You're now near two lost landscapes. Listen to a short description of the Norris gardens, and then scroll down to see what used to be on the site where you are now standing. To learn more about the second lost landscape, the wild animal show that once lived across the street, click here or on the link at the bottom of the page.
You are now standing on the site of the Norris mansion's garden. In the image of the Norris house below, you are behind the brick garden wall to the right, and can--as in this image--look across the street to Old City Hall and Independence Hall. When the mansion was built in 1750, the neighborhood was considered rural, and the mansion's gardens, well stocked with fruit trees, were considered exceptionally elegant. The large trees to the left and rear of the house might be the garden's famed willow trees, sprouted from a basket found in Boston harbor and brought to Philadelphia by Benjamin Franklin. According to Norris family lore, these sprouts grew so well in their garden that they gave rise to many of the willows in the city.
Part of the mansion's gardens were sold in 1789 to the Library Company of Philadelphia, which built a large brick structure. Library Hall, fronting on 5th Street to house its growing collections. The image below from 1870 shows Library Hall in the foreground (dwarfed by its neighbor, the Mercantile Library). As you can see, all traces of the famed Norris gardens are gone.
But if you turn to face south (towards Walnut Street), Library Hall appears to still be standing, and there's a garden between you and it, approximately where the gardener for the Norris mansion had his cottage. Both this garden and the building are creations of the late 1950s, part of the transformation of the neighborhood surrounding Independence Hall from urban center to romanticized colonial landscape.
Ready for the wild animal menagerie that was once across the street?
Ready for the wild animal menagerie that was once across the street?
Image credits: Top: A view of the Norris Mansion, on the southeast corner of 5th & Chestnut Sts., as it looked in 1776, H. Ritchie, Views in and near Philadelphia, American Philosophical Society. Bottom: Mercantile Library, 5th Street at Library, southeast corner, 1870, PhillyHistory.org. 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.
