Listen to a short description of this ghost garden, the botanic garden, and then scroll down to see what used to be here on the site where you are now standing.
The tree you are now standing next to may be nearly 200 years old. A London plane tree like this one appears on a plan of Washington Square made in 1816-17. It can be seen on the larger version of the 1842 planting plan, below, identified by the common name buttonwood. (Whether this London plane is the same London plane planted in 1816-17 or one planted later to replace the original tree no one knows, but it is the appropriate size for a nearly 200-year old tree. And London planes are hardy street trees that thrive in urban conditions.)
The tree you are now standing next to may be nearly 200 years old. A London plane tree like this one appears on a plan of Washington Square made in 1816-17. It can be seen on the larger version of the 1842 planting plan, below, identified by the common name buttonwood. (Whether this London plane is the same London plane planted in 1816-17 or one planted later to replace the original tree no one knows, but it is the appropriate size for a nearly 200-year old tree. And London planes are hardy street trees that thrive in urban conditions.)
There is another tree that may date from 1816-17 on Locust Street. This swamp marsh oak also grows on the exterior of the square's wall. To locate it, cross the park to Locust heading east; it is the only tree outside the wall. If you walk along the exterior of the wall up Locust Street, you will also pass a long-forgotten 1869 "temperance fountain." By providing free water for horses, the fountain was meant to serve two purposes. Horse power fueled delivery wagons, carriages, and trolleys--but there were few public watering stations for horses, and many collapsed and even died from heat exhaustion during Philadelphia summers. The drivers of these vehicles frequently sought water for their horses from bars, whose owners expected the drivers to buy a drink for themselves. Thus, the free water for horses meant less drinking by humans, the goal of the temperance movement.
Here's another lost aspect to Washington Square. Before these trees were planted, when this square was still part burial ground, part public space, President George Washington and a crowd of others gathered here to watch the launch of the first passenger balloon in the United States. The hyrdogen gas balloon, under the command of the French balloonist Jean Pierre Blanchard, took flight on January 9, 1793, from the yard of the Walnut Street prison at 6th and Walnut. (It landed near Woodbury, New Jersey.) Such balloons were a big deal scientifically in the late 1700s, requiring command of newly discovered lighter than air (but also extremely explosive) gases. The frontispiece to Blanchard's memoir of his American flight is below; the motto sic itur ad astra, "thus you shall go to the stars," is often metaphorically read to mean "thus you shall gain immortality."
Here's another lost aspect to Washington Square. Before these trees were planted, when this square was still part burial ground, part public space, President George Washington and a crowd of others gathered here to watch the launch of the first passenger balloon in the United States. The hyrdogen gas balloon, under the command of the French balloonist Jean Pierre Blanchard, took flight on January 9, 1793, from the yard of the Walnut Street prison at 6th and Walnut. (It landed near Woodbury, New Jersey.) Such balloons were a big deal scientifically in the late 1700s, requiring command of newly discovered lighter than air (but also extremely explosive) gases. The frontispiece to Blanchard's memoir of his American flight is below; the motto sic itur ad astra, "thus you shall go to the stars," is often metaphorically read to mean "thus you shall gain immortality."
Image credits: Top: 1842 plot map of Washington Square, looking north, Washington Square Area Study, Historic American Buildings Survey, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division. The full image, in which you can see each tree individually marked and named, can be downloaded. Bottom: Detail of the frontispiece of Jean-Pierre Blanchard's Journal of my forty-fifth ascension..., 1793, Library of Congress, Rare Book and Special Collections Division. iPhone with GPS users: visit PhillyHistory.org's mobile site to find additional images of your current location.
Want to revisit this page later or view the pages for all the sites that are part of Ghost Gardens, Lost Landscapes? Click here. Ghost Gardens explores lost, vanished, or forgotten Philadelphia gardens, landscapes, and animals related to those showcased in Of Elephants and Roses, an exhibition by the American Philosophical Society Museum on view until December 31, 2011 (admission is free). Ghost Gardens was funded by The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage through the Heritage Philadelphia Program. Ghost Gardens was created by Erin McLeary and is maintained by the American Philosophical Society Museum.
Want to revisit this page later or view the pages for all the sites that are part of Ghost Gardens, Lost Landscapes? Click here. Ghost Gardens explores lost, vanished, or forgotten Philadelphia gardens, landscapes, and animals related to those showcased in Of Elephants and Roses, an exhibition by the American Philosophical Society Museum on view until December 31, 2011 (admission is free). Ghost Gardens was funded by The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage through the Heritage Philadelphia Program. Ghost Gardens was created by Erin McLeary and is maintained by the American Philosophical Society Museum.
