Fairmount Park is the largest municipal park in

Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

and the historic name for a group of parks located throughout the city. Fairmount Park consists of two park sections named East Park and West Park, divided by the

Schuylkill River The Schuylkill River ( , ) is a river in eastern Pennsylvania. It flows for U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map(). accessed April 1, 2011. from Pottsville, Pennsylvania, Pottsville ...

, with the two sections together totalling . Management of Fairmount Park and the entire citywide park system is overseen by

Philadelphia Parks & Recreation Philadelphia Parks & Recreation (PPR) is the municipal department responsible for managing parks, recreation centers, playgrounds, trails, community gardens, and historic properties in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Its inventory includes more than ...

, a city department created in 2010 from the merger of the Fairmount Park Commission and the Department of Recreation. Many of the city's other parks had historically also been included in the Fairmount Park system prior to 2010, including

Wissahickon Valley Park Wissahickon Valley Park is a large urban park that is located in Northwest Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. It protects of woodland surrounding the Wissahickon Creek between the Montgomery County border and the Schuylkill River. For ...

Northwest Philadelphia Northwest Philadelphia is a section of the city of Philadelphia. The official boundary is Stenton Avenue to the north, the Schuylkill River to the southwest, Northwestern Avenue to the northwest, Roosevelt Boulevard to the south, and Wister Str ...

Pennypack Park Pennypack Park is a municipal park, part of the Philadelphia Parks & Recreation system located in Northeast Philadelphia in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. Established in 1905 by ordinance of the City of Philadelphia, it includes about of wood ...

Northeast Philadelphia Northeast Philadelphia, nicknamed Northeast Philly, the Great Northeast, and known colloquially as simply "the Northeast", is a section of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. According to the 2000 census, Northeast Philadelphia has a population of betw ...

, Cobbs Creek Park in

West Philadelphia West Philadelphia, nicknamed West Philly, is a section of the city of Philadelphia. Although there are no officially defined boundaries, it is generally considered to reach from the western shore of the Schuylkill River, to City Avenue to the n ...

Franklin Delano Roosevelt Park Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR) Park (originally named League Island Park) is a park located along the Delaware River in the southernmost point of South Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, comprising some , about of buildings, roadways, pathways for w ...

South Philadelphia South Philadelphia, nicknamed South Philly, is the section of Philadelphia bounded by South Street to the north, the Delaware River to the east and south, and the Schuylkill River to the west."." ''City of Philadelphia''. Retrieved November 8, ...

, and 58 additional parks, parkways, plazas, squares, and public golf courses spread throughout the city. Since the 2010 merger, however, the term "Fairmount Park system" is no longer used by the Parks & Recreation department, and the adjacent Wissahickon Valley Park and all other park areas are considered completely separate entities.

History

Fairmount Park,

's first park, occupies adjacent to the banks of the

. Since 2010,

divides the original park into East and West Fairmount parks. The original domain of Fairmount Park consisted of three areas: South Park or the South Garden immediately below the

Fairmount Water Works The Fairmount Water Works in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, was Philadelphia's second municipal waterworks. Designed in 1812 by Frederick Graff and originally finished in 1815, it operated until 1909, winning praise for its design and becoming a p ...

extending to the Callowhill Street Bridge; Old Park, which encompassed the former estates of Lemon Hill and

Sedgeley Sedgeley was a mansion, designed by the architect Benjamin Henry Latrobe, and built on the east banks of the Schuylkill River in Philadelphia, USA, in 1799–1802. Design and construction The land where the house was located was originally own ...

; and West Park, the area including the

Philadelphia Zoo The Philadelphia Zoo is a zoo located in the Centennial District of Philadelphia on the west bank of the Schuylkill River. It was the first true zoo in the United States; it was chartered by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania on March 21, 1859 ...

, and the

Centennial Exposition The Centennial International Exhibition, officially the International Exhibition of Arts, Manufactures, and Products of the Soil and Mine, was held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, from May 10 to November 10, 1876. It was the first official wo ...

grounds. The South Garden predated the establishment of the Park Commission in 1867, while Lemon Hill and Sedgeley were added in 1855–56. After the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...

, work progressed on acquiring and laying out West Park. In the 1870s, the Fairmount Park Commission expropriated properties along the

Wissahickon Creek Wissahickon Creek is a tributary of the Schuylkill River in Montgomery and Philadelphia Counties, Pennsylvania. Wissahickon Creek rises in Montgomery County, runs approximately passing through and dividing Northwest Philadelphia before emp ...

to extend Fairmount Park. The

Schuylkill River Trail The Schuylkill River Trail ( , ) is a multi-use trail along the banks of the Schuylkill River in southeastern Pennsylvania. Partially complete, the trail is ultimately planned to run about from the river's headwaters in Schuylkill County, Penns ...

is a modern paved multi-use trail by Kelly Drive in the East Park. The Belmont Plateau Cross Country Course is located in Fairmount Park. The 1923 and 1976

USA Cross Country Championships The USA Cross Country Championships is the annual national championships for cross country running in the United States. The championships is generally held in mid-February and it serves as a way of designating the country's national champion, as ...

were held in the park.

Growth

The park grew out of the Lemon Hill estate of Henry Pratt, whose land was originally owned by

Robert Morris Robert or Bob Morris may refer to: :''Ordered chronologically within each section.'' Politics and the law * Robert Hunter Morris (1700–1764), lieutenant governor of Colonial Pennsylvania * Robert Morris (financier) (1734–1806), one of the Foun ...

, signer of the

Declaration of Independence A declaration of independence is an assertion by a polity in a defined territory that it is independent and constitutes a state. Such places are usually declared from part or all of the territory of another state or failed state, or are breaka ...

. Purchased by the city in 1844, the estate was dedicated to the public by city council's ordinance on September 15, 1855. A series of state and local legislative acts over the next three years increased the holdings of the city. In 1858, the city held a design competition to re-landscape Lemon Hill and Sedgeley for public use as the best way to better protect the city's water supply.(Ironically the land the

mansion was built on had originally been owned by

although after his bankruptcy it had been sold to a different purchaser then Henry Pratt). The park was the site of the 1876

and the first zoo in the United States, the

, and was placed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

in 1972. Wissahickon Valley Park, located adjacent to the park's immediate northwest, was included in the Fairmount Park NRHP registration document.

In popular culture

The outdoor scenes of the 2000 period art-horror film ''

A Chronicle of Corpses ''A Chronicle of Corpses'' is a 2000 gothic art-house film directed by Andrew Repasky McElhinney. ''A Chronicle of Corpses'' was named one of the Top Ten Movies of the Year by ''The New York Times'' and its original camera negative is in the pe ...

'' were shot in Carpenter's Woods in the Wissahickon Valley Park part of Fairmount Park.

Properties

Park properties include the Centennial Arboretum, a Horticulture Center,

Memorial Hall A memorial hall is a hall built to commemorate an individual or group; most commonly those who have died in war. Most are intended for public use and are sometimes described as ''utilitarian memorials''. History of the Memorial Hall In the aft ...

(home of the

Please Touch Museum The Please Touch Museum is a children's museum located in the Centennial District, Philadelphia, Centennial District of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. The museum focuses on teaching children through interactive exhibits and special ...

Shofuso Japanese House and Garden Shofuso (Pine Breeze Villa), () also known as Japanese House and Garden, is a traditional 17th century-style Japanese house and garden located in Philadelphia's West Fairmount Park on the site of the Centennial Exposition of 1876. Shofuso is a ...

Boathouse Row Boathouse Row is a historic site which is located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on the east bank of the Schuylkill River just north of the Fairmount Water Works and the Philadelphia Museum of Art. It consists of a row of fifteen boathouses housi ...

, Smith Memorial Arch, Smith Memorial Playground and Playhouse, recreation centers, reservoirs, statues and other pieces of art.

Public art

Fairmount Park is home to a large collection of public art, largely attributable to efforts of the

Association for Public Art Established in 1872 in Philadelphia, the Association for Public Art (aPA), formerly Fairmount Park Art Association, is the first private, nonprofit public art organization dedicated to integrating public art and urban planning in the United Stat ...

, known previously as the Fairmount Park Art Association, a non-profit organization founded in 1872 to embellish Fairmount Park with outdoor sculpture, including the

Medici lions The Medici lions are a pair of marble sculptures of lions: one of which is Rome, Roman, dating to the 2nd century AD, and the other a 16th-century Pendant painting, pendant. By 1598 both were placed at the Villa Medici, Rome. Since 1789 they ...

known as the ''Florentine Lions'' installed in 1887. The Art Association continues to commission and care for a large number of sculptures, in coordination with the park and city. In 2007, the Art Association installed ''

Iroquois The Iroquois ( ), also known as the Five Nations, and later as the Six Nations from 1722 onwards; alternatively referred to by the Endonym and exonym, endonym Haudenosaunee ( ; ) are an Iroquoian languages, Iroquoian-speaking Confederation#Ind ...

'' by Mark di Suvero near the

Philadelphia Museum of Art The Philadelphia Museum of Art (PMA) is an List of art museums#North America, art museum originally chartered in 1876 for the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. The main museum building was completed in 1928 on Fairmount, a hill located at ...

on the

Benjamin Franklin Parkway Benjamin Franklin Parkway, commonly abbreviated to Ben Franklin Parkway and colloquially called the Parkway, is a boulevard that runs through the cultural heart of Philadelphia, the nation's sixth-largest city as of 2020. The parkway is named ...

Historic houses

Mount Pleasant, built in 1762–65 for a

Scottish Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...

ship captain named John Macpherson, is administered by the

. The Art Museum also administers

Cedar Grove Mansion Cedar Grove Mansion, located in west Fairmount Park, was the summer residence for five generations of Philadelphia families. The house was built as a rural retreat from city life, and was originally located within the present day Frankford nei ...

, a house built in 1748–50 in what later became the Frankford neighborhood of the city. Cedar Grove was relocated to the park in 1926–1928. Other historic houses in the park, listed by year of construction, include

Boelson Cottage Boelson Cottage is a Dutch and Swedish-style colonial era cottage located in Fairmount Park, Philadelphia.

(1678–84), The Lilacs (c. 1711),

Letitia Street House Letitia Street House is a modest eighteenth-century house in West Fairmount Park, Philadelphia. It was built along the Delaware riverfront about 1713, and relocated to its current site in 1883. The house was once celebrated as the city residence ...

(c. 1713), Ridgeland Mansion (1719), Belmont Mansion (1745),

The Cliffs The Cliffs is a historic country house located near 33rd and Oxford Streets in Fairmount Park, East Fairmount Park, Philadelphia. It is a List of Registered Historic Places in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Registered Historic Place. History T ...

(1753; ruins since a fire in 1986), Woodford Mansion (1756),

Hatfield House Hatfield House is a Grade I listed English country house, country house set in a large park, the Great Park, on the eastern side of Hatfield, Hertfordshire, Hatfield, Hertfordshire, England. The present Jacobean architecture, Jacobean hous ...

(1760), Randolph House (c. 1767; renamed ''Laurel Hill Mansion'' in 1976), Strawberry Mansion (c. 1783–89), The Solitude (1784–85; located within the zoo), Sweetbriar Mansion (1797), Ormiston Mansion (1798), Lemon Hill Mansion (1800), Chamounix Mansion (1802),

Rockland Mansion The Rockland Mansion is a -story, Federal-style mansion that is located in east Fairmount Park, Philadelphia, overlooking the Schuylkill River. History and architectural features The land was bought by a Philadelphia merchant named George Th ...

(c. 1810), and the Ohio House which was built for the

of 1876. Sedgeley Mansion was built in 1799 on Lemon Hill, then abandoned and later demolished after being acquired through eminent domain by the city in 1857. The Sedgeley property also included a servant's cottage constructed of stone which still exists. The cottage was designed by

Benjamin Henry Latrobe Benjamin Henry Boneval Latrobe (May 1, 1764 – September 3, 1820) was a British-American Neoclassical architecture, neoclassical architect who immigrated to the United States. He was one of the first formally trained, professional architects in ...

and is presently known as the Sedgeley Porter's House.

References

Bibliography

* * * *

External links

Parks and Recreation, City of PhiladelphiaFairmount Park ConservancyPhiladelphia ZooPlease Touch Museum in Memorial HallAssociation for Public Art in PhiladelphiaSculptures in Philadelphia parks
(

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American 501(c)(3) organization, non-profit organization founded in 1996 by Brewster Kahle that runs a digital library website, archive.org. It provides free access to collections of digitized media including web ...

)
Historic buildings in the Philadelphia park system
(Internet Archive) *

Historic American Buildings Survey The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , , "little star", is a Typography, typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a star (heraldry), heraldic star. Computer scientists and Mathematici ...

(HABS) documentation, filed under Philadelphia, Philadelphia County, PA: ** ** {{Authority control Benjamin Franklin Parkway Municipal parks in Philadelphia National Register of Historic Places in Philadelphia Georgian architecture in Pennsylvania Federal architecture in Pennsylvania Colonial Revival architecture in Pennsylvania 1812 establishments in Pennsylvania Cross country running courses in Pennsylvania Parks in Philadelphia Historic American Buildings Survey in Philadelphia Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Pennsylvania Works Progress Administration in Pennsylvania World's fair sites in Pennsylvania Centennial Exposition