Pennsylvania

City Tavern

City Tavern in Philadelphia is located at 138 South 2nd Street. It’s a recreation of  the 18th century building that used to sit there. The original tavern was a favorite spot of our founding fathers. Continue reading →

The Dream Garden

By Washington Square in the Curtis building is a 15 by 49 foot favrile glass mosaic. The light and colors were brought to you by the studios of Louis Comfort Tiffany. The mosaic is based on a painting by Maxfield Parish.

Continue reading →

City Hall

Philadelphia’s City Hall is one of our favorite buildings. It’s the most ornate and largest City Hall in the country and was almost torn down two times. It’s located at 1 Penn Square and was the tallest building in the world from 1894 to 1908 surpassing the Eiffel Tower and Washington monuments. It remained the tallest building in Philly until  the construction of 1 Liberty Place that formally ended the gentlemen’s agreement limiting the height of the city’s buildings (no building was built taller than City Hall until Liberty Place was constructed 1984-1987). Continue reading →

Advertisement

Fairmont Water Works & Fairmont Park

Fairmont Water Works was designed by Frederich Gaff and is Philadelphia’s second municipal waterworks. It was built between 1812 and 1872. It was in use till 1909 when they had to close due to water being too polluted from population and industry growth; there were newer and updated facilities that took it’s place. In 1976 the water works was placed on the National Register of Historic Places. Continue reading →

Schuylkill Regatta & Boathouse Row

We were in Philadelphia for Halloween weekend. Not only is Philly our home away from home, we go annually for Eastern State Penitentiary’s fundraiser “Terror Behind the Walls.” It’s a haunted house set up in an abandoned jail. We enjoy haunted houses and find it fun, we don’t care to dress up for Halloween. October is a happening month for Philly. Some friends took their kids to the Harry Potter fest on another weekend. Continue reading →

Chinese Lantern Festival

For Memorial Weekend we hopped on a bus and stayed overnight in Philly. We go there a lot. We love it there. But this time around we wanted to check out the Chinese Lantern Festival in Franklin Square. It’s really cute. It opened April 22 and closes June 12th. It’s $17 a ticket for adults, kids (ages 3-17) $12, $15 for seniors and military, kids 2 years and under are free. They have performances, food vendors and stands where you can buy trinkets. Continue reading →

Elfreth’s Alley

Elfreth’s Alley is a street in Philadelphia and referred to as “Our nations oldest residential address.” It dates back to 1702 and is a National Historic Landmark. The cobblestone street and Federal and Georgian style houses that line the street were common back in the 1700s. It’s named after Jeremiah Elfreth, an 18th century property owner and blacksmith. Trades people lived on this street and was once full of printers, carpenters, and different types of crafts people. Continue reading →

Dicken’s Village at Macy’s

It’s the New Year, hope everyone had a happy holiday season. Christmas cheer hit me after Christmas so I won’t feel too silly posting these in January. I still have to go through my pictures from the NYC Macy’s window. They were my favorite for 2015 and will hopefully get those up in a few days. This one is about Macy’s in Philly.

The day after Christmas we drove to Philly with our cousin and his girlfriend for food and holiday stuff. Continue reading →

The Grand Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons in Philadelphia

A long time ago Victor gave me a booklet about the Freemason lodge. It’s taken over a decade to finally get there. If you ever have extra time in Philly and are a history and architecture buff – check it out. Quite a few US Presidents have been masons: George Washington, James Monroe, Andrew Jackson, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin Roosevelt, Gerald Ford to name a few. Continue reading →