, info@centercityphila.org | Getting there Subway to 15th Street (Market – Frankford Line); Light Rail to 15th Street (10, 11, 13, 34, 36 Lines) | Hours Daily Apr – Oct 7:45 – 1am | Tip If you’ve been inspired to learn more about Philly’s public transportation system, check out the free Septa Transit Museum (1234 Market Street, www.septa.org).
St. Albans Place
From Devil’s Pocket to romantic courtyard
The 2300 block of St. Albans Place has been closed to vehicular traffic since the days of the horse and buggy. Formed in 1870 to house the influx of new industrial workers filling the neighborhood, the space between these two rows of townhomes was left as a communal garden running the entire length of the block when the structures were first built. While this surprising feature has always been appreciated by residents throughout its more than 150 years, it has not always been the picture of romance it is today.
It wasn’t long after its creation that the working-class neighborhood developed an unseemly reputation for petty crime and even some danger. According to local legend, it earned the nickname, “The Devil’s Pocket,” when a priest claimed that the lawless children of this area were so fearless they would “steal the watch from the devil’s pocket.” This is certainly not the vibe today, though part of the area maintains the old nickname out of tradition.
Instead, the Graduate Hospital neighborhood, as it’s now known, is far from undesirable, and the Second Empire-style homes of St. Albans find themselves surrounding an immaculately kept garden of mature plantings mirrored by the equally impressive window boxes flanking the space.
The red brick courtyard offers a terribly romantic stroll around the elongated garden, particularly in late summer, when the tableau is at its most lush, evoking the society garden strolls of yore (though they certainly never happened here). When you come to take your own lazy turn about the garden, keep an eye peeled for house number 2302 (it’s on the southeast corner of the courtyard). The door has been replaced, but this was the home of young Cole Sear in The Sixth Sense, the highest grossing horror film of all time until 2017. Bruce Willis’ character, Malcolm Crowe, sat on the bench across the courtyard, waiting for him.
Address St. Albans Place, Philadelphia, PA 19146 | Getting there Bus 12 to Grays Ferry Avenue & Fitzwater Street | Hours Unrestricted | Tip Continue your Sixth Sense journey with a visit to St. Augustine Church, where Cole takes refuge and chats with [spoiler] already-dead Malcolm (243 N Lawrence Street, www.st-augustinechurch.com).
