Avenue, with a campus of one hundred and seventeen acres along the west
bank of the Schuylkill River and equipment of seventy buildings;
originated in the Charity School, organized, 1740, at Fourth and Arch
Streets; made an academy through the interest of Benjamin Franklin, in
1749; chartered, “The College of Philadelphia,” with power to confer
honorary and collegiate degrees, being the third oldest college in the
United States; in 1799 was organized and chartered as “The University of
the State of Pennsylvania,” making it the first institution in the
United States designated a university; also the first to establish
professional schools distinct from the college. The School of Medicine
was added in 1765, and has always maintained the most advanced
requirements and highest standards of scholarship for graduation; it was
founded by Dr. John Morgan, who held the first medical professorship in
America; he was physician in chief of the Continental Army, 1775-77. The
first American University Professorship in Law was established here,
1790; James Wilson held the position; President Washington attended his
lectures. In 1799, the University conferred on Washington the degree of
LL.D., and later, in 1826, set apart his birthday as University Day, on
which honorary degrees are conferred, with appropriate exercises. Nine
sons of this University signed the Declaration of Independence; seven,
the Constitution of the United States; twenty-one were members of the
Continental Congress; nine, in the United States Senate; eight were
Attorney-Generals of states or of the United States; six were Justices
of the Supreme Court; seven, Governors of states; and many others were
Officers in the Army and men in public life, who had received their
education in the old building, Fourth and Arch Streets, before 1800.
In 1802 the University was moved to Ninth and Chestnut Streets, and
occupied the presidential mansion, now site of the Post Office; in 1872,
moved to the present site in West Philadelphia. In 1912, under the
administration of Provost Edgar Fahs Smith, The University Extension
Courses were formed, and the college made into three departments with a
dean for each. The COLLEGE, founded 1740, includes School of Arts;
Summer School; College Courses for Teachers; Courses in Biology and
Music. THE TOWNE SCIENTIFIC SCHOOL, founded, 1875, includes,
Architecture, Chemistry, Science, Technology, Mechanical, Electrical and
Civil Engineering. WHARTON SCHOOL OF FINANCE AND COMMERCE, founded 1881,
includes, School of Accounts and Finance in Philadelphia; and the
Extension Schools of Finance and Accounts in Scranton and Wilkes-Barre.
DEPARTMENT OF MUSIC, through the unceasing and wise direction of Dr.
Hugh A. Clarke, has graduated hundreds of students in music, after a
four years’ course in Harmony, Counterpoint, Composition, and
Orchestration. The degree of Bachelor of Music has been conferred on
many who qualified to meet the requirements. THE GRADUATE SCHOOL was
founded, 1882; courses lead to degrees of master of arts, and doctor of
philosophy.
Other Departments are, the LAW SCHOOL, Thirty-fourth and Chestnut
Streets; building dedicated University Day, 1900, architects, Cope &
Stewardson, style similar to the English Renaissance as developed by Sir
Christopher Wren; Indiana limestone and dull red brick; contains the
Biddle Law Library, 55,000 volumes; The Black Memorial Collection of
English Legal Engravings, most complete in America; several original
documents by Benjamin Franklin, George Washington and other colonial
men; many objects of historical interest to members of the bar; a fine
collection of portraits include those of Algernon Sydney Biddle, by
Cecilia Beaux; Charles Chauncey, by Henry Inman; Thomas McKean, LL.D.,
by Robert W. Vonnoh; Richard Coxe McMurtrie, LL.D., by William M. Chase;
James Wilson, LL.D., by Albert Rosenthal, from a miniature; marble
busts of Daniel Webster and Jeremiah Sullivan; tablets and memorials.
LABORATORY OF CHEMISTRY, Thirty-fourth and Spruce Streets; dedicated,
1894; shows the broad projecting eaves of brick architecture in the
Italian Renaissance; architects, Cope & Stewardson; it is one of the
best equipped chemical laboratories in America. The ENGINEERING
building, Thirty-third and Locust Streets; dedicated, 1906; Georgian,
dark brick with limestone trimmings, architects, Cope & Stewardson;
houses the civil, electrical, and mechanical engineering departments;
best equipped of its kind. In its collection of portraits is that of
John Henry Towne, by William M. Hunt.
LABORATORY OF HYGIENE, includes the Psychological Clinic; Department of
physical education; and Franklin Field, Thirty-third and Spruce Streets,
dedicated, 1895, seating capacity of the stadium about 62,000, was for
many years scene of annual football between the United States Military
and Naval Academies; gymnasium, facing Thirty-third Street, erected,
1903, English Collegiate, Gothic, dark red brick, with black headers
laid in Flemish bond, terra cotta and Indiana limestone trimmings,
floors and columns concrete; comprises Weightman Hall, exercising rooms,
and a large swimming pool; architects, Frank Miles Day & Brother; in
front on the terrace is statue of Benjamin Franklin at seventeen, as he
first entered Philadelphia in 1732; sculptor, Dr. R. Tait McKenzie,
pedestal designed by Professor Paul P. Cret. In the entrance is bronze
tablet in relief, full figure portrait of Charles S. Bayne in baseball
uniform, “1895 College,” sculptor, R. Tait McKenzie; also other
memorials.
DEPARTMENT OF ARCHÆOLOGY, founded, 1889, by the late Provost William
Pepper, M.D., LL.D., museum, Spruce Street, near Thirty-fourth Street,
open free daily, 10.00 A.M. to 5.00 P.M.; Sunday 2.00 to 6.00 P.M. The
treatment of this building and the courtyard, begun 1897, is among the
most successful works of architecture in this country; it was inspired
by the round, arched, brick architecture of Northern Italy, about
twelfth century; details especially suggesting the old Church of San
Stefano in Bologna; roof of Spanish tiles gives added charm; architects
in coöperation, Wilson Eyre, Jr., Cope & Stewardson, Frank Miles Day &
Brother. Has valuable collections illustrating the history of mankind;
Egyptian, Cretan, Etruscan, and Babylonian antiquities, famous tablets
from Nippur, and the Dillwyn-Parish collection of Græco-Roman papyri,
among which are the oldest known fragments of the Gospel of St. Matthew.
During 1916, the museum maintained four expeditions in the field: in
Egypt, China, Siberia, and one on the Amazon, which will return with
collections they have gathered. Among the portraits in the museum are,
Mrs. William D. Frismuth, donor of collection of musical instruments,
and Franklin Hamilton Cushing, ethnologist, both by Thomas Eakins;
bronze statue of Dr. William Pepper, by Carl Bitter, is in the Italian
garden; free public illustrated lectures are given Saturdays, 3.30 P.M.,
from November to March.
LIBRARY, founded, 1749, with volumes bearing accession dates of 1749,
given by Benjamin Franklin; First Provost, William Smith; Louis XVI of
France; and others, now contains about 450,000 volumes, and many special
collections; present building dedicated, 1891, Thirty-fourth and Locust
Streets, red brick, sandstone, and terra cotta, Furness, Evans &
Company, architects; among the portraits here are Benjamin Franklin,
LL.D., replica, by Thomas Gainsborough, R.A., of his original; William
Wordsworth, poet, from life, by Henry Inman in 1844; Joseph G.
Rosengarten, LL.D., by B. A. Osnis, and the entire class of 1811 minus
one, in silhouette, cut at Peale’s Museum; here also is the famous
orrery and large clock made by David Rittenhouse for this university.
HOUSTON HALL, memorial to Henry Howard Houston, Jr., class of ’78,
Spruce Street above Thirty-fourth. North Conshohocken and Indiana
limestone; architect’s design of two students of the School of
Architecture, developed by Frank Miles Day; was planned by Provost C. C.
Harrison, to weld the cosmopolitan body of students into one democratic
brotherhood, which has now become a world-wide movement in college life;
contains trophy rooms, pool tables, and publication office of “Old
Penn,” until 1918 the official weekly; courses of Free Public Lectures
are given by members of the Faculty, and men from other American and
foreign Universities; services by eminent ministers are conducted each
Sunday morning. Among the many portraits in Houston Hall are, Henry
Howard Houston, Jr., by Cecilia Beaux; David Rittenhouse, by Charles
Willson Peale; Henry Reed, and Henry Vethake, both by Sully.
THE UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL, Thirty-fourth and Spruce Streets; founded by
the late Provost Dr. William Pepper, 1874, covers two city blocks;
medical staff consists of more than one hundred and fifty physicians and
one hundred nurses; the Surgical Building erected, 1914; Jacobean style,
brick and limestone, architects, Brockie & Hastings, contains marble
bust on pedestal of Dr. William Pepper, Provost, 1881-94; bronze mural
tablet with portrait of late Dr. John H. Musser, sculptor, Dr. R. Tait
McKenzie; and many bronze memorials. The MEDICAL LABORATORY, dedicated,
1904, on Hamilton Walk, English Collegiate, of Middle seventeenth
century, hard burnt brick and buff Indiana limestone; architects, Cope &
Stewardson; interior finished in white Italian marble; is one of the
largest and best equipped in America. Contains nearly complete
collection of oil portraits of staff of physicians from 1765, including
painting of David Hayes Agnew, M.D., LL.D., at the close of a clinic in
Medical Hall, all the subordinate figures in the group are likenesses,
among them, Dr. J. William White, Dr. Joseph Leidy, Jr., and the artist,
Thomas Eakins; Professor John Morgan, founder of the Medical School,
after the original by Angelica Kauffman; Professor William Osler, LL.D.,
and De Forest Willard, by W. M. Chase; Professor Philip Syng Physick,
first American to be elected member of Royal Academy, France, by Henry
Inman, from life in 1836; Professor Benjamin Rush, by John Neagle; Dr.
J. William White, by John S. Sargent; and bronze bust on pedestal of Dr.
Joseph Leidy.
THE WISTAR INSTITUTE OF ANATOMY AND BIOLOGY, Thirty-sixth Street and
Woodland Avenue, founded, 1892, for extension of Wistar and Homer
Museums; first university institute exclusively for research in anatomy
and biology, buff brick and light terra cotta, fireproof, built, 1808,
architects, George W. and W. D. Hewitt; in 1905 this institute became
the clearing house for anatomy in America, and in 1906 was appointed
Central United States Institute for Brain Investigation; the five
principal independent anatomical journals of the United States are
published here. Open to the public daily, except Sundays and holidays,
9.00 A.M. to 4.00 P.M., Saturdays, 9.00 A.M. to 12.00 M. Contains bronze
bust, sculptor, Samuel Murray, 1890, of General Isaac J. Wistar, Sc.D.,
who gave the building and endowment; in bronze vase are his ashes; also
in three bronze vases are the ashes of Joseph Leidy, M.D., LL.D., John
Adams Ryder, Ph.D., and Professor Edward Drinker Cope. Opposite is THE
ARCHITECTURAL SCHOOL, Thirty-sixth Street and Woodland Avenue, second
only in importance and numbers to the _Ecole des Beaux Arts_, Paris: the
_esprit de corps_ of faculty and students is most pronounced; students
and graduates, of late years, have won more competitive prizes, and
scholarships, than those of all other American schools combined. The
four years’ course leads to degree; special two years’ course, and
summer six weeks’ course.
THE BOTANIC GARDENS, established, 1894, face Hamilton Walk, open to
visitors from sunrise to sunset; greenhouses filled with rare plants
from all the world; lily and lotus ponds are attractive feature of the
campus. Open-air plays are given here. The Vivarium, established 1898,
has fresh and salt water aquaria, first vivarium ever connected with any
educational institution. ZOÖLOGICAL LABORATORY, on Hamilton Walk and
Thirty-ninth Street, built, 1910; architects, Cope & Stewardson, hard
burnt brick and Indiana limestone, English Collegiate, of middle
seventeenth century; considered best working laboratory for its purpose
in this country, contains many famous collections.
VETERINARY BUILDING AND HOSPITAL, Thirty-ninth Street and Woodland
Avenue, constructed about a square courtyard; one of best equipped of
its kind. Architects, Cope & Stewardson, English Collegiate, seventeenth
century, hard burnt yellow brick and limestone trimmings, roof green
slate, built, 1906-07.
SCHOOL OF DENTISTRY, “Thomas W. Evans Museum and Dental Institute,”
Fortieth and Spruce Streets, Collegiate Gothic, time of Henry VIII, hard
burnt red and black brick and Indiana limestone, built, 1914, architect,
John T. Windrim; the grotesques ornamenting the band courses, while in
the spirit of the Middle Ages, are modern in subject and caricature;
most complete edifice in the world, devoted to the science of dentistry.
Museum contains the priceless Evans collection, gifts from the nobility
of Europe, portraits and busts of Dr. Evans.
HENRY PHIPPS INSTITUTE for the study, prevention, and treatment of
tuberculosis, founded, 1903, northeast corner of Seventh and Lombard
Streets; facing Starr Garden Park, a civic center of the Playgrounds
Commission; is colonial style, designed by Grosvenor Atterbury, New
York, brick trimmed with white marble.
FLOWER ASTRONOMICAL OBSERVATORY at Llanerch on West Chester Pike,
architect, Edgar V. Seeler, 1895. Open to visitors every Thursday
evening during collegiate year, 7.00 P.M. to 10.00 P.M.; is equipped
with an 18 inch equatorial telescope, and other instruments of latest
and most approved design.
DORMITORY HOUSES, Jacobean, thirty in number, begun in 1895, suggest the
Oxford and Cambridge colleges; carved grotesque bosses on main cornices
are reminiscent of the Gothic period; they are amusing, and display an
unusual amount of imagination; material, hard burnt yellow brick and
Indiana limestone; architects, Cope & Stewardson; entrance through two
gateways known as Memorial Tower, gift of the Alumni, dedicated in 1901,
in memory of University of Pennsylvania men who served in the
Spanish-American War, corner-stone was laid by General Miles, in 1900;
and the Provosts’ Tower, named as memorial to the Provosts of the
University of Pennsylvania, whose twelve names are carved on medallions,
from William Smith to Charles Custis Harrison.
WILLIAM PENN CHARTER SCHOOL, 8 to 10 South Twelfth Street, was planned
in 1684 at a meeting of the Provincial Council, Governor Penn presiding.
In 1689, William Penn, writing from England to Thomas Lloyd, President
of Council, instructed him to set up a “Public Grammar School in
Philadelphia,” the school was incorporated in 1698, and George Keith
engaged as head master, 1699. In 1701, William Penn, while on a visit to
America, granted the school a charter from his own hand; on the same day
he chartered the city itself. This school is the oldest existing
chartered school in America; a second and more liberal charter was
granted, 1708, and a third charter, under which the school is still
conducted, 1711; the originals of all three of these charters are in the
school’s possession. The school will be moved to Pinehurst, the Waln
estate, twenty-two acres on School Lane near Wissahickon Avenue,
Germantown, acquired by gift; field now used for their athletic sports,
surface having been adapted for the purpose by the Newhall Engineering
Company, Philadelphia, who made there a football oval; an eighteen foot
quarter-mile track; and an eighteen foot 220 yard straightway; drainage
of these tracks and oval is such, that in eight years, not one scheduled
contest has been postponed on account of condition of the ground.
CENTRAL HIGH SCHOOL, Broad and Green Streets; established, 1836. In view
of the increasing income and diminishing debt of the nation, the United
States Congress in 1836 passed a law, authorizing the distribution of
surplus revenue among the states, to be disposed of as their
legislatures might enact; Pennsylvania devoted her share, over $70,000,
to public education, and the controllers erected a high school in
Philadelphia, which was completed, 1838, east side of Juniper Street,
below Market Street. In 1853, the original building was sold; present
structure occupied in 1900. Conferring of academic degrees dates from
1849. Memorial window to Edward T. Steel in assembly room.
GIRARD COLLEGE, College and Corinthian Avenues, for the care and
training of orphan boys; founded by Stephen Girard, a native of France,
who at his death, in 1831, left his estate for this purpose. Main
building, architect, Thomas Ustick Walter, architect of the Capitol at
Washington, probably the finest architectural specimen in Philadelphia,
modeled after a Greek temple, white marble, covers an area of 34,344
feet, exclusive of eleven marble steps by which it is approached on
every side; a colonnade of 34 Corinthian columns aid in supporting the
marble roof, each column 6 feet in diameter and 55 feet high, the
diameter of corner columns being increased 1½ inches to overcome
apparent reduction of size from their insulated position; bases 9 feet 3
inches in diameter, 3 feet 2 inches high, capitals 8 feet 6 inches high
and 9 feet 4 inches wide; each shaft, as well as the bases, consists of
a single piece, without vertical joints; at each end of the three story
building is a vestibule, the ceilings of which are supported by eight
columns, whose shafts are composed of a single stone; corner-stone was
laid July 4, 1834, and the completed building transferred to the Board
of Directors, 1847. In the first vestibule is white marble sarcophagus,
with body of Stephen Girard, and his statue by Gevelot; the memorial
room contains portrait of Girard, by J. R. Lambdin, copy from posthumous
portrait by Bass Otis in Masonic Temple; interesting collection of
furniture; pictures; china; silverware, and fine marble bust of Napoleon
I, by Canova, presented to Girard by Joseph Bonaparte.
Present capacity, 1520 boys, admitted from six to ten years of age and
graduated fourteen to sixteen years of age, preference of admission is
given to those born within the old Philadelphia city limits, next in
consideration those born in Pennsylvania, and third group, boys born in
the cities of New York and New Orleans. There are several hundred on
waiting list.
Equipment comprises ten white marble buildings for school and house
purposes, chapel seating 1600, and other buildings, also plant for heat,
light, and power, inclosed on forty acres with a ten-foot high stone
wall. Endowment now about $29,000,000. Soldiers’ and sailors’ monument
on campus, in memory of the graduates who served in the Civil War;
sculptor, J. Massey Rhind. Clergymen are excluded by Girard’s will,
“that the boys might be kept free from denominational controversies.”
Bible has always had a foremost place in the teaching of the college;
Chapel speakers are laymen of prominence in the professional and
business world.
OTHER PLACES OF HISTORIC INTEREST
RESIDENCE OF JOHN FITCH in 1791, 462 North Second Street; in 1790 John
Fitch’s steamboats made regular trips; Petty’s Island was used as a port
for the _Perseverance_, one of the five steamboats that Fitch
constructed for use on the Delaware, before Robert Fulton placed his
_Clermont_ on the Hudson; it was blown up at moorings on this island.
RESIDENCE OF EDGAR ALLAN POE from 1843-44 west side of Seventh Street,
above Spring Garden (old number 234). BUSH HILL MANSION, on west side of
Seventeenth Street below Spring Garden, erected by Andrew Hamilton in
1740; front lawn sloping to Vine Street, was scene of a Fourth of July
celebration held in 1788, after the last of the nine states that made
the Constitution effective came in; the procession dispersed here at
“Union Green,” James Wilson, a signer of the Constitution, delivered an
oration, and there were other ceremonies. SPRINGETTSBURY, built 1736-39,
called after the name of William Penn’s first wife, manor-house of the
Penns; burnt in 1808; part of site is now occupied by the Preston
Retreat, Eighteenth Street below Spring Garden. Northeast corner of
Broad and Walnut Streets, site of VAUXHALL GARDEN; a ball was given here
in honor of General Andrew Jackson after his victory at New Orleans,
January 8, 1814. PENN TREATY PARK, Beach Street and East Columbia
Avenue. KNIGHT’S WHARF at edge of Green Street, in Northern Liberties;
near here Poole’s bridge crossed Pegg’s Run at Front Street, it was
named after one Poole, a Friend, whose mansion was here, recalls the
Mischianza invitation: “The favor of your meeting the subscribers to the
Mischianza at Knight’s Wharf, near Poole’s Bridge, tomorrow at half past
three, is desired. (Signed) Henry Calder. Sunday, 17th May, 1778. For
river parade to the Garden.” Preparations for this magnificent
entertainment, the erection of numerous and vast pavilions around the
Wharton mansion, and their decorations by André, Delancey, and other
gallant officers, was the talk of the town for weeks. The Wharton
mansion, Walnut Grove, used by the family in summer, was where Fifth
Street, near Washington Avenue, is now; the British had possession there
in the spring of 1778; Miss Peggy Shippen’s portrait was sketched by
Major André in Mischianza costume. Philadelphia then excelled all other
colonial cities in size, culture, and importance. SOUTHWARK SHOT TOWER,
built, 1809, Carpenter Street between Front and Second, first plant in
the United States which made bullets. SITE OF HILL’S SHIPYARD, Queen
Street wharf below Cathrine Street. Original Swedish houses on both
sides of Queen Street below Front. Site of United States first navy
yard, 1201 South Front Street.
Obelisk northeast corner Twenty-third and Market Streets gives a history
of the old Market Street bridge, built 1801-05; inscriptions to be
recut.
HISTORIC GERMANTOWN
Colonial and Revolutionary suburb, six miles from Philadelphia; founded
in 1683 by Francis Daniel Pastorius from Sommerhausen, Germany, one of
the best educated men in the Colonies; he had received the degree of
Doctor of Laws at Nuremberg; was a member of the Assembly from 1687-91.
Earliest settlers were Friends and German Religionists, highly
cultivated, and skilled in weaving, paper-making, printing, and other
trades. First railroad in America to use steam was the Philadelphia and
Reading to Germantown in 1832. First successful locomotive made in
America was Matthias Baldwin’s “Old Ironsides,” used on this road, only
taken out in fair weather. GERMANTOWN AVENUE follows an old Indian
trail, made a turnpike in 1800, on which are still many historic houses
of quaint colonial architecture; rough native stone with overhanging
hipped roofs and a projecting pent, over doorstep. STENTON, built in
1728, brick, colonial, near Wayne Junction, residence of James Logan,
Secretary to William Penn, 1727-34;
[Illustration: GERMANTOWN]