Going to Philly next week. What should I do?

[Coventina]

I'm planning on going to Independence National Historic Park, with Independence Hall & the Liberty Bell etc.
I'm also thinking of the Independence Seaport Museum, Betsy Ross House, United States Mint and Franklin Institute Science Museum.

Yea? Nay?

I only have one day to do touristy stuff.
Any suggestions?

I've never been there (since I was a toddler).

[HughBeaumont]

1. Don't know if you're into Literature . . .

But head to the Rosenbach Museum (the information center on 5th and Market has a map of all of these locations), as they have the original Ulysses manuscript, several original works by Maurice Sendak, and a living library of first editions of tons of literary masterpieces (Moby Dick, Don Quixote, Ulysses, Lord Jim, etc).

Also, head to the Mutter Museum to see some medical anomalies, skeletons, old physician's offices and other assorted gross shit.

Betsy Ross' house is there as well.

Wish I would have gone to South Street, as there are more than a few counterculture shops.

[Coventina]

2. Good suggestions, but I have to ask....

Are you a "Leave It To Beaver" fan?

If so, kudos to you.
I love that show!!
:-)

[HughBeaumont]

16. I'm a slobbering LITB FREAK.

Loved that show since childhood.

Ward Cleaver is how real 50s-60s dad's should have parented, but instead too many of them were like dumbass Fred Rutherford.

Too bad the kids were typecast victims.

[Phillycat]

3. Rittenhouse Square is nice this time of year.

For walking around or sitting and reading a book/people watching. However, you have only one day, so you may not want "relaxing" time.

The Franklin Institute is the best of what you've listed. I suspect you'll find Independence Mall (with the bell and stuff) boring. Who knows, maybe that's just me.

There is also the Rodin museum. It's a very managable size and the best collection of Rodin in the United States. It's over by the big art museum.

I believe they have City Hall (with William Penn statue on top) open again so you can go up inside and see a really terrific view of the city. I am not sure about that though. It was closed for a long time.

Old City is nice for shopping and eating. So is Walnut Street in the Rittenhouse Sqaure area. South Street is really for tourists, but there are some nice shops there.

Have a good time. It's a great city and you are coming at a really good time of year.

[jdonaldball]

11. Oh yeah! Rodin Museum!

Biggest collection of Rodin sculptures in the world, outside of Paris. Short walk from the Franklin Institute and more manageable than the Art Museum which takes weeks or years to digest, not a day trip.
Although, the eastern side of Center City is the more historical half, while Rittenhouse Square and the Parkway would be more for if you prefer the arts and sciences.
In either case, City Hall is worth a look, and just a block or so north you can see the new (well, to me, haven't been there in some years) statue of Frank Rizzo holding out an empty hand like he's reaching for a billy club, like a lowbrow Mussolini.
Oh I love that city! :-)

[Demit]

4. Wow! That's a lot. But as long as you're up around the Franklin Institute

go a couple blocks up and take in the Eastern State Penitentiary. First one in the country to have solitary confinement, the one Charles Dickens visited (and rightly thought barbaric), the one Willie Sutton escaped from and where Al Capone stayed for awhile. It's right in the middle of a neighborhood--mine, in fact :)

They have tours inside, depending on the time you go. It's ver-r-ry eerie in there. And you've got to have sustenance! There are some very nice restaurants and watering holes within a block of the old prison.

Enjoy your brief time here, whatever you do!

[Phillycat]

5. Is that the prison that's right across the street from Jack's Firehouse

in Northern Liberties? And do I have the name of that restaurant right?

[Demit]

12. Yes on Jack's Firehouse, and not Northern Liberties but Fairmount (or

the Art Museum area). Same latitude but NL is east of here. We're close to Fairmount Park. Ooo! Ooo! That's what you should see, C'tina. Kelly Drive, where the scullers row. Very pretty. Fairmount Park is the largest park system in the world within a city's limits.

(I haven't been in the Firehouse since about 10 years ago and they charged $23 for squirrel stew or some kind of roadkill, I forget. They're a little too pretentious for their location, seems to me. But then I'm a grumpy native. I prefer the London, or Rembrandt's.)

[Phillycat]

14. I was there recently, had macaroni and cheese with fried chicken

It was good and I didn't find it overpriced. The BF had pulled pork sandwich and wasn't too impressed, but again, the price wasn't high. I will have to try the other two you suggest.

Of course it's Fairmount, my stupid mistake. :)

[jdonaldball]

6. Old Christ Church, and Edgar Allan Poe's House, and Gratz cemetery

Old Christ Church (circa 1690) is where the Founders would go on Sundays in summer 1776, if they went to a Church at all. (Some, like Franklin, would go there regardless of religious convictions - most of them were pretty tolerant, either Deists or Freemasons or very Modern Age Protestants.) It's around 2nd and Market Street (just south of there.) Ben Franklin's grave is there, outside, just by the streetcorner, and it's a local tradition to throw a penny on his tombstone as you pass by as a gesture of thanks to him. Some other signers of the Declaration are also buried there.
Edgar Allan Poe's house has been ruined by the Feds since they took it over from a private owner some years ago, but it's at 7th and Spring Garden. He wrote The Raven and around half of his best works there.
Gratz Cemetery, 1742, is the oldest Jewish cemetery in the country, worth a visit even if you're not Jewish as a symbol of early America's foundations of tolerance - Pennsylvania had more religious freedom than any other colony. Some Jewish heroes of the American Revolution are buried there. It's around 8th and Pine, around there.
Want more?

[Coventina]

8. Wow! Thanks!

I'm not sure how much I can squeeze in, but I love the suggestions.

I'm kind of excited, because I'm flying in on William Penn's b-day (next Thursday) which I take to be a good omen. :-)
(I don't like flying).

I'm leaving Sunday. Friday is the day I'll have for sightseeing. The rest of the time is committed. :-(

[HalfManHalfBiscuit]

7. Go to Penn Station and take the train to NYC

There is nothing of interest in Philly.

[Coventina]

9. Not an option

I'm there for an infant baptism.
Don't ask, it's a long, long story.

[Phillycat]

10. That would be difficult to do, since Penn Station is in NYC.

And you are sadly misinformed about our fair city.

[Demit]

13. Maybe HalfMan is a self-hating Philadelphian. Probably not tho, b/c

nobody who is from here refers to it as "Philly".

People knock us till they come live here. Then they rave about what's here. We are constantly being discovered.

[Phillycat]

15. Yes.

That's okay with me actually, I don't want too many people knowing about us. :)

[jdonaldball]

17. Indeed. Philadelphia is where American culture started.

New York is a parvenue. Until around the Civil War, America's arts and sciences were centered in Philadelphia. That's why Ben Franklin settled there instead of in New York. The main reason for this was the tolerant, liberal culture Penn and the Quakers established there. And for the same reason, for a long time, into the twentieth century, many of America's diplomats came from Philadelphia.
And if it's William Penn's birthday, all the better reason to visit Old Christ Church: William Penn's baptismal font from London is there.