Ardmore Catchup Plus (10/31/2020)

Saturday, October 31, 2020 (continued)

A couple more spots to see in Ardmore, PA:

St Paul's Evangelical Lutheran Church Cemetery
(1765) contains many graves of American
Revolutionary War veterans (as well as
veterans from later wars)

The cemetery also has a German schoolhouse (1789)

Interior of the schoolhouse; after 1834, the basement
was used to store bodies in the winter when the ground
was too frozen to dig graves

Fence around Suntop Homes (1939, by Frank Lloyd Wright),
a four-dwelling unit that was part of the "Ardmore Experiment"
to provide low-cost standardized housing

Suntop Homes featured wood, glass, and brick

Next: Upper Darby, PA:

Hoodland (1823) was the home of Abraham L Pennock, 
an abolitionist who founded an anti-slavery newspaper,
"The Non-Slaveholder," advising people not to buy slave-made
products lest they become "slave-owners" themselves

The home was part of the Underground Railroad, and is now part of the Upper Darby Sellers Memorial Free Library. Abraham Pennock was also an advocate of women's suffrage and the temperance movement.

Next: Drexel Hill, PA:

Lower Swedish Cabin  (c 1640-1650) may be one of the
oldest log cabins in the United States, part of the New Sweden
Colony (1638-1655) established during the Thirty Years' War

Final stop: Clifton Heights, PA;

A historical marker at the last site of James Industries,
maker of the Slinky toy that was invented in 1943 by mechanical
engineer Richard James when he was trying to develop a
spring to keep sensitive shipboard equipment from jostling
on the high seas - a reject fell and shimmied around the floor

The coil spring was named Slinky by James's wife, Betty, and soon became a popular toy. In 1960, Richard James announced that he was going to Bolivia to join the evangelical Wycliffe Bible Translators. Having left the company near bankruptcy due to donations to that religious group, it was up to Betty to carry on. She mortgaged her home to push the Slinky at the New York Toy Fair in 1963, and embraced national advertising with a catchy jingle, all resulting in a multimillion dollar enterprise with world-wide distribution. Today all Slinkys are made in Hollidaysburg, PA and it is the Pennsylvania State Toy.

Happy Hallowe'en!

Shofuso in Philadelphia, PA (10/31/2020)

Saturday, October 31, 2020

Shofuso Japanese House and Garden is located in West Fairmount Park in Philadelphia, PA.

This photo is from the Shofuso website, as we could
not get to the other side of the pond for the photo

The Japanese House (1953, by Junzo Yoshimura) was built using
traditional techniques and materials, and these were applied
to creating modernism furniture (various from 1936-1952, by
George Nakashima and Antonin & Noémi Pernessin Raymond );
at the back is a waterfall-inspired mural (2007, by Hiroshi Senju)

Shofuso (meaning ancestor) is actually a garden-viewing pavilion, built in Japan and shipped to New York for the Museum of Modern Art’s "The House in the Museum Garden" exhibition in 1954. It was transferred to West Fairmount Park in 1957.

A teahouse (left) is connected to a bathhouse (right)

A peek into the teahouse at some
tea ceremony implements

A peek into the bathhouse at the half-uncovered tub

A demonstration of water from a gutter
draining down a chain

Flower arrangements throughout the house are
created by the local chapter of Ikebana International

Japanese House kitchen (17C farmhouse style)

Traditional Japanese meal

This is supposed to show the hinoki cypress
bark used to cover the roof, which
is finer than the bark used in the fence

The bathhouse roof also has layers of bark for its roof (KSS)

The Japanese House is built on a raised platform
with a veranda around all sides (KSS)

Gnarly willow tree trunk with moss
growing on the south side (KSS)

Statue of Jizo, a Buddhist deity associated
with the protection of children, and travelers;
coins were spread at the base of the statue

Japanese lantern and koi pond in the garden
(1958, by Tansai Sano in the style of a
17C viewing garden to complement the house)

Bridge to the island in the pond (KSS)

The koi parade over to the occupied landing,
perhaps expecting to be fed

View from the bridge across to the tsukiyama/false-hill
that has a tiered waterfall, and another Japanese lantern

No information on the sculpture (KSS)

Tea Garden and stone bridge over the stream to the pond

View upstream (KSS)

Water basin, Japanese lantern,
and a weeping cherry tree

Smith Memorial Arch (1912, by James H Windrim),
at an entrance to West Fairmount Park, includes statues
of Pennsylvania Civil War military and naval heroes

Thornbury Township, PA II (10/27/2020)

Tuesday, October 27, 2020

We found a map of the trails in Bonner Park.

We returned to Bonner Park, but to a different trailhead to
follow the green trail, then turn right on the yellow trail

As the trees lose leaves, the forest opens up a bit

Voilà! The Taylor Frazer Ruins of the house (1739)

Colonel Persifor Frazer commanded a regiment of soldiers during the Battle of Brandywine that took place about five miles from here, and was taken prisoner. Meanwhile his wife, Mary Taylor Frazer faced off with British soldiers who plundered the farm. The house burned down in 1926. 

A photo of the house in 1893

We are facing the same wall of the house

The interior side of the chimney

Continuing the Thornbury Township tour:

60 Tanguy Road (c 1870, in Second Empire style)

Next stop: Cheyney University was established in 1837 as the African Institute, the first Historically Black College/University, and one of three HBCUs that began before the Civil War. Founded by the Quaker Richard Humphreys. It was relocated to George Cheyney's farm in 1902.

Fire pits and note the line of barbecue grills
or smokers along the fence 

It appears each Greek organization had its own cookout spot,
and this one has a lawn jockey... 

Legend has it that the statue represents an African-American boy, Jocko Graves, who was left behind to hold a lantern when George Washington crossed the Delaware River. It is also said that green or red ribbons on lawn jockeys alerted escaping slaves on the Underground Railroad as to safe houses or not.

Melrose (c 1785 center section, 1807 right section,
amd 1850 left section) served as the University
President's House from 1903-1968

Our way was blocked to see the historic
 Cheyney Log Tenant House and Farm

119 Station Road/Cheyney Station (1900), which
has always incorporated the Cheyney Post Office

703 Cheyney Road/Former Wayside Church
(1873 in Gothic Revival style)

646 Cheyney Road/Thornbury AME Church (1958)

Thornton Post Office in the Yellow House,
the post office was established in 1829;
thought to be the oldest United States
post office still in its original building

378 Glen Mills Road/Yellow House (c 1750 as
 an inn and tavern) has also served as a general store

The Stables of Yellow House is a restaurant (KSS)

4 Westtown Road/Bethlehem Methodist Church
(1891, with a Gothic influence)

Halloween-decorated house across from the cemetery

1525 Wilmington Pike/Thatcher Painter Farm may be
the last working farm in Thornbury Township