Established 1772-73, when the first church edifice was built. CHRIST
CHURCH has two burialgrounds, one attached to the church on Second
Street, North of Market, dating from the earliest days of the church,
the other southeast corner of Fifth and Arch Streets, where first
interment was made in 1730; graves of Benjamin Franklin and Deborah, his
wife, are in the northwest corner; may be seen from Arch Street through
an iron railing set in the brick wall; in these graveyards are buried
many distinguished Americans; among them Peyton Randolph, first
President of the Continental Congress; Commodores Truxton, Biddle,
Bainbridge, and Dale; Robert Morris; several signers of the Declaration
of Independence; Dr. Benjamin Rush, Dr. Philip Syng Physick, Bishop
White, and Dr. William Augustus Muhlenberg. GLORIA DEI (Old Swedes’),
Front and Swanson Streets, south of Christian; church built, 1700, being
the oldest church building in Philadelphia; a most interesting graveyard
surrounds it; the celebrated ornithologist, Alexander Wilson, is buried
here. ST. JAMES, KINGSESSING, Sixty-eighth Street and Paschall Avenue;
church erected, 1762; General Josiah Harmer, of the Revolution, is
buried in the graveyard. ST. JAMES THE LESS, Hunting Park Avenue and
Clearfield Street; this beautiful little Gothic church, brownstone,
built 1847, has a number of fine monuments in the burial ground; John
Wanamaker is buried here. ST. LUKE’S, Germantown Avenue and Coulter
Street, church dates from 1818; the famous Philadelphia annalist, John
Fanning Watson, is interred in the churchyard. ST. PETER’S, southwest
corner of Third and Pine Streets; in the graveyard lies the body of
Commodore Stephen Decatur, the grave surmounted by an Ionic column
supporting an American eagle; other notable names here are Chew,
Cadwalader, Mifflin, Binney, Biddle, Peale, Waln, Meade, McCall, Duché,
Norris, Kuhn, Montgomery. TRINITY, Oxford, near Fox Chase, east of old
Second Street Pike; present church dates from 1711; began as a log
meeting house, 1698; tombstones date as early as 1708; the inscriptions
on some are quaint and original.
=Roman Catholic.= HOLY TRINITY, northwest corner of Sixth and Spruce
Streets, dates from 1789; on the old tombstones may be deciphered names
of many of the early German and French inhabitants of Philadelphia.
Stephen Girard was buried here until 1851, later his body was removed to
Girard College. MOST HOLY REDEEMER, Richmond Street, opposite Hedley
Street, Bridesburg; many of the Redemptorist Fathers are buried here.
OTHER NOTABLE BURIAL GROUNDS
NORTH CEDAR HILL, Frankford Avenue corner of Foust Street, incorporated,
1857; a soldiers’ monument to the Civil War soldiers from Frankford is
in the older part. CRISPIN, Holmesburg; contains grave of Thomas Holme,
who laid out the city of Philadelphia; plot is under care of the Crispin
Association, formed of descendants of Holme. GLENWOOD, Ridge Avenue and
Twenty-seventh Street, opened, 1850, has notable monument of the Scott
Legion Association, formed among the surviving soldiers of the Mexican
War. GREENWOOD, Asylum Pike and Arrott Street, Frankford; established,
1869, by the benevolent order of the Knights of Pythias, as a burial
place for members and their families; occupies the “Mount Airy” estate,
once residence of Commodore Stephen Decatur. HOOD, or “THE LOWER BURIAL
GROUND,” on Germantown Avenue at Logan Street, opened in 1693, having
been presented to the borough of Germantown by Jan Streepers. Many early
settlers of Germantown lie here; among them Frederic William Post, the
Moravian missionary to the Indians, and Condy Raguet, founder of the
Saving Fund in Philadelphia; in 1847, William Hood built the front
entrance, of Pennsylvania marble, the wall and railing. IVY HILL, East
Mount Airy Avenue, above Stenton Avenue, chartered, 1867; about 80
acres; the Second Baptist Church has removed to Ivy Hill about 300
bodies from its old burial place on New Market Street; an imposing
monument is here in memory of David Lyle, Chief Engineer of the
Volunteer Fire Department from 1859-67. NORTH LAUREL HILL, East bank of
Schuylkill River and Ridge Avenue, organized, 1835; formerly “Laurel,”
country seat of Joseph Sims. “Fairy Hill,” seat of Pepper family, now
CENTRAL LAUREL HILL, and “Harleigh,” William Rawle’s place, now SOUTH
LAUREL HILL; historic dead and artistic monuments fill these cemeteries;
Commodores Murray and Hull, General George Gordon Meade, and Mrs.
Cornelius Stevenson, “Peggy Shippen” of the _Ledger_, are among those
who lie here; the Lea Memorial, sculptor A. Sterling Calder, is very
beautiful, the chapel is early English. Just across the Schuylkill
River, on Belmont Avenue, at Pencoyd Station, is WEST LAUREL HILL,
opened in 1869. General Herman Haupt is among those buried here.
MONUMENT, Broad Street and Montgomery Avenue, was laid out by Dr. John
A. Elkinton in 1836; an obelisk monument, on a pedestal, erected, 1859,
in honor of Washington and Lafayette, was designed by John Sartain,
artist, who is buried near base of shaft. MOUNT MORIAH, Sixty-second
Street and Kingsessing Avenue, opened, 1855; has grave of Betsy Ross,
over which a flag floats perpetually. MOUNT PEACE, Lehigh Avenue and
Thirty-first Street, was originally country seat of the Ralston family,
known as Mount Peace estate. MOUNT VERNON, Ridge and Lehigh Avenues,
opposite Laurel Hill, chartered, 1856; the Gardel monument was long
considered handsomest in the country. NATIONAL CEMETERY, Haines Street
and Limekiln Pike, land acquired by the United States Government in
1885, it is well wooded, and the grounds are laid out with flowering
plants; about 2700 Union soldiers are buried here; their graves marked
by long rows of small granite slabs, bearing their names and the States
from which they came. Soldiers of three wars lie here; a granite
monument, erected by the United States, marks the burial place of 184
Confederate soldiers and sailors. PALMER, at Palmer, Belgrade, and
Memphis Streets, owes its origin to Anthony Palmer; in 1730, he
purchased a large tract of land in “The Northern Liberties,” on which he
laid out a town and named it Kensington; his daughter carried out his
wishes, and bequeathed ground for a burial place for those living in
Kensington. RONALDSON’S, Tenth and Fitzwater Streets, now neglected,
was founded by James Ronaldson in 1826 as a burial place in which
persons of moderate means could find a grave without any of the
restrictions which attended interments in the churchyards; he gave the
ground, almost a city square, decorated it with trees and shrubbery; so
beautifully was it kept that it was considered “The model burial place
of the City,” until the opening of Laurel Hill. UPPER BURIAL GROUND, or
AX’S, Germantown Avenue near Washington Lane. John Frederick Ax was
caretaker from 1724-56; many early settlers are buried here, the oldest
known grave being that of Cornelius Tyson, who died in 1716; there are
also graves of some American soldiers and officers, killed in the Battle
of Germantown; over them, John Fanning Watson placed a marble headstone.
WOODLANDS, Thirty-ninth Street and Woodland Avenue, was in early times
the country seat of William Hamilton, known as “The Woodlands”; acquired
by Woodlands Cemetery Company in 1840. Many distinguished men and women
are buried here, among them Commodore Thomas Stewart, who commanded the
_Constitution_ in 1812; General John Stewart, Major Generals D. B.
Birney and Abercrombie of the Civil War; Rembrandt Peale; William K.
Hewitt and P. F. Rothermel, Artists; John Davenport, Actor; Colonel
Thomas A. Scott and J. Edgar Thomson; Frank and Louise Stockton; Dr. S.
Weir Mitchell and Anthony J. Drexel.
HISTORIC CHURCHES IN PHILADELPHIA
Among the eight hundred and five churches in Philadelphia, are:
The Philadelphia BAPTIST, whose Association celebrated its two
hundredth and tenth anniversary in 1917. FIRST CHURCH, Seventeenth
Street below Chestnut, open daily, is a consistent example of Byzantine
architecture with American modifications; stone; architect, Edgar V.
Seeler. Windows made by Heinecke & Bowen are copies of the Byzantine
leaded glass; lights and shadows in drapery are all done with leaded
strips of glass, not painted. TEMPLE, Broad and Berks Streets, famous on
account of its pastor, Rev. Russell H. Conwell, was dedicated, 1901; at
that time it was the largest church edifice in the United States,
excepting the Mormon Temple at Salt Lake City; auditorium seats 3135
people: Romanesque, with two low towers on the front, surmounted by
large copper domes, which give an Oriental touch; architect, Thomas
Lonsdale. Fine rose window in front, said to have been made by John
LaFarge; other windows are by J. & R. Lamb and R. S. Groves: the
Hope-Jones organ, built by the Rudolph Wurlitzer Company, is one of the
largest in this country; it has all the orchestral accompaniments.
TABERNACLE, Chestnut and Fortieth Streets, Gothic, stone, has a window
by William Willet. There are about one hundred Baptist churches in
Philadelphia.
=Christian Science.= FIRST CHURCH OF CHRIST SCIENTIST, Walnut Street near
Fortieth; Spanish architecture.
=Congregational.= CENTRAL, Eighteenth and Green Streets, Gothic, stone,
built in 1872; architect, D. Supplee; organized in 1864; first services
were held in old Concert Hall, 1217 Chestnut Street, afterwards used as
first Free Library Building; sermon “Recognition,” was preached by Rev.
Henry Ward Beecher; other sermons of early days, by Richard S. Storrs,
D.D. About nine or ten churches of this denomination are in
Philadelphia.
=Friends’ or Quaker Meeting-Houses.=
“What dignity breathes from the lofty space
And amplitude of hospitality
In these old-fashioned Quaker shrines!
Most friendly seems the long, high, sturdy roof,
Most friendly the all-welcoming old walls
Seen through the sheltering trees.
O mighty oaks and noble sycamores,
With trunks moss-silvered and with lichened limb,
Breathe soft to me the storied memories
And treasured records of the long rich years
That blessed the meeting-houses.”
(From “Old Meeting-Houses,”
by John Russell Hayes.)
For more than one hundred years there has been no change in the general
style of architecture; before that time, the earliest meeting-house in
Philadelphia, at Second and Market Streets, was built with a central
lantern or cupola; probably copied from a meeting-house of similar form
in Burlington, New Jersey, built, 1682; where the yearly meeting for New
Jersey and Pennsylvania was first held: later it met alternately at
Philadelphia and Burlington, but since 1750 in Philadelphia, Fourth and
Arch Streets. One of the most interesting old meeting-houses, built in
1696, is at MERION, near Narberth Station, Pennsylvania Railroad, in
which William Penn preached; another, that he attended, is the old
HAVERFORD, built in the early eighteenth century, near Cobb’s Creek,
opposite St. Dennis Roman Catholic Church. RADNOR and PLYMOUTH are also
interesting old houses; all these last named are now owned by the
HICKSITE BRANCH of Quakers, who also own over seventy other
meeting-houses throughout the state. Among those owned by the ORTHODOX
BRANCH within Philadelphia are the Fourth and Arch Streets, not only the
most important, but of great charm architecturally; it is very large and
stands on ground originally given by William Penn to George Fox, and by
the latter to Friends in America; and may be taken as typical of the
later and best Quaker architecture; built in 1804, following the style
of the pre-Revolutionary days of the houses just named, but adapted in
material and size to the increased numbers worshiping within; it is of
brick, set in ample grounds, with abundant shade; the ground about it,
and much also covered now by the building and by Arch Street, is a very
old burial ground, filled over several times. James Logan is buried
under the pavement of Arch Street. TWELFTH STREET MEETING-HOUSE, brick,
built in 1812, is second in importance, and one of the most beautiful
bits in old Philadelphia. The oak timbers in its roof are said to have
come from the “Great Meeting-House,” which succeeded that with the
cupola at Second and Market Streets; oak timbers are also exposed with
good effect in the upper room of the Arch Street house; the two houses
are of the same general type and severely plain, but form, together with
that at Sixth and Noble Streets, a most dignified trio of places for
worship; remarkable for true proportion and dignity of outline, they are
typical of the wealth and solidity of the Friends at their most
flourishing period. THE MEETING HOUSE, Sixth and Noble Streets, known
as “North Meeting,” once accommodating a large congregation, has been
reduced in members by removals; the Yearly Meeting has therefore taken
over its use as an adjunct to the settlement work, carried on by Friends
at “Noble House.”
=Jewish.= Rosh Hashana, or the Jewish New Year’s Day, is the oldest
festival celebrated in the civilized world, 1917 will usher in the year
5678; it commences the great series of fall holidays: ten days later is
“Yom Kippur,” the Day of Atonement, most sacred of the year, when the
Jews fast from sunset to sunset and attend the synagogues, and a week
later “Succoth,” corresponding to our Thanksgiving Day, which lasts a
week. The principal synagogues are ADATH-JESHURUN, Broad Street above
Diamond, Egyptian; limestone and brick; architects, Churchman, Thomas &
Molitar, has leaded glass windows by Nicolo D’Ascenzo. KENESETH ISRAEL,
Broad Street above Columbia Avenue, Italian Renaissance, brick with
limestone trimmings; architect, Hickman. MIKVEH ISRAEL, Broad and York
Streets, organized, 1747; moved from Seventh Street near Arch; French
Renaissance, limestone; architects, Pitcher & Tachau. RODEPH SHALOM,
southeast corner of Broad and Mt. Vernon Streets, Moorish, sandstone;
built, 1869; architects, Furness & Evans; has leaded glass windows by
Nicolo D’Ascenzo.
=Lutheran.= The THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY of Philadelphia, 7301 Germantown
Avenue, was founded in 1864; removed to present location, 1889; site,
residence of Chief Justice Allen; afterwards a military school of some
distinction, “Mount Airy College.” The administration building was
erected by James Gowen for a residence in 1848, and adapted to the wants
of the Seminary; on the grounds are twelve buildings, including Krauth
Memorial Library, perpendicular Gothic, stone, built, 1908; contains
portraits; the Refectory, once residence of the Miller family, built,
1792, colonial; and the Ashmead-Schaeffer Memorial Chapel, Gothic,
stone. ST. MICHAEL’S, Germantown Avenue and Phil-Ellena Street, first
church, built, 1730; British soldiers took refuge in the church and
demolished the organ during the Battle of Germantown; corner-stone of
present church laid, 1896. OLD ST. JOHNS, Race Street between Fifth and
Sixth, first English Lutheran Church in America, colonial, brick;
congregation organized in 1806, largely through efforts of General Peter
Muhlenberg; contains a fine oil portrait by John Neagle, painted in
1853, of Dr. Philip F. Mayer, first pastor 1806-58; and woodcarvings in
front of the gallery by William Rush. ZION (German), Franklin Street
above Race, Romanesque, brownstone, built, 1870, moved from southeast
corner of Fourth and Cherry, founded 1766; a memorial service was held
here for Washington in 1799, by General Charles Lee. THE MARY J. DREXEL
HOME AND PHILADELPHIA MOTHERHOUSE OF DEACONESSES, Twenty-first Street
and South College Avenue, modified Gothic with numerous towers, brick
trimmed with sandstone, built, 1888; provides a training school for
Deaconesses of the Lutheran Church; home for the aged and a children’s
hospital; a Gothic chapel on the second floor, has altar cloths from
Neuendettelsau, Bavaria; and stained glass by Meyer, Munich; portraits
of the Lankenau and Drexel families are here, and an Italian marble
bust of Mr. Lankenau by Moses Ezekiel of Rome.
=Methodist.= SAINT GEORGE’S, 229 North Fourth Street, oldest Methodist
church in the world, used continuously for worship; dedicated, 1769;
Bishop Francis Asbury preached his first sermon in America here; three
memorial tablets mark the front: to John Dickens, founder of the
Methodist Book Concern, buried rear of the church, in 1798; to Ezekiel
Cooper, his successor, buried in front, and one commemorating the first
Methodist Conference in America, held in this church July 14, 1773.
CALVARY, Forty-eighth Street and Baltimore Avenue, Gothic, stone, has
mural painting, “Sermon on the Mount,” by H. Hanley Parker, and two
Tiffany windows. Other Methodist Episcopal churches with good
architecture are, ARCH STREET, Broad and Arch Streets, Gothic, white
marble, and GRACE, Broad and Master Streets, Renaissance.
=Presbyterian.= FIRST CHURCH, Seventh and Locust Streets, facing
Washington Square; oldest Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia, founded,
1699; present building erected, 1820, classic, brick, rough cast; with
Ionic porch; architect, Theophilus P. Chandler: contains Paxton memorial
window by Frederick Wilson, interesting old tablets, and a copy of
Calvin’s “Institutes.” SECOND CHURCH, Twenty-first and Walnut Streets,
French Gothic, with early English detail; erected, 1872; architect,
Henry Sims; Richmond granite is used in the base, the walls are of
Trenton stone, Cleveland sandstone for tracery of windows and moulding
of doors, with red sandstone, blue sandstone, and green serpentine for
special parts, in contrasts of color and decorative effects: interior is
faced with buff-colored brick imported from Raubon, Wales: the richly
ornamented pulpit is of Caen stone. Windows, a double one, by John
LaFarge; seven representing old Testament subjects, by Tiffany; and five
apse windows from England. SCOTTS, Broad Street below Morris, founded,
1766: third oldest organization in the Philadelphia Presbytery; is still
under its original charter; original church was at Fourth and Bainbridge
Streets, later on at Spruce Street above Third; Louis Philippe lived in
the parsonage during his residence in Philadelphia in 1796; John Purdon,
father of Purdon’s Digest, was its first elder; President John Adams
attended the church. OLD PINE STREET CHURCH, Fourth and Pine Streets,
classic, brick, rough-cast, with Corinthian porch; erected, 1857, one of
the walls being that of the original church built in 1768; the first
pastor, George Duffield, was chaplain of all the Pennsylvania militia,
and also served as chaplain of the First Continental Congress after
Jacob Duché; he was with Washington during the retreat through New
Jersey; was in the battles of Princeton and Trenton, and the British
offered a price of 50 pounds sterling for his head; he is buried under
the central aisle of the lecture room, and his portrait is in
Independence Hall: John Adams, when President, was a communicant here;
when the British occupied the city, they used this church as a hospital;
pews and other woodwork were burned as fuel, and later the church was
used by the dragoons to stable their horses. HOLLAND MEMORIAL, Broad and
Federal Streets, Romanesque; buff Massillon stone, with red sandstone
trimmings, from the Ballaclunyle quarries of Scotland; architect, David
S. Grendell; windows by Tiffany, in the south arcade, are from originals
by Frederick Wilson; other windows are by Alfred Godwin and Maitland &
Armstrong; there are four large rose windows, in one, the patriarch
Joshua stands in the center, clad in full armor; color scheme is based
upon the rose window of Saint Chapelle, Paris; makers, William and Annie
Lee Willet: under each window is a group of five arcade windows, some of
them copies from originals of Sir Edwin Burne-Jones, for windows in
Brighton and Salisbury Cathedrals. TABERNACLE, Thirty-seventh and
Chestnut Streets, is one of the finest Gothic church edifices in
Philadelphia, in decorative English style, with tower 130 feet high,
erected, 1886; granite, with Indiana limestone for tracery of windows
and doors; no wood being used in its construction, it thus resembles the
cathedrals of the old world; chapel is connected with the manse by a
cloistered porch. WEST ARCH STREET, Eighteenth and Arch Streets, Roman
classic, with dome 170 feet above the ground, stone, plastered; has fine
Corinthian porch. MARKET SQUARE, Germantown, founded, 1738: President
Washington worshiped here, while living opposite in the old Morris
house, during the yellow fever epidemic in Philadelphia in 1793; during
the battle of Germantown, a battalion of Virginians, prisoners of the
English, were lodged in this church; the old bell, cast, 1725, which was
in the shingle roof steeple of the old church, is still intact, and
preserved as a relic; also the “Trumpet angels in their gold array,”
part of the original organ from Holland: present building, French
Gothic, stone, was erected in 1886.
The WITHERSPOON BUILDING, Walnut Street below Broad, has sculpture by A.
Stirling Calder and Samuel Murray.
=Protestant Episcopal.= ST. ALBAN’S, Olney, consecrated, 1915; decorated
French Gothic; buttresses run up to above the cornice line, ending in
gables with crockets and finials; there is a belfry tower and porch;
interior lines are very beautiful; the high arches and lofty piers give
an impression of great dignity and simplicity, well adapted for
rendering the services, with all the accompaniment of advanced
churchmanship; architect, George T. Pearson. CHRIST CHURCH, Second
Street north of Market; first Protestant Episcopal Church in the
province; hours of service, September to July, Sundays 10.00 A.M., 11.00
A.M., 3.30 P.M., open daily 9.00 A.M. to 3.00 P.M.; founded in 1695,
under a provision in the original charter of King Charles II to William
Penn. John Penn, last male member of this line, is buried near the steps
of the pulpit. Present building, Georgian, erected 1747; Dr. John
Kearsley, Building Director; the old roof, its wooden balustrade with
carved spindles, and the steeple are ever of interest to architects and
antiquarians.
Here the colonial governors had their state pew, marked by coat of arms,
bearing the monogram of William and Mary; the parish was subsidized by
King William III, William of Orange; Communion silver presented in 1709
by Queen Anne; baptismal font dates from 1695, and was used for the
baptism of Bishop White in infancy. The chime of bells pealed forth the
Declaration of Independence, in response to the Liberty Bell, July 8,
1776; they were made in England, and came over in the same ship with the
Liberty Bell, were taken to Allentown with the Liberty Bell, and
subsequently rehung; are referred to by Longfellow in “Evangeline.”
George and Martha Washington regularly occupied pew 58 from 1790-97; it
was also the official pew of John Adams while President, and was used by
Lafayette in 1824; Franklin had pew 70, still used by his descendants;
Robert Morris’ pew was 52; Francis Hopkinson’s, 65. General Charles Lee,
of the Continental Army, is interred beside the southwest door, and near
by is General Hugh Mercer; Rt. Rev. William White, D.D., first Bishop of
Pennsylvania and long Presiding Bishop of the United States, is interred
before the chancel rail, and his Episcopal chair is beside the altar.
The church was organized; its constitution framed; and the amended
Prayer Book adopted in this church, in 1785; Bishop White and Provost
William Smith, D.D., were the Committee for revising and altering the
liturgy of the English Prayer Book, for use in America. Rev. Jacob Duché
was rector for many years. Windows illustrate the history of the
Christian Church; made by Heaton, Butler and Bains. ST. CLEMENT’S,
Twentieth and Cherry Streets, Norman Gothic, brownstone, built, 1857;
architect, John Notman; new roof of nave, apse, and high altar; choir
and lady chapel; architect, Horace Wells Sellers; the sanctuary is
beautifully designed, with effect heightened by a magnificent reredos;
artist, Frederick Wilson of Briarcliff, New York, leaded glass of apse,
and lady chapel, by Alfred Godwin,
[Illustration: BISHOP WILLIAM WHITE
_Painted by Gilbert Stuart_ _Courtesy of the Pennsylvania Academy of the
Fine Arts_]