Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    A Walking Tour of Philadelphia's Rittenhouse Square
    A Walking Tour of Philadelphia's Rittenhouse Square
    A Walking Tour of Philadelphia's Rittenhouse Square
    Ebook20 pages13 minutes

    A Walking Tour of Philadelphia's Rittenhouse Square

    By Doug Gelbert

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    There is no better way to see America than on foot. And there is no better way to appreciate what you are looking at than with a walking tour. Whether you are preparing for a road trip or just out to look at your own town in a new way, a downloadable walking tour from walkthetown.com is ready to explore when you are.

    Each walking tour describes historical and architectural landmarks and provides pictures to help out when those pesky street addresses are missing. Every tour also includes a quick primer on identifying architectural styles seen on American streets.

    Rittenhouse Square, one of William Penn’s original five, was known as the southwest square until 1825 when it was named for the astronomer-clockmaker, David Rittenhouse (1732-96). This amazing man of universal talents — one of many in 18th century Philadelphia — was a descendant of William Rittenhouse, who built the first paper mill in America in Germantown. He was at various times a member of the General Assembly and the State Constitutional Convention, and president of the Council of Safety. His survey of the Maryland-Pennsylvania boundary in 1763-64, to settle a dispute between the Penns and Lord Baltimore, was so accurate it was accepted and followed by Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon when they surveyed the “line” for which they are still remembered. Professor of Astronomy at the University of Pennsylvania and inventor of the collimating telescope, he was also president of the American Philosophical Society and the first director of the United States Mint.

    Rittenhouse Square has always denoted quality. The first house facing the Square was erected in 1840. During its next century the Square kept its residential quality. In 1913, the architect Paul Cret, who was one of the men responsible for Benjamin Franklin Parkway and many of its buildings, designed the Square’s entrances, central plaza with the stone railings, pool and fountain. To have lived near or on the Square was a mark of prestige. Today, private homes are gone, but it still counts for something to live on the Square. There are several houses still standing, but they have been converted into apartments. With cooperative apartments and condominiums displacing private dwellings in the last three decades, some of the Old Guard still live on here — in these homes in the sky rather than family mansions.

    The immediate surrounding streets around Rittenhouse Square are a microcosm of all Philadelphia has to offer. Within easy walking distance are eclectic shopping boutiques, world-class restaurants, the skyscrapers of the city’s business community, the cultural resonance of unique museums and galleries and, to the south and east, some of America’s most charming big city residential streets.

    Our walking tour will begin strolling the leafy walkways that crisscross the plaza of Philadelphia’s most desirable address...

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherDoug Gelbert
    Release dateJan 11, 2010
    ISBN9781452307602
    A Walking Tour of Philadelphia's Rittenhouse Square

    Read more from Doug Gelbert

    Related to A Walking Tour of Philadelphia's Rittenhouse Square

    Related ebooks

    United States Travel For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Inviting Us Into Their Spectacular St Tropez Villa Dame Joan Collins And Husband Percy On Love, Laughter, Who Rules The Kitchen And How She Predicted The Pandemic

      Sep 21, 2020

      Inviting Us Into Their Spectacular St Tropez Villa Dame Joan Collins And Husband Percy On Love, Laughter, Who Rules The Kitchen And How She Predicted The Pandemic
      7 min read

    • Article

      'Gold Dust Woman' Tells the Story of Rock Icon Stevie Nicks

      Nov 22, 2017

      Devoted followers won’t find major new stories in this biography by Stephen Davis, but it’s certainly an exhaustive account.

      2 min read

    • Article

      Andrew Ridgeley

      Jun 26, 2023

      Andrew Ridgeley
      6 min read

    • Article

      Bats May Shed Light On Human Speech Evolution

      Mar 6, 2024

      A new study finds that the part of bats’ brains that controls vocalizations has the same neural and genetic machinery as the part of the human brain that controls speech. Human speech has always been an oddity within the animal kingdom. Only a handfu

      3 min read

    • Article

      On The Record

      Apr 21, 2020

      For many of those who were into music from the 1950s through to the late ’80s, the album cover was an important physical social totem. This 12-inch square cardboard sleeve became a symbol that identified you with a genre of music, a style and the att

      8 min read

    • Article

      The Return of Candyman

      Aug 15, 2020

      The Return of Candyman
      6 min read

    • Article

      The Horror

      Sep 1, 2022

      What scared you as a kid? For me, it was the low-budget, black-and-white horror flicks that all my friends told me were “really cool,” but which would later haunt my dreams. I will never forget being taken to The Man from Planet X at age seven and be

      3 min read

    • Article

      MONUMENTAL Spirit

      Dec 8, 2020

      MONUMENTAL Spirit
      8 min read

    • Article

      The Office of Historical Corrections

      Oct 7, 2020

      The vision for the Institute of Public History that summoned me from my former job as a history professor at GW had been grandiose. An ambitious freshman congresswoman demanded funding to put a public historian in every zip code in the country, a cor

      1 min read

    • Article

      Remains

      Sep 1, 2017

      THIS IS what you think your mother’s remains will look like. The ash will be black, like all that soot in the fireplace. It will be heavy, like wet sand. There will not be too much of it. It will fit in a small urn with intricate designs on the borde

      6 min read

    • Article

      10 Great Holiday Gift Ideas

      Oct 25, 2022

      A full rubber lug combat sole make these handmade leather and jacquard boots comfortable, durable, and sexy AF. ($295, taftclothing.com) Now you can cuddle with your puppy and sing together (we won’t judge). ($38, dollskill.com) Complete with gold ni

      1 min read

    • Article

      Letters

      Jan 1, 2024

      Letters
      2 min read

    • Article

      'Slings & Arrows' Made Shakespeare Must-see TV. The Prequel Sounds Just As Delightful

      Nov 6, 2019

      If there's no business like show business, and there is no playwright like Shakespeare, then it stands to reason - and is, in fact, a fact - that there's no series like "Slings & Arrows," a gorgeous Canadian import from the first decade of this centu

      7 min read

    • Article

      Reviews

      Sep 9, 2021

      Reviews
      6 min read

    • Article

      Time Has Told

      May 11, 2023

      Time Has Told
      3 min read

    • Article

      A Melancholy Tightrope Act: The Beautiful Spectacle of Sabrina Orah Mark’s ‘Wild Milk’

      Oct 15, 2018

      The stories in Sabrina Orah Mark’s newest collection, Wild Milk, are as careful, diamond-sharp, and surprising as the narrative poems of Elizabeth Bishop. Dorothy, a publishing project, which is committed to “works of fiction or near fiction or about

      3 min read

    • Article

      Hatching The Impossible

      May 17, 2021

      Hatching The Impossible
      13 min read

    • Article

      Grant Us Peace

      Nov 12, 2018

      Grant Us Peace
      2 min read

    • Article

      Gilding The Lilies

      Jun 26, 2022

      Gilding The Lilies
      7 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for A Walking Tour of Philadelphia's Rittenhouse Square

    0 ratings

    0 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      A Walking Tour of Philadelphia's Rittenhouse Square - Doug Gelbert

      Look Up, Philadelphia! A Walking Tour of Rittenhouse Square

      a walking tour in the Look Up, America series from walkthetown.com

      by Doug Gelbert

      published by Cruden Bay Books at Smashwords

      Copyright 2013 by Cruden Bay Books

      All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system without permission in writing from the Publisher.

      Rittenhouse Square, one of William Penn’s original five squares, was known as the southwest square until 1825 when it was named for the astronomer-clockmaker, David Rittenhouse, a man of multiple talents and descendent of William Rittenhouse, who built the first paper mill in America in Germantown. David Rittenhouse served in the General Assembly and at the State Constitutional Convention. His survey of the Maryland-Pennsylvania boundary in 1763-64, to settle a dispute between the Penns and Lord Baltimore, was so accurate it was accepted and followed

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1