Listen to a short description of this ghost garden, Clarke Hall, and then scroll down to see what used to be here on the site where you are now standing.
Curious about where Dock Creek ran before it was turned into a street? Click here to see an artist's rendition of the creek's multiple arms.
Clarke Hall faced Chestnut Street, a little west of Third Street. If you turn to face Chestnut, you are now standing approximately where Dock Creek is shown in the foreground of the image below of the mansion and its gardens.
Curious about where Dock Creek ran before it was turned into a street? Click here to see an artist's rendition of the creek's multiple arms.
Clarke Hall faced Chestnut Street, a little west of Third Street. If you turn to face Chestnut, you are now standing approximately where Dock Creek is shown in the foreground of the image below of the mansion and its gardens.
The home below, a contemporary to Clarke Hall, was located across Chestnut Street. One of the arms of Dock Creek runs under the bridge. When Clarke Hall was constructed, this neighborhood was considered rural, far removed from the urban center by the Delaware River.
By 1860, the time of the photograph below, Dock Creek and the gardens of Clarke Hall had been utterly transformed. Clarke Hall was sold in 1800 and the property demolished, to make room for the First Bank of the United States (later Girard Bank), the still-standing columned structure in the center of the photograph. To see this perspective now, cross Third Street and turn back to face the First Bank building. The bank occupies the land that was once the gardens shown in the image of Clarke Hall, above.
This 1860 photograph also shows a much denser urban landscape than what you see now. What happened to the adjoining buildings? Like many of the other 19th-century buildings in this section of Philadelphia, they were demolished in the 1950s to make way for Independence National Historic Park.
Image credits: Top: Clarke's Hall on Dock Creek, E. W. Mumford, courtesy of the Library Company of Philadelphia. Middle: Benezet's house and Dock Creek, E. Mumford, courtesy of the Library Company of Philadelphia. Bottom: First Bank of the United States, Third Street at Dock, Free Library of Philadelphia. 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.
