Philadelphia is home to many firsts: the first capital of the United States, the first American flag, the country’s first zoo, and also the very first American soda pop: Dr. Physick’s Soda Pop.
The roots of Dr. Physick’s soda go back to 1807, when Dr. Physick (a.k.a “Soda’s Pop”) invented carbonated water as a treatment for upset stomachs. He suggested to his pharmacist that they add fruit syrup to the water in order to make it more palatable for their patients. Hence, the first American soda pop came into being.
Celebrate this tasty invention at the Third Annual Philly Phyzz Festival! On Sunday, July 5th, from 1pm till 5pm, play period games, make homemade ice cream, and sample “America’s First Soda” at the landmark Physick House in Historic Philadelphia.
Third Annual Philly Phyzz Festival
Sunday, July 5th
1pm to 5pm
Physick House & Garden
321 S. 4th Street, Philadelphia, PA 19106
(215) 925-7866
www.drphysick.com
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Photo by E. Savaria
Philadelphia is full of hidden gems. But perhaps none are so hidden as Elfreth’s Alley, Old City’s tucked-away street famous for being the oldest residential street in America.
On Saturday, June 6 from 12 noon to 5 p.m., Elfreth’s Alley is holding its annual Fete Day, a block party full of colonial music, crafts, food, children’s games, garden tours and more. Many of the street’s residents will open their homes for tours (unbelievably, some are barely wider than your wingspan), while various foods celebrating the neighborhood’s diverse makeup will be yours for the tasting.
And with sunny, blue skies in the forecast for Saturday, it’s the perfect time to discover (or rediscover) this beautiful, historic avenue.
* Tickets for the event can be reserved online at www.elfrethsalley.org or by calling (215) 574-0560. Kids under 6 get in free, and proceeds from the event benefit efforts to preserve this National Historic Landmark. *
Fete Day @ Elfreth’s Alley
126 Elfreth’s Alley, Philadelphia, PA
(215) 574-0560
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Sunday evenings can be a bummer, but Mexican restaurant Xochitl is keeping spirits up with their $35, four-course Sunday night meal.
The deal includes:
While most prix-fixe dinners give you an abbreviated version of the normal menu, Xochitl lets you choose your favorite appetizer, entree and dessert from the entire menu. How generous!
With an offer this good, you may find yourself looking forward to the end of the weekend! Just maybe.
CLICK HERE to view the menu at Xochitl.
Xochitl [gophila.com]
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Historic Philadelphia 
One of the best movies ever set in Philadelphia, The Sixth Sense, featured a boy who could see the ghosts of dead people walking around as they did in life. If you’ve ever wished you had that gift, and tried to imagine Revolutionary Philadelphians striding the brick sidewalks of Old City, you should check out the Portrait Gallery at the Greek-Temple-like Second Bank, at 420 Chestnut Street.
Inside, you’ll find an large collection of arresting portraits, most of them done in oils, and many of them by Charles Willson Peale, the city’s finest portraitist. Pictured are a number of figures who lived or frequently visited Philadelphia. Most of the founding fathers and a number of their lesser-known contemporaries can be found in the gallery. You can examine the colorful jewelry and headdress of Iroquois leader Joseph Brant up close. And you can see Ben Franklin rubbing his chin contemplatively, and look at the wistful-looking naturalist William Bartram holding a few fragile flowers.
These portraits not only offer the best possible rendering of what historical figures looked like and how they dressed, but because many were painted right in front of the subjects, these portraits can also be seen as possible evidence of how long-gone people saw themselves. After leaving the gallery, I found that these faces stayed with me, and it became easier to imagine these people roaming the historic district much as they once did centuries ago.
Portrait Gallery @ Second Bank
420 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, PA
Want some more info on exploring Historic Philadelphia? Sure you do. Visit www.gophila.com/history for a plethora of places to see and things to do.
Historic Philadelphia
www.gophila.com/history
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The Philadelphia-Poland connection is not an obvious one. Chicago and Pittsburgh both have larger Polish populations; and Philly doesn’t, for example, have a well-known polka dedicated to its football team, like the Steel City does. But if you visit the Polish American Cultural Center at 308 Walnut Street, you’ll see that the links between Polska and Philly are old and historically important.
The museum is a one-room exhibit that earnestly celebrates the political and cultural contributions of Poles to world history. A display on the back wall details a fleeting historical moment few Americans know about. Just a few short years after the ink dried on the U.S. Constitution here in Philadelphia, politicians in Warsaw drafted the second modern national constitution, which established greater political freedoms for the Polish people and instituted a constitutional monarchy.
Though the May 3, 1791 Constitution was only briefly the law of the land—soon thereafter, Prussian, Russian, and Austrian invaders broke apart the fragile confederacy that the constitution was intended to unite—it remained a potent statement of Polish sovereignty for centuries to come.
Also featured prominently in the exhibit are the two famed Polish allies of the American revolutionaries: Casimir Pulaski and Thaddeus Kosciuszko. The former was considered the “Father of the American Cavalry” for his role in training cavalrymen in the Continental Army; the latter served honorably in the Revolution and went back to Poland, where he led an uprising against Russian intruders.
Kosciuszko was also a close friend of Thomas Jefferson. As he became a vocal champion of ending slavery in America (and serfdom in his native Poland), Kosciuszko urged Jefferson to free his slaves at Monticello and even set aside a sizeable sum of money in his will to offset the financial costs. But when Kosciuszko died, Jefferson refused to follow through on his promise to his Polish friend. In their new book Friends of Liberty, historians Gary Nash and Graham Hodges examine this relationship, concluding that Jefferson’s broken promise was a tragedy not just for his slaves but for the nation as a whole, as the spectacle of a former president coming out in favor of emancipation could have drastically shifted the political debate over slavery.
Further information on Kosciuszko (and his time in Philadelphia) can be found by taking a guided tour of the Thaddeus Kosciuszko National Memorial home at 3rd and Pine (open Wednesday-Sunday, 12-4 PM). Both the Kosciuszko Memorial and the Polish-American Cultural Center (open Monday-Saturday, 10 AM to 4 PM) have free admission. If you’re looking to continue your Polish-American experience, head to the Warsaw Café at 305 S. 16th St., which serves fine borscht and crispy potato pierogies, along with a number of other Eastern European specialties at reasonable prices.
Want some more info on exploring Historic Philadelphia? Sure you do. Visit www.gophila.com/history for a plethora of places to see and things to do.
Historic Philadelphia
www.gophila.com/history
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On July 3 at 8 pm, Benjamin Franklin and Betsy Ross got married. Decked in colonial garb, the couple exchanged vows in a public ceremony at Independence Hall. In reality, Ralph Archbold, the city’s nationally recognized Ben Franklin re-enactor, fell in love with Linda Wilde, who often portrays Betsy Ross, and they decided to get married. Mayor Michael A. Nutter officiated the ceremony, and the Grammy Award-winning Peter Nero and the Philly Pops provided the wedding soundtrack for this historic event. If you missed the grand ceremony, we’ve got our own little wedding video for you right here!
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Before the invention of smoke detectors and pressurized hydrants, few sounds were more terrifying than the hollered call of “Fire!” The very thought troubled William Penn, who had fresh memories of the devastating 1666 Great Fire of London. When he began to plan his new American town of Philadelphia in 1682, he specified that he wanted the houses to be built of brick, not wood. But as the settlement grew rapidly in the early eighteenth century, little could be done to stop the hasty construction of cheaper wooden buildings. And nowhere, not even the blocks built of brick, was ever really safe. While brick could not catch on fire, wooden furniture and dirty chimneys certainly could.
By 1736, thanks to the leadership of Benjamin Franklin, Philadelphia became the home of the first volunteer firefighting company in North America, a fact that is celebrated in the charming Firefighter’s Hall Museum at 147 N. 2nd Street in Old City. Housed in a decommissioned firehouse, and run by the city’s fire department, the museum contains equipment from over three centuries. You’ll see horse-drawn engines, primitive ladders and extinguishers, antique axes, hats, and uniforms, along with informative exhibits on famous fires and the ever-evolving technology of firefighting. Much of the two-story museum is aimed at kids—they can practice changing into full gear and learn about the basics of home fire prevention.
But it’s not just for families. My favorite aspects of the museum are its Philly-specific touches, like the brightly-colored parade hats that firefighters once wore as they marched down Broad Street, and the impressive collection of Philadelphia-area fire marks, the wood and metal seals that denoted the fire
insurance provider for an address and are now a much sought-after architectural detail. The crackling real-time PFD radio dispatches that can be heard throughout the museum and several stained-glass windows with scenes of heroic rescues also serve as fitting tributes to the dangerous work of Philadelphia’s bravest.
The Fireman’s Hall Museum is open Tuesday to Saturday, from 10 AM to 4:30 PM, (and until 9 PM on First Fridays) and is free to the public, though donations are welcome.
The Fireman’s Hall Museum
147 N 2nd St, Philadelphia, PA 19106
www.firemanshall.org
Want some more info on exploring Historic Philadelphia? Sure you do. Visit www.gophila.com/history for a plethora of places to see and things to do.
Historic Philadelphia
www.gophila.com/history
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As anyone who’s ever braved the crowded sidewalks of 2nd Street on a Saturday night could tell you, there’s no shortage of places to drink in Old City. But long before the recent rebirth of nightlife in the historic district, people were hoisting glasses and making merry along those same streets.
Visitors to eighteenth-century Philadelphia often remarked on the city’s vibrant taverns, where casks of spirits, beer, and wine flowed freely. And more recently, scholars have studied Philly taverns as important sites in the American Revolution. I’m not just talking about the “City Tavern,” the (reconstructed) colonial ale house on 2nd Street that was a favorite hangout of the First Continental Congress. Peter Thompson, a historian at Oxford University who earned his PhD at Penn, chronicled the development of Philly’s tavern culture in his 1999 book Rum Punch and Revolution.
Dozens of other smaller (and less fancy) taverns were scattered throughout the Revolutionary-era city. The currently-shuttered “A Man Full O’ Trouble Tavern” at 2nd and Spruce is a more typical example of an 18th century pub than the austere City Tavern. The basement or a back ell housed kegs of booze and a kitchen, the upper floors were packed with beds that guests were expected to share with strangers, and during the waking hours, the main room(s) on the first floor were crowed with male patrons. Tavern-goers drank alcohol, imported tea and coffee, and filled the rooms with a haze of tobacco smoke.
These taverns were more than just bars; you could think of them as a combination of a restaurant, library, youth hostel, coffee shop, gossip website, and business boardroom all in one. As the city matured, the taverns became more diversified—some were mainly the haunts of sailors and dockworkers, others, like the now-demolished “London Coffee House” at Front and Market, became a popular place for negotiating business deals. During the debates over taxation and representation that preceded the Revolution, taverns were political hotspots, where patrons would read newspaper articles and broadsides aloud. Historians like Thompson identify taverns as critical incubators of the Revolution—they offered Philadelphians a place to learn about the larger political issues of the day and to enter into heated, boozy debates over the future of Britain’s American provinces.
So perhaps those hordes who stumble down the alleys of Old City every weekend are actually participating in a great, centuries-old tradition that helped to make this nation free and independent. And if you don’t quite buy that, I recommend trying a few pints of the oak-barrel-aged Yard’s Thomas Jefferson Tavern Ale (part of their excellent “Ales of the Revolution” line and available at the City Tavern and many other fine establishments) and then see if you find my argument more convincing.
Want some more info on exploring Historic Philadelphia? Sure you do. Visit www.gophila.com/history for a plethora of places to see and things to do.
Historic Philadelphia
www.gophila.com/history
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Juneteenth Day is this Thursday, June 19. Started as a primarily African-American holiday in the South, Juneteenth Day commemorates the emancipation of slaves in Texas at the end of the Civil War on June 19, 1865. Because Texas was one of the last areas liberated by Union troops, the day essentially marks the de facto emancipation of all Confederate slaves. It is now an official holiday in twenty-six states, and is meant to be enjoyed by Americans of all backgrounds, as it marks the day that the nation as a whole became one step closer to becoming a truly free country.
In nineteenth-century Philadelphia, freed slaves fought for the emancipation of all slaves long before the Civil War. If you’re looking to celebrate Juneteenth Day here in Philly, aside from having the traditional barbeque feast, you may want to take this mini-tour of sites that marked the lives of the black Philadelphians who played pivotal roles in the long campaign to end slavery.
Start at the President’s House at the corner of Sixth and Market. A recent archaeological dig unearthed the foundations of the mansion that housed Presidents Washington and Adams during their terms. The dig revealed the underground passage that Washington’s slaves use between the main house and the outlying houses, reminding us of the ubiquitous presence of slavery in the literal foundations of our early government. But slaves did not just toil here, they also fled from here, as two of Washington’s slaves, a cook named Hercules and a maid named Oney, escaped from the Market Street home.
These escapes add a new layer of history to the house, marking it as the site of quiet revolutions against that most famous revolutionary. Oney and Hercules defied the most powerful man in the country when they ran. The thousands of early runaways are important historical actors—their actions eventually inspired the creation of an organized runaway network by the 1830s, which we know as the Underground Railroad.
You’ll find a monument of another kind of revolution a few blocks south on Sixth Street: Mother Bethel A.M.E. (African Methodist Episcopal Church), near the corner of Sixth and Lombard.
The church had its roots, the Free African Society, a group of freed black Christians founded in 1787. Under the leadership of the Methodist Richard Allen, Philadelphia blacks left the white denominations that were increasingly dismissive of their black congregants, and founded their own church on this site in 1794. The Richard Allen Museum on the basement level of Mother Bethel tells the fascinating story of the founding of the church, and of Philadelphia’s black community, which was a vital link in the network of anti-slavery activists that helped to bring slavery to an end. Also be sure to check out the beautiful sanctuary on the second and third floors. Although currently undergoing exterior renovations, Mother Bethel is still welcoming visitors.
These Philadelphia stories remind us that the freedom celebrated on Juneteenth Day was not simply a gift given by Union soldiers. It also came thanks to the brave actions of people like Oney, Hercules, and Richard Allen, who took control of their own lives, their own churches, and their own history.
Want some more info on exploring Historic Philadelphia? Sure you do. Visit www.gophila.com/history for a plethora of places to see and things to do.
Historic Philadelphia
www.gophila.com/history
Mother Bethal
www.motherbethel.org
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Post by Drew Lipman
In a quiet laboratory in Old City, there are long tables covered with the multicolored fragments of shattered glasses, pots, mugs, bottles, and dishes. These common housewares are just a few of the approximately one million (that’s right, one million) artifacts recently unearthed from the site where the National Constitution Center now stands and foundations of the President’s house on Market Street. Some of these fragments have been buried for over two hundred years.
If you go to the Independence Living History Center Archeology Laboratory, located on 3rd Street just south of Chestnut, you can meet some of the archeologists and volunteers who are gingerly putting these long-buried clay and glass artifacts back together. They can tell you about all the information contained in their objects—their approximate age, where they were made, and what kinds of people used them.
Combined with research about who lived in these lots, these little shards start telling us stories about the folks who lived and worked in 18th and 19th century Philadelphia. Once you see these objects reconstructed with glue and tape, you can begin to imagine the well-off merchants who drank glasses of Maderia from those dark glass bottles, the seamstresses who sipped imported tea in from those delicate china cups, and the laborers who smoked tobacco in these intricate pipes…
Many of these handmade objects are quite enchanting—even the well-used chamber pots! These artifacts represent a wide variety of styles and time periods, and different sorts of craftsmanship and artistic ingenuity. From the finely-painted patterns on plates to the aged rainbow patina on some of the bottles, the lab’s tables are filled with visual treats.
The lab, which is jointly sponsored by the National Parks Service and the Constitution Center, is open to the public Monday through Friday 9 to 5 and Saturdays 10 to 5. Admission is free.
Want some more info on exploring Historic Philadelphia? Sure you do. Visit www.gophila.com/history for a plethora of places to see and things to do.
Historic Philadelphia
www.gophila.com/history
The Independence Living History Center
143 South Third Street, Philadelphia, PA
www.nps.gov/inde/ilhc.htm
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June is here and Philadelphia’s churches are busting out all over. On any given Saturday this month, you can see crowds of well-dressed people gathered at their doors and smiling couples striding down their steps.
But inside some local houses of worship, the traditional wedding ceremony is unlike any other. I recently made a visit to the Arch Street Friends’ Meeting House, where docent Carolyn Evans talked to me about the Quaker marriage ceremony. As you may know, Quakers do not have clergy; the central tenet of their faith is that God is in everyone. So how do they manage to tie the knot without a priest or minister?
The answer is that Quaker couples and their guests officiate the marriage together, or, in the Friends’ phrase: “under the care of their meeting.” Before the actual ceremony, a Quaker couple will designate close friends and members of their meeting to ask them questions about their partnership, essentially serving as marriage counseling. These supporters are part of the assembled meeting on the day of the wedding, who begin the ceremony in silent “expectant waiting.”
The silence is usually broken by the couple themselves, who face each other and exchange vows and rings. Next, a person of their choosing reads a large, oversized marriage certificate, which contains their names, vows, and space for the wedding guests to sign. The couple’s wedding party brings out a table, where the certificate is placed for guests to sign—all guests, Quakers, non-Quakers, men, women, adults, and children are expected to sign. Next is a period when family and friends of the couple are invited to stand and share their thoughts about the couple in particular, or marriage and love in general.
It’s worth noting that no one gives the bride away—she stands on her own, just like the groom. The many community-based, egalitarian aspects of the wedding ritual reflect the overall Quaker philosophy, which was of course the faith of Pennsylvania’s founder William Penn and of many early migrants to the colony. If you want to learn more about the Society of Friends (which is the official name for the Quaker denomination), check out the Arch Street Meeting House. Warm and welcoming guides can answer your questions about the modern faith, and a small exhibit room details the role of Quakers in shaping the city and the colony’s history.
Want some more info on exploring Historic Philadelphia? Sure you do. Visit www.gophila.com/history for a plethora of places to see and things to do.
Historic Philadelphia
www.gophila.com/history
Arch Street Meeting House
www.archstreetfriends.org
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By Drew Lipman
This summer, I’m going to be posting on history attractions in Old City. I’ll share my perspective both as an historian-in-training and as a guide who has led dozens of walking tours around Philadelphia. I’d like to begin my stint here the same way most visits to Philadelphia begin, with a look at maps.
Forget the awkward un-folding and re-folding; these maps are already laid out for you. They are all scale models of the city where you can indulge your inner Godzilla and stomp around the streets (don’t worry, there are no power lines to trip you up).
Let’s begin in Welcome Park, an unassuming little open space on 2nd Street between Chestnut and Walnut. The ground of the park is a stonework recreation of the original map that William Penn used as the master plan for Philadelphia. This 1682 map, known as the Holmes Plan, laid out the basic framework for Center City; a one-by-two mile rectangle divided into four quadrants by Market (then-called High Street) and Broad. The Plan feature five open squares, one in the center and one in each quadrant, which we now know as Washington, Rittenhouse, Logan, Franklin, and City Hall Squares. The park-like squares are represent by single trees, while City Hall is marked by a statue of William Penn standing on an oversized pedestal.
The rest of the park also pays tribute to the colony’s Quaker founder. In fact, Welcome Park derives its name from the ship The Welcome that carried Penn to the Delaware, and it’s located on the approximate site of the home where Penn’s family lived in the city’s early years. (A handsome model of the house stands in its correct place on the plan.) The timeline on the south side of the park chronicles the life of the colony and its founder, which helps to orient new visitors in time as well as space.
You’ll find another map on the first floor of the Atwater Kent Museum on 7th Street just south of Market. Here in the city’s official history museum, the floor of an entire room is lined with a full-color modern map of Philadelphia. You can see how Penn’s plan persists and see how it has been altered and reinvented as the city grew far beyond its original designated rectangle. (Locals often enjoy finding their houses and neighborhoods on the map.) For reasons I can’t quite explain, walking around this giant map is somehow vastly more satisfying than looking at a paper one.
Finally, while it isn’t exactly a map, the Philadelphia-themed mini-golf course at Franklin Square serves the same purpose as the other two: it reduces a sprawling American city to a walkable miniature. You can walk through a scaled-down version of Elfreth’s Alley, hit a shot across the Ben Franklin Bridge or up the Art Museum steps. Just be careful not to land your ball in the waters of the mini-Delaware or the mini-Schuylkill, which are found, appropriately enough, on the east and west sides of the course.
Want some more info on exploring Historic Philadelphia? Sure you do. Visit www.gophila.com/history for a plethora of places to see and things to do.
Historic Philadelphia
www.gophila.com/history
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Photo by Jason Smith for GPTMC
You know, there are a lot of reasons why I like the Historic Philadelphia Trolley Loop. Sure, it’s incredibly cheap, drops you off at many different popular historic spots, and operates all day… but most importantly, sitting on it scored me this sweet picture. That’s me in the second row, in the back, making the trolley all the more good looking.
But seriously - if you’re visiting Philadelphia and feel the urge to explore the historic district, this is a great way to see it. The loop began its second year of service the first weekend of May, allowing passengers to ride for just $2 a day, hopping on and off at ten different stops through out Historic Philadelphia.
Independence Mall, Society Hill, Old City, Franklin Square, Liberty Bell Center, Penn’s Landing… yup, you can visit all of those. You can catch the trolley every 15 minutes from 10am to 7:30pm, and your $2 pass is good for the entire day! On board the trolley, you can watch a video about the area, hosted by FOX 29’s Good Day Philadelphia co-hosts.
Want some more info on the trolley and exploring Historic Philadelphia? Sure you do. Visit www.gophila.com/history. Enjoy your trip on the trolley. Maybe you’ll be lucky enough to get a picture like mine.
Historic Philadelphia
www.gophila.com/history
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