Where The New Competes With The Old

Although history seems to ooze from every nook and cranny of downtown Philadelphia, the new is giving the old a run for its money.

The kid-friendly Please Touch Museum opened the doors to its new home on October 18 in Memorial Hall in Fairmount Park. The structure, built in 1876 for the Centennial Exhibition, triples the museum’s space. The Franklin, which sliced the word “Institute” from its title, will headline Galileo, Medici, and The Age of Astronomy from April through September 2009, displaying the scientist’s telescope and exploring his other-wordly discoveries.
Coming soon after that are the President’s House Commemorative Site, where George Washington lived from 1790-1797 during Philadelphia’s tenure as capital of the United States, and the expanded National Museum of American Jewish History, which will occupy its new five-story home on July 4, 2010. Also planned for 2010 is a vast expansion of the downtown convention center.

Founder William Penn would be thrilled to see how the city has evolved since he arrived at what is now Penn’s Landing, along the Delaware River, in 1682. Penn designed Philadelphia to be a “greene countrie towne,” with trees, trails, and parks plentiful within the urban confines.

The bronze Penn statue atop City Hall was the tallest point in the city for more than a century before the 62-story Liberty Place topped it in 1987. “Billy Penn’s Hat,” once considered one of the world’s architectural wonders, stands 37 feet high and 33 stories above the bustling world of Broad & Market.

Penn deserves that prominent and permanent place: He wanted Philadelphia to be the first city on the planet to grant tolerance to all religions as well as the world’s first planned city—designed before it was occupied. Squeezed between the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers on its east and west, Philadelphia has five parks within a short walk of every compass point. North-south streets are numbered (except for Broad) and east-west streets are named after the trees that were so important to Penn (Chestnut, Walnut, Locust, Spruce, Pine, Cherry, etc.). Penn’s grid street design made the city walkable, while his Quaker ideals and of religious tolerance yielded a nickname that fit: “The City of Brotherly Love.”

His promise of a haven for all obviously worked: There are 111 neighborhoods within the city limits of 129 square miles. The surrounding suburbs swell the metro area population to 5 million, making Philadelphia the sixth-largest city in the United States and second-largest on the East Coast.
It has been a river town, a railroad town, and a manufacturing hub but has also established a reputation as a center for education and the arts. Philadelphia has more colleges than Boston and so many cultural venues along South Broad Street that the strip is also called Avenue of the Arts.
Philadelphia fans are certainly enthusiastic; they’ll boo anything that moves—even hometown heroes who fall into temporary slumps. It’s part of their charm. At least the baseball Phillies, a playoff team in the past two years, perform at peak levels. The heavy-hitting Phils, who play in a four-year-old bandbox called Citizens Bank Park, are one of nine professional sports teams in town.

The others include the Eagles, who play football at Lincoln Financial Field, to the NHL Flyers and NBA Sixers, who also play in the South Philadelphia sports complex. Other local clubs include the Kixx (indoor soccer), Wings (indoor lacrosse), Phantoms (minor-league hockey), the Soul (arena football), and the Barrage (outdoor lacrosse).

Getting to and from the sports facilities is simple; the red line subway runs straight down Broad Street from City Hall. In fact, Philadelphians don’t need cars. The city has a diverse and comprehensive network of streetcars, subways, buses, and rail links, including one that connects downtown to Phila­delphia International Airport.

The list of attractions is almost endless. Independence Hall is still the focal point of Independence National Historical Park and the heart of an area the National Park Service calls “the most historic square mile in America.” The Constitution was debated, amended, and approved at Congress Hall, home of the United States Congress when Philadelphia was the nation’s capital from 1790-1800.

Visitors can admire the 2,080-pound Liberty Bell, displayed in a pavilion one block north of Independence Hall, and read its inscription: “Proclaim liberty throughout all the land upon all the inhabitants thereof.”

There’s a neon Liberty Bell at Citizens Bank Park, which drew groans from pitchers when it opened for business in 2004 but cheers from fans when it gongs after a Philly hitter homers.

While other metro centers may be desolate and deserted after dark, Philadelphia swings. South Street, popularized by the 1963 Orlons song, claims to be “the hippest street in the world.” It’s the place to see and be seen, with dozens of shops, boutiques, and restaurants expressing their social and political perspectives in a wide variety of ways.

Philadelphia’s European influence is evident everywhere. Flag-lined Benjamin Franklin Boulevard, the broad diagonal avenue that links Center City with the main museums, bears a striking resemblance to the Champs-Élysées of Paris.

Reading Terminal Market, opened in 1893, is the nation’s oldest continuously-operating farmer’s market. More than 100 merchants sell farm produce, prepared foods, and quick meals ranging from Pennsylvania Dutch breakfasts to Philly cheesesteaks.

The restored City Tavern, where George Washington once dined on West Indian pepperpot soup, provides a true escape from the 21st century. Called “the most genteel tavern in the colonies” by John Adams after its 1773 opening, it also played host to Thomas Jefferson and members of the first Continental Congress. Waiters in 18th century garb serve fare that suited the tastes of nation’s founders, from peanut soup and sweet potato biscuits to fried oysters, glazed duckling, and venison.

The inn, rebuilt by the National Park Service in 1975 after painstaking research, features 10 dining rooms and lush gardens. Those who prefer seafood served in the style of the city’s early years will find The Old Original Bookbinder’s (circa 1867) across the street.

One of the best shows in town blends high technology with colonial history. “Lights of Liberty,” a one-of-a-kind walking sound and light depiction of the American Revolution, shows visitors how it happened and where it happened.

Races and religions have always mixed in Philadelphia. But the city is also famous for many other firsts: it gave the nation its first public school (1698), library (1731), fire company (1736), lightning rod (1752), flag (1777), bank (1780), daily newspaper (1784), circus (1793), theater (the still-active Walnut Street theater, founded in 1809), and zoo (1842).

Also introduced in the city were the ice-cream soda (1876), the X-ray (1890), and the first air-conditioned building (1932), not to mention the Thanksgiving Day Parade (1919).

More than 30,000 Mummers march on New Year’s Day, two weeks before the annual kite-flying festival pays tribute to Benjamin Franklin’s famous-but-dangerous experiment of discovering electricity by flying a key-rigged kite in an thunderstorm.

Getting around is easy. Downtown is only two mile squares and well-planned perimeter routes avoid the traffic, stoplights, and narrow streets of Center City. There are easy highway and rail connections from New Jersey via the Benjamin Franklin Bridge.

Neither Washington portrait painter Gilbert Stuart, who dubbed Philadelphia “the Athens of America,” nor Alexander Graham Bell, who exhibited the telephone at the 1876 Philadelphia Exposition, would recognize Philadelphia today. Nor would the artists who created so many covers of the locally-produced Saturday Evening Post.

Even W.C. Fields might not be so reluctant to spend time in his hometown. Asked whether he’d rather be in Philadelphia or in his grave, he thought for a minute, then quipped, “On the whole, I’d rather be in Philadelphia.”

So would a lot of other people.

For further information, contact the Greater Philadelphia Tourism Marketing Corporation, Suite 1710, 30 S. 17th St., Philadelphia, PA 19103 (P:215-599-0776, F:215-599-0773, www.gophila.com)

Dan Schlossberg is a former AP newsman and writes about travel and baseball from his home in Fair Lawn, New Jersey. He is he author or co-author of 34 baseball books. Visit ­www.danschlossberg.com or reach him by email at ­ballauthor@optonline.net. He is also president of the NATJA Advisory Board.