Philadelphia Architecture

So, this is the final post about Philadelphia...I promise. I just wanted to share a few more photos I took while we were visiting. Please bear with me as I try to curtail my love of urban history by only torturing you briefly with a bunch of details. Philadelphia, as many know (or don't know), was laid out by William Penn in 1682. Penn was granted the land that is now Pennsylvania, by King Charles II of England, and he set out to create a city on the Delaware River were anyone could live, regardless of their religion.

He also planned that the city's streets would be set up in a grid, with the idea that the city would be more like the rural towns of England than its crowded cities. The homes would be spread far apart and surrounded by gardens and orchards. The city would grant the first purchasers, the landowners who first bought land in the colony, land along the river for their homes. The city, which he named Philadelphia (philos, "love" or "friendship", and adelphos, "brother"), would have a commercial center for a market, state house, and other key buildings.
--Wikipedia

William Penn's Plan for Philadelphia, 1682 (From MIT Libraries)

Penn sent three commissioners to supervise the settlement and to set aside 10,000 acres (40 km²) for the city. The commissioners bought land from Swedes at the settlement ofWicaco and from there began to lay out the city towards the north. The area went about a mile along the Delaware River between modern South and Vine Streets. Penn arrived in Philadelphia in October 1682. He felt the area was too cramped and expanded the city west to the bank of the Schuylkill River, making the city a total of 1,200 acres (4.8 km²). Streets were laid out in a gridiron system. Except for the two widest streets, High (now Market) and Broad, the streets were named after prominent landowners who owned adjacent lots. The streets were later renamed in 1684; the ones running east-west were renamed after local trees and the north-south streets were numbered. Within the area, four squares (now named Rittenhouse, Logan, Washington and Franklin) were set up as parks open for everyone. Penn designed a central square at the intersection of Broad and what is now Market Street that would be surrounded by public buildings.
--Wikipedia

I will stop with that because I could go on and on and on pointing out all kinds of interesting points in the history of Philadelphia that led it to where it is today....you've got the whole 18th century and Revolutionary War, our little friend Benjamin Franklin, etc. I'll leave you to your own devices with all of that. I trust you'll leave this post to immediately throw yourself into the depths of history. So from this point on, I'll just point out a few highlights of the cityscape I captured last week.

Philadelphia City Hall (statue of William Penn atop the tower), was completed in 1901 and remains the second tallest masonry structure in the world, as well as the largest municipal structure in the US.

City Hall is built on Centre Square, one of the original 5 squares in Penn's city plan,and the building design allows for pedestrians to pass through the building from one side of the square to the other.

Subway station at City Hall.

Art Deco Building on the east side of City Hall.

The area around Rittenhouse Square has tons of great restaurants and shops.

I like the European-style sidewalk cafe seating (with chairs facing out) I kept coming across in the city. 

You could find these signs for pedestrians on every block. They show your current location in the city.

Anthropologie's autumn decor.

Anthropologie's flagship store at Rittenhouse Square.

Pre-War Rittenhouse Plaza houses condos running from $500,000 to $3 million.

Rittenhouse Square.

 And a few more photos a little further downtown, mostly along Walnut Street.

I really wanted to eat here!

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Check out those booths on the sidewalk!!!!

Philadelphia :: Highlights

I thought I'd share a few highlights from our brief, but fun, trip to Philadelphia last week. Since I knew I was going to have a toddler in tow, I wasn't sure what to expect or plan for, when it came to exploring the city. Luckily, Henry was very excited about all of the trucks, cars, buses, and people so he was happy to be out and about in the stroller.

Our hotel, the Crowne Plaza (Center City), was in a great location (Market Street and 18th Street), only a few blocks from Rittenhouse Square.

I highlighted in orange the area of the city was able to cover, on foot (with a toddler) in two days...not too shabby!). You can find an original copy of this map here.

I highlighted in black, most of the streets we hit (many more than once) and put a star to note some of the places of interest. I stayed in the main corridor between Market Street and Walnut Street. Walnut, Chestnut, and Sansom Streets have tons of restaurants to choose from (national and local), as well as plenty of places for shopping (ranging from luxury chains to really cute boutiques). A great place to stop for snacks, or maybe something from the bakery (or to take back home) is Di Bruno Brothers. It's a very Dean and Deluca sort of gourmet food market that also carried lots of regional items.

I believe, from my crude calculations, we walked about 10 miles over two days.

A really fun place for lunch is the Reading Terminal Market. Lots of really neat local and regional food. Very easy with a stroller, especially before the lunchtime rush (and even then it wasn't horrible). I was there about 11am and then later at Noon. It gets really crowded, really fast, for lunch.

Henry enjoying a pretzel.

Having a cheese steak and fries.

We shared a red velvet cupcakes from the Flying Monkey Bakery in the Market.

I'm not quite ready for the Pumpple Cake (at Flying Monkey Bakery).

Thursday night we went to dinner at Monk's Cafe (on the recommendation of two friends). It wasn't exactly kid-friendly--it is a bar after all. We were on the early side (about 5pm) so it wasn't really crowded and Henry behaved. We didn't have the luxury of getting to enjoy some of their more popular dishes (would take too long to eat) or to drink any of the amazing beers on their menu, but we did have a nice short meal and a beer or two. And we had a nice little walk to the restaurant, which is located just off Walnut Street in a pretty residential area.

You wear your sunglasses at the bar if you're cool.

It was such a lovely day on Friday that eating lunch outside at Parc Brasserie at Rittenhouse Square was too good to pass up. Plus, you know how I love all things frenchie!!

I love how they have the chairs facing out toward the street.

For the second meal in a row, Henry ate french fries. He has had no interest in fries until this trip. Oh yeah, and my tomato tart was FANTASTIC.

Rittenhouse Square, one of the original open space parks laid out by William Penn, was a great place to let Henry run and play. He even made a few new friends.

Blond and blonder.

We did stroll all the way down to the oldest part of the city where the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall are located--Independence National Historic Park. I knew some of the buildings were undergoing renovations, so I wasn't too heart-broken when we got down there and many were closed. Henry is too young to be interested in the buildings and monuments anyway.

That's the Liberty Bell at the bottom.

Independence Hall.

It was about dinner time after we checked out Independence National Historic Park, so we hopped across the street to Jones. The atmosphere was cool and retro, just slightly upscale. It sort of has an upscale diner feel and fairly kid-friendly (we were there early and the crowd was mellow, but I'm sure that changes a bit after 7pm). There isn't a kids menu, but plenty of items on the menu that most kids will eat (not mine, he just ate bread that came with the meal).

It's hard to tell because my flash didn't fire, but Henry is double fisting the "purple people eater" drink his daddy ordered for him (grape juice, lemonade, and Sprite).

On the way back to the hotel, walking up Walnut Street (my main route north to south, even though I did venture off here and there), I spotted Max Brenner so we stopped in with our already sugared up toddler for dessert.

I had the hot chocolate (which is my favorite there), but Kirk ordered this disaster for himself and Henry to share. It was some sort of peanut butter and chocolate ice cream sundae that also had hazelnuts and carmelized bananas. Henry just ate that bowl of chocolate sauce (on the left) with a spoon.

Sugar coma.

So after Henry was fully recharged, we headed back to the hotel with a toddler on the loose. He did enjoy a little after dinner jogging and dancing.

We had a great trip to Philadelphia and I really can't wait to go back with Henry again. Other than some of the stores and restaurants being a little difficult to access with a stroller (and some being impossible), everything was easy and Henry had a great time!