Independence Seaport Museum – USS Becuna (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA)

Posted on 27 June, 2017 by Benjie Layug — 2 Comments ↓

USS Becuna

After exploring the exhibits of the Independence Seaport Museum, Jandy and I went out to the waterfront and boarded the World War II/Cold War submarine USS Becuna, anchored next to Admiral George Dewey‘s flagship the USS Olympia, to check the innards of the submarine, a first for both of us, and get a glimpse of all aspects of a submariner’s life.

Check out “Independence Seaport Museum – USS Olympia“

National Historic Landmark Plaque

Jandy at the conning tower

Both boats are very good static displays and kept in pretty good condition. The USS Becuna (SS/AGSS-319), a Balao-class diesel-electric submarine of the United States Navy nicknamed “Becky,” was named for the becuna, a pike-like fish of Europe.

Forward Engine Room

Forward Torpedo Room

The author at the crew’s berthing area

Exploring the full length of the sub, from stem to stern, requires going into tight spaces (the small hatches, requiring a degree of flexibility, could be tough to maneuver through) and using ladders and steps, so it not a good attraction for those needing accessibility as well as those who are extremely claustrophobic.

After Engine Room

Control Room

Maneuvering Room

You can rush through the tour in only a few minutes but, if you take the time, you can spend the time looking at all of the pipes wires and valves and really feel what it was like to live and work in the extremely tight quarters on this sub.

Captain’s Stateroom

Chief Petty Officer’s Stateroom

The Captain’s stateroom was tiny. We weren’t able to see the conning tower and periscopes as it’s only included in the highly recommended “Behind the Scenes” tour which we were too late for.

Junior Officer’s Stateroom

Senior Officers Quarters

Officers’ Wardroom

Here’s the timeline of the submarine’s operational history:

On April 10, 1942, the order to build submarine Becuna was issued.
On April 29, 1942, the keel of submarine is laid down
On January 30, 1944, she was launched by Electric Boat Company (Groton, Connecticut) and sponsored by Mrs. George C. Crawford, wife of Cmdr. George C. Crawford.
On May 27, 1944, The USS Becuna (SS-319) was commissioned with Lt.-Cmdr. H. D. Sturr in command.
On July 1, 1944, she departs New London, Connecticut
On July 7, 1944, the USS Becuna detects a hostile submarine in the Atlantic Ocean and fires four torpedoes at the target; all torpedoes missed and contact with the enemy submarine was lost.
On July 27, 1944, she arrives at Pearl Harbor, US Territory of Hawaii
On August 23, 1944, the USS Becuna departs Pearl Harbor for her first war patrol
On September 1, 1944, she comes across a Japanese soldier in a small boat. After taking the soldier prisoner, she sinks the boat with machine gun fire.
On September 24, 1944, she fires three torpedoes at a Japanese transport in the Luzon Strait south of Taiwan but all torpedoes miss.
On September 25, 1944, the USS Becuna fires three torpedoes at a Japanese destroyer in the Luzon Strait south of Taiwan but all torpedoes miss.
On October 8, 1944, she damages the Japanese tanker Kimikawa Maru in the South China Sea with two of four torpedoes fired.
On October 9, 1944, the USS Becuna attacks a Japanese convoy in the South China Sea, claiming two sunk and two damaged; ten torpedoes were expended, seven of them made contact.
On November 16, 1944, she departs Fremantle, Australia for her second war patrol.
On November 17, 1944, the USS Becuna damages four Japanese ships – the tanker San Luis Maru, tanker Tokuwa Maru, a transport and cargo ship.
On January 2, 1945, she sinks two small vessels between Malaya and Borneo in two separate engagements with her deck gun.
On February 22, 1945, the USS Becuna fires ten torpedoes at a Japanese convoy in the South China Sea, with one torpedo making contact and sinking the Japanese tanker Nichiyoko Maru.
On May 22, 1945, she departs for her fourth war patrol, on lifeguard station for carrier air crews.
On June 21, 1945, USS Becuna departs for her fifth war patrol.
On July 15, 1945, she attacks a Japanese Otori-class torpedo boat without effect.
On July 27, 1945, the submarine arrives at Subic Bay, Luzon
On September 22, 1945, she arrives at San Diego, California and is assigned to the Submarine Force of the US Navy Pacific Fleet.
On May 6, 1947, the USS Becuna enters Mare Island Naval Shipyard, California, United States, for a scheduled overhaul.
On September 22, 1947, she completes her scheduled overhaul.
On April 1949, she is ordered to Submarine Force, Atlantic Fleet, as a unit of Submarine Squadron 8.
Between May 1949 and May 1950, she conducts refresher training exercises and also assisted in training of student officers and men at New London, Connecticut.
In November 1950, she returned to Electric Boat Co. for a complete modernization overhaul, being refitted as a GUPPY-type submarine, with sophisticated radar and torpedo equipment including nuclear warheads.
On August 1951, the submarine’s overhaul is completed and the Becuna sails to the Caribbean for post-modernization shakedown.
On September 1951, she returns to New London. Becunaoperates with the Atlantic Fleet trailing Soviet submarines with eavesdropping equipment aboard, making two cruises with the 6th Fleet in the Mediterranean and one to Scotland. Other than these extended cruises, the majority of Becuna‘s service was at New London as a training submarine.
In 1969, she is reclassified as an Auxiliary Submarine, AGSS-319.
On November 7, 1969, the Becunais decommissioned and laid up in the Atlantic Reserve Fleet.
In 1971, she reverts to SS-319
On August 15, 1973, she was struck from the Naval Register
On June 21, 1976, the Becuna was placed on permanent display adjacent to the cruiser USS Olympia (C-6) at Penn’s Landing in Philadelphia.
On August 29, 1986, she was designated a National Historic Landmark for her service in World War II for which she received four battle stars.
On January 1, 1996, she becomes a museum ship at the Historic Ship Zone of the Independence Seaport Museum.
In 2001, Becuna receives the Historical Welded Structure Award of the American Welding Society.

Crew’s Mess

Crew’s Washroom

Main Galley

Here are some specifications of this ship:

Displacement: 1,500 long tons (1,500 t) surfaced, 2,080 long tons (2,110 t) submerged
Length: 95.02 m. (311 t., 9 in.)
Beam: 8.31 m. (27 ft., 3 in.)
Draft: 5.13 m. (16 ft., 10 in.) maximum
Propulsion: 4 × General MotorsModel 16-278A V16 diesel engines driving electrical generators, 2 × 126-cell Sargo batteries, 4 × high-speed General Electric electric motors with reduction gears, two propellers, 5,400 shp (4.0 MW) surfaced, 2,740 shp (2.0 MW) submerged.
Speed: 38 kms./hour (20.25 knots) surfaced, 16 kms./hour (8.75 knots) submerged
Range: 20,000 kms. (11,000 nautical miles) surfaced at 19 kms./hour (10 knots)
Endurance: 48 hours at 3.7 kms./hour (2 knots) submerged, 75 days on patrol
Test depth: 120 m. (400 ft.)
Complement: 8 commissioned officers, 5 chief petty officers, 67 enlisted men
Armament: 24 torpedoes, 10 × 533 mm. (21 in.) torpedo tubes (6 forward, 4 aft), 1 × 127 mm. (5 in.)/ 25 caliber deck gun, Bofors 40 mm. and Oerlikon 20 mm. cannon.

Yeoman’s Shack

Pump Room

Radio Room

Independence Seaport Museum: 211 S. Columbus Blvd., Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19106, U.S.A. Tel: +1 215-413-8655. Website: www.phillyseaport.org. Open daily, 10 AM – 5 PM. Closed on Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Day but open on New Year’s Day, Martin Luther King Day (January 15) and President’s Day (February 19). Admission: US$16 (adults), US$12 (seniors, 65 & over), US$12 (children, 3–12 years old), free for college students, military (active & retired) and children 2 years old & under. Seafarin’ Saturday and Citizen Science Lab programming are included with regular admission. Group visits are available at reduced rates for a minimum of ten people. Reservations must be made in advance.

Independence Seaport Museum – USS Olympia (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA)

Posted on 27 June, 2017 by Benjie Layug — 3 Comments ↓

USS Olympia

After exploring the USS Becuna, Jandy and I now went out and boarded the USS Olympia (C-6/CA-15/CL-15/IX-40), a protected cruiser famous, during the Spanish–American War, as the flagship of Commodore George Dewey at the May 1, 1898 Battle of Manila Bay. There was a semi-permanent exhibit opened last June 16, 2017, featuring the Olympia, entitled “World War I USS Olympia.” to commemorate the World War I centennial. The World War I USS Olympia exhibit highlights the Ship’s humanitarian and peace-keeping role in World War I Europe. The exhibit also explores the everyday life of sailors aboard the ship, as well as, the Olympia’s final mission of transporting the remains of the Unknown Soldier from France to Arlington National Cemetery in Washington, DC.

The author at the upper deck

Turret of two 8 in. (203 mm.) 35 cal. Mark 4 guns

The design of the interior of the USS Olympia was not that far off from the old sailing ships of the line, with an enormous amount of deeply polished wood at the sumptuous officer’s quarters (called the “Officers’ Country). The beautifully paneled staterooms of the officers contrasts with the tiny hammocks of the enlisted men.

Beautifully paneled Officers Berth Deck (Officer’s Country)

Hammocks of the enlisted men

Before the USS Olympia retired in 1922, most of its original guns were removed in refits but, amazingly, one of the original guns survives today, a 6-pounder forward on the port side.The captain’s cabin also mounted a gun.

Stateroom and cabin of Commodore George Dewey. At left can be seen the muzzle of a 5-inch gun

The Commodore’s bathroom

Voice pipes lead from the bridge to various stations, including the emergency steering – a triple-wheel made of wood, out on deck towards the stern.

Jandy manning the ship’s emergency steering

Ammunition hoists, sitting close by coal chutes and ash hoists, look like china cabinets. It’s an amazing step back into history. All throughout, great signs describe life on the ship and its history. We weren’t able to see the engine room (to see the big old steam engines, the giant crankshaft and connecting rods and the cramped boiler room) as it’s only included in the highly recommended “Behind the Scenes” tour which the we were too late for.

Officer’s Quarters

Junior Officers’ Mess

Here are some interesting trivia regarding this ship:

She saw service in the United States Navy from her commissioning in 1895 until 1922.
She was twice decommissioned and recommissioned.
For several months after her commissioning, she was the largest ship ever built on the western coast of the US, until surpassed by the battleship Oregon.
Admiral George Dewey and Olympia became famous as the first victors of the Spanish-American War.
She is the sole floating survivor of the US Navy’s Spanish–American War fleet.
Olympiais the oldest steel US warship still afloat in the world.
She is the sole survivor of the U.S naval shipbuilding program from the 1880s and 1890s and the only surviving pre-dreadnaught protected cruiser in the world.
It is one of only four warships representative of the time period that exist worldwide.

Officers Dining Room

Here is the timeline of the ship’s history:

In 1889, the newly formed Board on the Design of Ships began the design process for Cruiser Number 6
On April 8, 1890, the navy solicited bids but found only one bidder, the Union Iron Worksin San Francisco, California.
On July 10, 1890, the contract was signed
On June 17, 1891, the ship’s keel was laid
On November 5, 1892, the ship was launched.
On November 3, 1893, Union Iron Works conducted the first round of trials.
On December 1893, she was dispatched from San Francisco to Santa Barbara
On December 15, 1893, Olympia sailed into the Santa Barbara Channel and began an official four-hour speed trial time.
On February 5, 1895, the new cruiser was ultimately commissioned.
Upon commissioning, Olympia departed the Union Iron Works yard in San Francisco and steamed inland to the U.S. Navy’s Mare Island Naval Shipyard at Vallejo, where outfitting was completed and Captain John J. Read was placed in command.
In April 1895, the ship steamed south, to Santa Barbara, to participate in a festival. That same month, the ship’s crew also conducted landing drills in Sausalito and Santa Cruz.
On April 20, 1895, the ship conducted its first gunnery practice, during which one of the ship’s gunners, Coxswain John Johnson, was killed in an accident with one of the 5-inch guns
On July 27, 1895, the ship starts its last shakedown cruise
On August 25, 1895, the ship departed the United States for Chinese waters.
A week later, the ship arrived in Hawaii, where she remained until October 23 due to an outbreak of cholera. The ship then sailed for Yokohama, Japan
On November 9, 1895, the ship arrives in Yokohama.
On November 15, 1895, the Baltimore arrives in Yokohama, from Shanghai, China, to transfer command of the Asiatic Squadron to Olympia. She was designated as the flagship.
On December 18, 1895, Rear Admiral F.V. McNair arrives to take command of the squadron.
The following two years, the ship joined training exercises with the other members of the Asiatic Squadron as well as goodwill visits to various ports in Asia, notably Hongkong and Kobe and Nagasaki in Japan.
On January 3, 1898, Commodore George Dewey raised his flag on Olympia and assumed command of the squadron.
On April 25, 1898, the Spanish-American War began and Dewey moved his ships to Mirs Bay, China.
On April 27, 1898, the Navy Department ordered the Squadron to Manila in the Philippines, where a significant Spanish naval force protected the harbor. Dewey was ordered to sink or capture the Spanish warships, opening the way for a subsequent conquest by US forces.
On the morning of May 1, 1898, Commodore Dewey, with his flag aboard Olympia, steamed his ships into Manila Bay to confront the Spanish flotilla commanded by Rear Admiral Patricio Montojo y Pasarón. At approximately 05:40, Dewey instructed Olympia‘s captain, “You may fire when you are ready, Gridley.” Newly assigned Capt. Charles Vernon Gridley ordered the forward 8-inch gun turret, commanded by Gunners Mate Adolph Nilsson, to open fire, which opened the battle and prompted the other American warships to begin firing. By early afternoon, Dewey had completed the destruction of Montojo’s squadron and the shore batteries, while his own ships were largely undamaged. Dewey anchored his ships off Manila and accepted the surrender of the city. Olympia remained in the area and supported the American expeditionary force by shelling Spanish forces on land.
On May 20, 1898, the ship returned to the Chinese coast, remaining there until the following month, when she departed for the US, via the Suez Canal and the Mediterranean Sea.
On October 10, 1898, the ship arrived in Boston. Following Olympia‘s return to the US, her officers and crew were feted and she was herself repainted and adorned with a gilded bow ornament.
On November 9, 1898, Olympia was decommissioned and placed in reserve.
On January 2, 1902, the Olympia was recommissioned into the fleet and assigned to the North Atlantic Squadron. Her first duty was to serve as the flagship of the Caribbean Division.
Over the following four years, the ship patrolled the Atlantic and Mediterranean, her voyages including a visit to Turkey.
In March through April 1903, she and four other U.S. Navy warships were involved in an intervention in Honduras.
Starting on April 2, 1906, she became a training ship for midshipmen from the United States Naval Academy. In this role, she conducted three summer training cruises – May 15 – August 26, 1907, June 1 – September 1, 1908 and May 14 – August 28, 1909. Between the cruises, the ship was placed in reserve, first in Norfolk, Virginia and later at Annapolis, Maryland.
On March 6, 1912, Olympia arrived in Charleston, South Carolina, serving as a barracks ship until 1916.
In late 1916, when it became increasingly clear that the US would eventually enter World War I, the ship was recommissioned into the fleet.
After the U.S. entered the First World War by declaring war on Germany in April 1917, Olympia was mobilized as the flagship of the U.S. Patrol Force. She was tasked with patrolling the eastern seaboard of the US for German warships. She also escorted transport ships in the North Atlantic.
On June 15, 1917, she ran aground in Long Island Sound, and put in for repairs at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, which, along with the replacement of her 8-inch and 5″/40-caliber guns with 5″/51-caliber guns, took eight months.
On April 28, 1918, Olympiadeparted Charleston, carrying an expeditionary force bound for Russia which had previously been a member of the Allied Powers but was in the midst of civil war and had signed a separate peace with Germany.
On June 9, 1918, Olympia arrived in Murmansk, Russia, and deployed the peace-keeping force. She subsequently assisted in the occupation of Archangel.
After World War I, participated in the 1919 Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War and conducted cruises in the Mediterranean and Adriatic Seas to promote peace in the unstable Balkan countries.
After the end of the war, Olympia sailed to the Mediterranean via Portsmouth, England.
On December 1918, the ship became the flagship for American naval forces stationed in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. While on this assignment, she continued in her old role of showing the flag and conducting goodwill visits in various Mediterranean ports. This included a period of policing duty in the Adriatic Sea from January 21 to October 25, 1919 (the Dalmatian coast was in a state of turmoil following the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire at the end of the war).
On August 18, 1918, she steamed to the Black Sea to aid the return of refugees from the Balkans who had fled during the war.
By September 19, 1918, she was back in the Adriatic and four days later had to deploy a landing party to prevent an incident between Italian and Yugoslav forces.
On November 24, 1919, Olympia briefly returned to Charleston.
In 1920, she was reclassified as CA-15.
On February 14, 1920, she departed New York for another tour of duty in the Adriatic,
On May 25, 1921, the ship returned to Charleston.
On June 1921, she was made the flagship of the Atlantic Fleet’s training unit.
In July, 1921, she then participated in joint Army-Navy experiments, during which the ex-German warships Ostfriesland and Frankfurt were sunk off the Virginia Capes. She was again reclassified as CL-15 that year.
On October 3, 1921, Olympia departed Philadelphia for Le Havre, France, to bring the remains of the Unknown Soldier home for interment in Arlington National Cemetery in Washington, D.C..
On October 25, 1921, the cruiser departed France, escorted by a group of French destroyers for part of the voyage.
On November 9, 1921, at the mouth of the Potomac River, the battleship North Dakotaand the destroyer Bernadou joined Olympia as she sailed to the Washington Navy Yard. After transferring the remains ashore, the cruiser fired her guns in salute.
In the summer of 1922, she conducted a last training cruise for midshipmen.
On December 9, 1922, she was decommissioned for the last time in Philadelphia and placed in reserve.
On June 30, 1931, the ship was reclassified IX-40 to be preserved as a relic.
On September 11, 1957, she was released to the Cruiser Olympia Association, restored to her 1898 configuration and became a museum ship under their auspices. The main 8-inch guns and turrets, scrapped before World War I, were replaced with sheet metal fabrications.
In 1966, Olympia was designated a National Historic Landmark.
In January 1996, when faced with mounting debt and tremendous deferred maintenance, the Cruiser Olympia Society merged with the Independence Seaport Museum in Philadelphia.

Battle Memorial

Today, Olympia is a museum ship at the Independence Seaport Museum in Penn’s Landing in Philadelphia. Naval Reserve Officer Training Corps Midshipmen from Villanova University and the University of Pennsylvania regularly work on Olympia, functioning as maintenance crew. Olympia’s stern plate and bow ornaments are on display at Dahlgren Hall at the United States Naval Academy.

National Historic Mechanical Engineering Landmark plaque

National Historic Maritime Landmark plaque

Here are some specifications of this ship:

Overall length: 104.88 m. (344 ft. 1 in.)
Beam: 16 m. (53 ft.)
Draft: 6.55 m. (21 ft. 6 in.)
Design displacement: 5,865 long tons (5,959 t)
Full combat load: 6,558 long tons (6,663 t)
Propulsion: 2 x vertical triple expansion engines, 6 × boilers (4 × double-ended, 2 × single-ended), 2 × screws. Her engines were rated at 13,500 ihp (10,100 kW)
Armament (as built): 4 × 8 in (203 mm)/35 cal Mark 4 guns (2×2), 10 × 5 in (127 mm)/40 cal Mark 2 guns (10×1), 14 × 6-pounder 57 mm (2.24 in) Driggs-Schroeder RF guns, 6 × 1-pounder 37 mm (1.46 in) guns, 4 × Gatling guns, 6 × 17.7 in (450 mm) above-surface torpedo tubes, firing Whitehead Mark 1 torpedoes.
Armament (1917): 10 × 5 in (127 mm)/51 cal Mark 8 guns (10×1)
Deck Armor: 12.1 cm. (4.75 in.) on slopes, 5.1 cm. (2 in.) flat, 7.6 cm. (3 in.) ends.
Barbettes Armor: 11 cm. (4.5 in.)
Turrets Armor: 8.9 cm. (3.5 in.); 10 cm. (4 in.) (shields to 5-inch guns).
Speed: 21.7 knots (40.2 km/h; 25.0 mph)
Range: 6,000 nmi (11,000 km; 6,900 mi) at 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph)
Capacity: 1,169 short tons (1,060 t) coal (maximum)
Complement: 33 officers and 395 enlisted
Coal bunker capacity: 1,085.6 tons
Normal coal supply: 400 tons
Endurance at 10 knots: 6,105 nautical miles
Cost: US$1,796,000

5 inch gun

Driggs-Schroeder 6-pounder gun

Independence Seaport Museum (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA)

Posted on 27 June, 2017 by Benjie Layug — 1 Comment ↓

Independence Seaport Museum

The Independence Seaport Museum, formerly the Philadelphia Maritime Museum, is located in the Penn’s Landing complex along the Delaware River. Founded in 1961 by maritime collector J. Welles Henderson, the collections at the Independence Seaport Museum document maritime history and culture along the Delaware River. Along the waterfront of the museum are two National Historic Landmark ships – the cruiser USS Olympia (C-6), a Spanish-American warship that played a vital role in the Battle of Manila Bay, and the World War II and Cold War era submarine USS Becuna.

Check out “Independence Seaport Museum – USS Olympia” and “Independence Seaport Museum – USS Becuna“

Cruiser USS Olympia and submarine USS Becuna

The J. Welles Henderson Archives and Library, at the second floor of the museum, has a collection that focuses on maritime history and culture along the Delaware River and in the Port of Philadelphia, from early America to the present. The Archive includes personal and business records, rare books, reference materials, mechanical drawings, ship models, maps, art, architectural drawings, charts, recordings, photographs, cultural artifacts, and ephemera.

Petroleum Barge

Notable items in the collection include the John Barry-Hayes collection, Reed & Ford business papers, Captain John Greene Collection, the Philadelphia Maritime Exchange records, and the collection of 16th–18th century geographical maps and charts. The Archive also maintains the cruiser Olympia and submarine Becuna collections. In August 2016 the Archive launched its first online catalog, which lists inventories of its archival collections.

Workshop on the Water

The museum’s current exhibits are:

The unique Patriots & Pirates, a exhibition developed by Chief Curator Craig Bruns and opened in April 2016, focuses on Philadelphia and the founding of the United States Navy. The permanent exhibition, highlighting the little-told story of America’s conflict with pirates features curated objects never, or rarely, seen by the public. It features a full-size, a stationary 102-ft. waterline model of the schooner Diligence of 1797 at the center. A vessel with masts soaring above a 62-ft. deck, it was constructed by staff and volunteers from Workshop on the Water, a traditional boat shop located inside the museum. Some notable artifacts in the exhibit include a rare letter written by American citizens held hostage in Algiers to the American Congress requesting for their return home (December 29, 1793), tools from the excavation of I-95 at Old City (Philadelphia) in 1974, Captain John Barry‘s octant, a painting of Philadelphia merchant ship Pigou being pursued by the French privateer L’Adventure and a model of the Federal St. Navy Yard, recreating Joshua Humphreys‘ shipyard in the 1790s where he built the frigate United States.

Schooner Diligence

Tides of Freedom: African Presence on the Delaware River, an exhibit curated by Tukufu Zuberi, (University of Pennsylvania professor of Sociology and Africana Studies) and opened in May 2013, explores African-American history along the Delaware River and focuses on the slave trade, emancipation and the abolitionist movement in Philadelphia, and Philadelphia’s connection to the underground railroad. The exhibit continues into the modern era, focusing on Jim Crow and Civil Rights in Philadelphia. On display at the exhibit are recently uncovered artifacts from the museum’s collection – slave shackles and an 18th-century account book that documents the sale of slaves in Philadelphia. Gripping first-person accounts and interactive elements provide visitors with opportunities for discovery and communication. Using four key moments in Philadelphia’s history, representing the themes of Enslavement, Emancipation, Jim Crow, and Civil Rights, urges visitors both to bear witness to a story central to Philadelphia and American history, and to think about the meaning of “freedom” both historically and in today’s world.

Tides of Freedom

Rescues on the River tells the story of maritime disasters along the Delaware River, exploring how tragedy shaped modern maritime safety regulations and led to the formation of the Coast Guard. The exhibit begins with a late 18th-century Revolutionary War-era explosion of a British ship and ends with the 1975 oil tanker collision and resulting fire. Explore the disasters that unfolded as the Delaware developed into a watery highway for trade and commerce while experiencing the misfortunes, the miracles and the lessons learned. It will also introduce historical prints and newspaper headlines that were used to broadcast and memorize these terrible marine catastrophes. Visitors to the exhibition can also take home a free 20-page tabloid keepsake, produced in partnership with the Philadelphia Weekly, which includes illustrations and more details about some of the events featured in the exhibition.

The Guppy, a two-person submersible

Bound for Philadelphia, signaled by boat horns and whistles, makes visitors chart a course for Penn’s Landing. Learn the hazards of navigation as you travel beneath a three-story replica of the Ben Franklin Bridge and make your way along a carpeted Delaware River. View the charts and navigational instruments that helped guide early Delaware River travelers.
The Navigation Exhibit, spotlighting navigation science, documents the critical role of navigation technology to maritime history. On display are collection of navigational tools from the early American colonial period to the present – sextants, compasses, maps, etc.. See how these objects made it easier to traverse the often difficult Delaware River.

Joshua Humphreys’ 18th century shipyard

Other past exhibits include:

Titanic Philadelphiansopened in 2012, commemorated the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the RMS Titanic. The exhibit focused on the approximately 40 Philadelphian passengers of the Titanic, their first-hand accounts, and how their lives were forever altered by the tragedy. On display is a rare first class passenger list which was salvaged by Marian Longstreth Thayer who unknowingly had the list in her pocket as she boarded a lifeboat and whose husband died in the disaster.
Coming to America spotlighted the experiences of immigrants who left their homeland for the United States and passed through Philadelphia’s Washington Avenue Immigration Station. On display are artifacts and oral histories of both wealthy first-class passengers and economically disadvantaged passengers traveling in steerage.
Philadelphia and the China Trade chronicles the history of trade between the two nations (in the 18th century Philadelphia became one of the first American cities to begin trading with China) and explores the lasting impact it had on Philadelphia’s culture and economy.

The bark James A. Wright

Philadelphia Museum of Art (Pennsylvania, USA)

Posted on 27 June, 2017 by Benjie Layug — 1 Comment ↓

Philadelphia Museum of Art

This art museum, originally chartered in 1876 for the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia, has impressive collections containing over 240,000 objects in over 200 galleries spanning 2,000 years. It includes major holdings of European, American and Asian origin, showing the creative achievements of the Western world since the first century BC and those of Asia since the third millennium AD.

The various classes of artwork include sculpture; paintings; prints; drawings; photographs;, arms and armor; and decorative arts.

The author

Standouts include a great Rogier van der Weyden altarpiece, the large The Bathers by Paul Cezanne, a room devoted to Philadelphia’s own realist painter Thomas Eakins, and the notorious mixed-media Bride Stripped Bare by her Bachelors (most often called The Large Glass), exactly as the Dada master Marcel Duchamp installed it.

Prometheus Strangling the Vulture (Bronze, Jacques Lipchitz, cast 1952-53)

Upstairs are over 80 period rooms, from a Medieval cloister to an Indian temple. In recent years, the museum has helped to organize shows, from Paul Cezanne and Edgar Degas to Constantin Brancusi and Barnett Newman.

Jandy in front of a choir screen from the chapel of the chateau of Pagny

The main museum building, on Fairmount, a rocky hill topped by the city’s main reservoir located at the northwest end of the Benjamin Franklin Parkway (formerly Fairmount Parkway) at Eakins Oval, was completed in 1928.

Entrance Lobby

The museum administers several annexes including the Rodin Museum, also located on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, and the Ruth and Raymond G. Perelman Building (opened in 2007), which is located across the street just north of the main building.

Check out “Rodin Museum” and “Ruth and Raymond G. Perelman Building“

Botanist Take a Core Sample of a 350 year old Redwood Tree, Redwood National Park, California (2008)

Bright Angel Point, Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona (2008)

The main museum building and its annexes, owned by the City of Philadelphia, are administered by a registered nonprofit corporation.

Allegory of the Schuykill River – Water Nymph and Bittern (William Rush)

La Premiere Pose (Howard Roberts)

The Philadelphia Museum of Art also administers the historic colonial-era houses of Mount Pleasant and Cedar Grove, both located in Fairmount Park.

Dying Centaur (Bronze, William Rimmer, 1967)

Mother and Child II (Bronze, Jacques Lipchitz, 1941)

Every year, several special exhibitions are held in the museum including touring exhibitions arranged with other museums in the United States and abroad.

The Birth of Venus (Nicolas Poussin)

Head of a Woman and Flowers (Oil on canvas, Gustave Courbet, 1871)

The final design of the main building, in the form of three linked Greek temples, is mostly credited to two architects in the architectural firms of Horace Trumbauer and Zantzinger, Borie and Medary – Howell Lewis Shay for the building’s plan and massing, and chief designer Julian Abele for the detail work and perspective drawings.

Virgin and Child in a Landscape (Oil on panel, 1500)

Still Life with a Tortoise (Oil on canvas, possibly by Thomas Black, 1743)

Abele, the first African-American student to graduate (in 1902) from the University of Pennsylvania‘s Department of Architecture (now known as Penn’s School of Design) adapted Classical Greek temple columns for the design of the museum entrances, and was responsible for the colors of both the building stone and the figures added to one of the pediments.

Western Civilization (1933, Paul Jennewein, colored by Leon V. Solon)

In 1919, construction of the main building began when Mayor Thomas B. Smith laid the cornerstone in a Masonic ceremony. The building was constructed with dolomite quarried in Minnesota. Because of shortages caused by World War I and other delays, the new building was not completed until 1928.

Interior. At the top of the stairs is a statue of Diana (Gilded copper sheets, Augustus Saint Gaudens, 1892-93)

To help assure the continued funding for the completion of the design, the wings were intentionally built first and, once the building’s exterior was completed, 20 second-floor galleries containing English and American art opened to the public on March 26, 1928, though a large amount of interior work was incomplete. The building is also adorned by a collection of bronze griffins, which were adopted as the symbol of the museum in the 1970s.

Apollo (Terra cotta model cast in bronze after 1715, Francois Girardon)

Statue of Summer as Ceres (Jacques-Augustin Pajou)

Here are some interesting trivia regarding this museum:

In 2016, 775,043 people visited the museum, ranking it among the top one hundred most-visited art museums in the world.
Based on gallery space, the museum is also one of the largest art museums in the world.
It is the third-largest art museum in the country.
The building’s eight pediments were intended to be adorned with sculpture groups but one, “Western Civilization” (1933) by Paul Jennewein, and colored by Leon V. Solon, has been completed. This sculpture group, awarded the Medal of Honor of the Architectural League of New York, features polychrome sculptures of painted terra-cotta figures, depicting Greek deities and mythological figures.
Due to a partnership, enacted early in the museum’s history, between the museum and the University of Pennsylvania, the museum does not have any galleries devoted to Egyptian, Roman, or Pre-Columbian art. The university loaned the museum its collection of Chinese porcelain, and the museum loaned a majority of its Roman, Pre-Columbian, and Egyptian pieces to the university. However, the museum still retains a few important pieces for special exhibitions.
In recent decades, the Philadelphia Museum of Art has become known due to the role it played in the Rocky films—Rocky (1976) and five of its six sequels, II, III, V, Rocky Balboa and Creed. Rocky Balboa‘s (portrayed by Sylvester Stallone) famous run up the 72 steps of the east entrance stairs (informally nicknamed the Rocky Steps) is often mimicked by visitors to the museum. The museum’s stairs has been named by Screen Junkies as the second most famous movie location behind only Grand Central Station in New York.
For the filming of Rocky III, a 2.6 m. (8.5 ft.) tall bronze statue of the Rocky Balboa character, created in 1980, was placed at the top of the museum’s front stairs in 1982 (and again for the film Rocky V). After filming was complete, Stallone donated the statue to the city of Philadelphia. In 2006, the statue was relocated, from the now-defunct Spectrum sports arena, to a new display area on the north side of the base of the stairs.

Jandy and the author in front of the bronze statue of the Rock Balboa character

Here’s a historical timeline of the museum’s collections:

Its permanent collection began with objects from the 1876 Centennial Exposition (America’s first World’s Fair) and gifts from the public impressed with the exhibition’s ideals of good design and craftsmanship.
After the Pennsylvania Museum and School of Industrial Art was opened on May 10, 1877, European and Japanese fine and decorative art objects and books for the museum’s library were among the first donations.
Starting in 1882, Clara Jessup Moore donated a remarkable collection of antique furniture, enamels, carved ivory, jewelry, metalwork, glass, ceramics, books, textiles and paintings.
In 1893 Anna H. Wilstach bequeathed a large painting collection, including many American paintings, and an endowment of US$500 million for additional purchases.
Within a few years, works by James Abbott McNeill Whistler and George Inness were purchased
In 1894, the Countess de Brazza’s lace collection was acquired, forming the nucleus of the lace collection.
In 1899,Henry Ossawa Tanner‘s The Annunciation was bought.
In 1942, E. Gallatin accepted an offer from the Philadelphia Museum of Art to provide a home for his collection. Within a few months 175 works from his collection were moved to Philadelphia.
In 1945, the estate of George Grey Barnard sold his second collection to the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
On December 27, 1950, after protracted discussions and many visits from Director Fiske Kimball and his wife Marie, Louise and Walter Arensberg presented their collection of over 1000 objects to the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
Shortly after her 1956 wedding to Prince Rainier of Monaco, Philadelphian Grace Kelly donated her wedding dress to the museum.
Extensive renovation of the building lasted from the 1960s through 1976. Major acquisitions included the Carroll S. Tyson, Jr. and Samuel S. White III and Vera White collections, 71 objects from designer Elsa Schiaparelli, and Marcel Duchamp‘s Étant donnés.
In 1980, the museum acquired After the Bath by Edgar Degas.
In 1986, the art collection of John D. McIlhenny was bequeathed to museum. It includes masterpieces such as Ingres’s ”Comtesse de Tournon,” Delacroix’s 1844 version of ”The Death of Sardanapalus,” Degas’s ”Interior” of 1888-89,” Mary Cassatt at the Louvre” and ”Woman Drying Herself,” Cezanne’s portrait of his wife, van Gogh’s ”Rain,” Seurat’s ”Trombone Player: Study for ‘La Parade,” Toulouse-Lautrec’s ”At the Moulin Rouge” and Matisse’s ”Still Life on Table – The Pineapple” (1925)
In 1989, the museum acquired Fifty Days at Iliam by Cy Twombly.

Death of Sardanapalus (Oil on canvas, Eugene Delacroix, 1844)

Making a Train (Oil on canvas, Seymour Joseph Guy, 1867)

The Asian collection is highlighted by paintings and sculpture from China, Japan and India; furniture and decorative arts (including major collections of Chinese, Japanese and Korean ceramics); a large and distinguished group of Persian and Turkish carpets; and rare and authentic architectural assemblages such as a Chinese palace hall, a Japanese teahouse, and a 16th-century Indian temple hall.

The Bride of Lammermoor (Oil on panel, Sir Edwin Landseer, 1830)

Basket of Fruit (Oil on canvas, Edouard Manet, 1864)

Dating from the medieval era to the present, the European collection encompasses Italian and Flemish early-Renaissance masterworks; strong representations of later European paintings (including French Impressionism and Post-Impressionism); sculpture (with a special concentration in the works of Auguste Rodin); decorative arts; tapestries; furniture; and period rooms and architectural settings ranging from the facade of a medieval church in Burgundy to a superbly decorated English drawing room by Robert Adam.

Arms and Armor. At center is the Portrait of a Nobleman with Duelling Gauntlet (1562)

The comprehensive arms and armor collection, the second-largest collection in the United States, was acquired from celebrated collector Carl Otto Kretzschmar von Kienbusch in 1976, the Bicentennial Anniversary of the American Revolution. Spanning several centuries, it includes European and Southwest Asian arms and armor.

Check out “Von Kienbusch Galleries of Arms and Armor“

The Angel of Purity – Maria Mitchell Memorial (Marble, Augustus Saint-Gaudens, 1902)

Diana (marble, 1826, Joseph Gott)

The American collection, among the finest in the United States, surveys more than three centuries of painting, sculpture, and decorative arts, with outstanding strengths in 18th- and 19th-century Philadelphia furniture and silver, Pennsylvania German art, rural Pennsylvania furniture and ceramics, and the paintings of Thomas Eakins (the museum houses the most important Eakins collection in the world).

Sketches of Thomas Eakins

Portrait of Hayes Agnew – Agnew Clinic (Oil on canvas, Thomas Eakins, 1889)

Modern artwork includes works by American Modernists as well as those of Pablo Picasso, Jean Metzinger, Antonio Rotta, Albert Gleizes, Marcel Duchamp, Salvador Dalí and Constantin Brâncuși. The expanding collection of contemporary art includes major works by Cy Twombly, Jasper Johns, and Sol LeWitt, among many others.

The Seesaw (Oil on canvas, Francisco Goya, 1791-92)

Venus and Adonis (Oil on canvas, Charles-Joseph Natoire, 1740)

The museum also houses an encyclopedic holding of costume and textiles, as well as prints, drawings, and photographs. For reasons of preservation, they are displayed in rotation.

Equestrian statue of George Washington on Eakins Oval

In the square in front of the museum is an equestrian statue of George Washington erected by the German sculptor Rudolf Siemering.

The Lion Fighter (1858, Carl Conrad Albert Wolff)

The grandiose flight of steps behind him are flanked on the left The Lion Fighter, by Carl Conrad Albert Wolff, and on the right is The Amazon Attacked by a Panther by August Kiss, both casts from the Rauch School.

Mounted Amazon Attacked by a Panther (August Kiss, 1839, cast 1929)

The one-acre, terraced Anne d’Harnoncourt Sculpture Garden, dedicated to the museum’s late director Anne d’Harnoncourt (1943–2008) and designed by OLIN landscape architects working with Atkin Olshin Schade Architects, extends the Museum’s vast galleries to the outdoors while strengthening its connections to the city of Philadelphia and Fairmount Park.

Social Consciousness (Jacob Epstein)

The garden is divided into five sections: the Upper Terrace, the Lower Terrace, two graveled galleries and a paved plaza. Works here include the iconic Giant Three-Way Plug (Cube Tap) of Claes Oldenburg which was presented to the museum by Geraldine and David N. Pincus; Flukes, the large-scale sculpture of a whale’s tail by Gordon Gund; Steps (Philadelphia) and Pyramid (Philadelphia), two concrete block sculptures by Sol LeWitt; a granite bench and table as well as a marble chair by Scott Burton; Steel Woman II by Thomas Schütte; and Curve I, a remarkable work, from 1973, made of weathering steel by Ellsworth Kelly.

Giant 3-Way Plug – Cube Tap (Claes Oldenburg)

Philadelphia Museum of Art: 2600 Benjamin Franklin Parkway, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19130, USA. Tel: (215) 763-8100 Website: www.philamuseum.org. Open Tuesdays- Sundays, 10 AM – 5 PM. Admission: US$20/adult, children below 12 years old is free.

Ellis Island National Museum of Immigration (New Jersey, U.S.A)

Posted on 26 June, 2017 by Benjie Layug — Leave a reply

Ellis Island National Museum of Immigration

Aside from the Statue of Liberty National Monument on Liberty Island, the Statue Cruises round trip ferry transportation tickets we bought at Battery Park also included Ellis Island National Immigration Museum on Ellis Island in Upper New York Bay.

Ellis Island

After our tour of Liberty Island and its iconic Statue of Liberty, we all returned to the pier and queued up to board another Statue Cruise ferry for the short 10-min. (2.1 mile) trip to nearby, much smaller Ellis Island. Since 1808, the island has been owned and administered by the federal government of the United States and, since 1965, operated by the National Park Service.

Check out “Statue of Liberty National Monument“

Then and now. Crowds such as these were a common sight

Here are some interesting trivia regarding the island:

From 1892 to 1954, Ellis Island was the United State’s largest and most active immigration station.
The original Ellis Island was the site of Fort Gibson (initially called Crown Fort, it was renamed after Col. James Gibson of the 4th Regiment of Riflemen, killed in the Siege of Fort Erieduring the War of 1812) and, later, a naval magazine.
The gateway for over 12 million immigrants to the U.S. processed by the S. Bureau of Immigration, it was the United States’ busiest immigrant inspection station for over 60 years (1892 – 1954).
Opened January 1, 1892, the island was, between 1892 and 1934, greatly expanded with land reclamation with the help of excess earth from the construction of New York City’s subway (and other projects). Today, the island has a land area of 11.1 hectares (27.5 acres), most of which is part of New Jersey. It was long considered part of New York, but a 1998 United States Supreme Court decision found that most of the island is in New Jersey. A contiguous area of 1.3 hectares (3.3 acres) is part of New York.
During and immediately following World War II, was designated as a permanent holding facility and was used to hold German merchant mariners and “enemy aliens” (Axis nationals detained for fear of spying, sabotage, and other fifth column activity). In December 1941, Ellis Island held 279 Japanese, 248 Germans, and 81 Italians removed from the East Coast. A total of 7,000 Germans, Italians and Japanese would be ultimately detained at Ellis Island. It was also a processing center for returning sick or wounded U.S. soldiers, and a Coast Guard training base.
Its U.S. Marine Hospital Number 43, more widely known as the Ellis Island Immigrant Hospital, was the nation’s largest marine hospital. This extensive medical service at the immigrant station was operated here, from early 1902 to 1930, by United States Public Health Service to support the activities of the United States Bureau of Immigration.
Over 100 million Americans, about one-third to 40% of the population of the United States, are descendants of those immigrants who arrived in America at Ellis Island before dispersing to points all over the country.
Many reasons these immigrants came to the United States included escaping political and economic oppression, as well as persecution, destitution, and violence.
Ellis Island has been a source of inspiration or used as a subject in popular culture. Its imagery or representation has been employed in literature (including novels, short stories and poetry), in song, musical composition, dance, theatre, including vaudeville, burlesque, musical comedy, revue, legitimate theatre, motion pictures (silent and sound), newsreels, and in radio and television.
- The station was featured in many early films, including those from the silent era. They include Traffic in Souls (1913), How The Jews Care for Their Poor (educational film, 1914), The Yellow Passport (1916), My Boy (1921), Frank Capra‘s The Strong Man (1926), We Americans (1928), The Mating Call (1928), This is Heaven (1929), Paddy O’Day (1935), Ellis Island (1936), Gateway (1938), Exile Express (1939), I, Jane Doe (1948), Gambling House (1951) and in popular films such as Cafe Metropole (1937) and With a Song in My Heart (1952). In The Godfather Part II (1974), Vito Corleone immigrates via Ellis Island as a boy. The opening scene of the sc-fi film The Brother From Another Planet (1984) is also set there. The island is also visited by the characters in Hitch, a 2005 romantic comedy, and is the setting for the climactic battle in X-Men (2000).
- Films that focused on the immigrant experience include the 1984 TV miniseries Ellis Island. The IMAX 3D movie Across the Sea of Time(1995) incorporates both modern footage and historical photographs of Ellis Island. The Golden Door, a 2006 Italian movie directed by Emanuele Crialese, takes place largely on Ellis Island. Forgotten Ellis Island, a film and book, focuses on the Ellis Island Immigrant Hospital. The Immigrant is a 2013 American drama film directed by James Gray, starring Marion Cotillard, Joaquin Phoenix, and Jeremy Renner. Ellis, a short film, premiered in November 2015.
- Over the decades, Ellis Island was also widely referenced or remarked on in books. These include Mrs ‘Arris Goes to New York (1960) by Paul Gallico
- The song “The New Ground – Isle of Hope, Isle of Tears,” on the 2010 album Songs from the Heart by the group Celtic Woman, is about Annie Moore and Ellis Island.
- Ellis Island: The Dream of Americais a work for actors and orchestra with projected images by Peter Boyer, composed in 2001-02.
- The USPS issued a 32¢ stamp on February 3, 1998 as part of the Celebrate the Century stamp sheet series.
- Ellis Island as a port of entry is described in detail in Mottel the Cantor’s Son by Sholom Aleichem.

The Grand Hall

The first station, a three-story-tall wooden structure built of Georgia Pine, opened with fanfare on January 1, 1892 but, on June 15, 1897, a fire of unknown origin, possibly caused by faulty wiring, reduced it to ashes. No one was killed but most of the immigration records, dating back to 1855, of about 1.5 million immigrants that had been processed at the first building during its five years of use were destroyed.

The station’s new Main Building, one of the most symbolically important structures in American history, now houses the Ellis Island National Museum of Immigration. It was designed by Architects Edward Lippincott Tilton and William Alciphron Boring (who both received a gold medal at the 1900 Paris Exposition for the building’s design) and the building was built at a cost of US$1.5 million.

Opened on December 17, 1900, the immigration station closed on November 12, 1954 and the buildings fell into disrepair and were abandoned. Attempts at redeveloping the site were unsuccessful until, on October 15, 1965, Ellis Island was proclaimed a part of Statue of Liberty National Monument and, exactly one year later, it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The design for the significant restoration and adaptive use of the Beaux-Arts Main Building to its 1918 – 1924 appearance was undertaken by the Boston-based architectural firm Finegold Alexander + Associates Inc, together with the New York architectural firm Beyer Blinder Belle. Built with a construction budget of US$150 million (raised by a campaign organized by the political fundraiser Wyatt A. Stewart), the building reopened on September 10, 1990.

Statue of Annie Moore, a 15 year old, rosy-cheeked Irish girl who was one of the 148 steerage passengers landed from the Guion steamship Nevada. She is now distinguished by being the first registered in the book of the new landing bureau

On May 20, 2015, coinciding with the opening of the new Peopling of America galleries, the Ellis Island Immigration Museum was officially renamed the Ellis Island National Museum of Immigration.

Face of an immigrant

This French Renaissance Revival-style museum, built of red brick with limestone trim, tells the moving tales of the immigrants who entered America through the golden door of Ellis Island.

The Baggage Room

The newly completed Peopling of America Center was architectural designed by Highland Associates, with construction executed by Phelps Construction Group.

As part of the National Park Service’s Centennial Initiative, the entire south side of the island, called by some the “sad side” of the island, is closed to the general public.

Some of the 28 unrestored buildings

It is the object of restoration efforts spearheaded by Save Ellis Island to restore the 28 buildings (including the Ellis Island Immigrant Hospital) that have not yet been rehabilitated. The New Ferry Building, built in the Art Deco style to replace an earlier one, was renovated in 2008 but remains only partially accessible to the general public.

Ellis Island Immigrant Hospital

In 2008, the museum’s library was officially named the Bob Hope Memorial Library in honor of the late comedian Bob Hope, one the station’s most famous immigrants. The Ellis Island Medal of Honor is awarded annually at ceremonies on the island.

The author and son Jandy at the Grand Hall

The museum’s self-guided exhibits tell the entire story of American immigration, including before and after the Ellis Island era, and chronicles Ellis Island’s role in immigration history. It includes artifacts, photographs, prints, videos, interactive displays, oral histories and temporary exhibits:

The World Migration Globe features a radiant sphere which illustrates migration patterns around the world throughout human history.
Journeys: The Peopling of America – 1550s – 1890, located in the historic Railroad Ticket Office, is an exhibit, designed by ESI Design and fabricated by Hadley Exhibits, Inc., dedicated to exploring the earliest arrivals pre-dating the Ellis Island Era (1550-1890). It bookends the Ellis Island era by chronicling immigration to America before the processing station opened in 1892 and after it closed in 1954, right up to the present. Here, visitors can move through the various galleries displaying each stage of the immigrant journey.
The Journey: New Eras of Immigration Exhibit, focusing on immigration from 1954 to present times, uses dynamic media and interactive elements to display the post-war immigration movement and changing demographic trends over the decades.
The American Family Immigration History Center is an exciting interactive area where you can access the passenger records of the ships that landed almost 65 million immigrants, crew members and other travelers at the Port of New York and Ellis Island from 1820 to 1957.
The American Immigrant Wall of Honor, outside of the main building, is the only place in the United States where an individual can honor his or her family heritage at a National Monument. This permanent exhibit of individual or family names celebrating the immigrant experience contains a partial list of immigrants processed on the island. Inclusion on the list is made possible by a donation to support the facility.. It overlooks the Statue of Liberty behind a beautiful view of the New York skyline.
The American Flag of Faces, at the museum’s main entrance hall, is an interactive, animated display populated with images uploaded by individuals and families, which creates a montage of the American flag.

A lady park ranger delivering a 5-min. talk before showing of “Island of Hope, Island of Tears” at Theater 2

There are also three theaters used for film and live performances. At Theater 2 (with a maximum limit of 140 people per showing), we watched the 30-min., award-winning film documentary “Island of Hope, Island of Tears,” directed by Charles Guggenheim, which reveals how and why millions of immigrants journeyed across the world to Ellis Island, hoping for a better life for themselves and their descendants.

L-R: Grace, Kyle and Cheska

Ellis Island National Museum of Immigration: Ellis Island, New York City 10004, New York, U.S.A. Tel: +1 646 356 2150. Open daily (except December 25), 8:30 AM – 7 PM.

Old Philadelphia City Hall (Pennsylvania, U.S.A.)

Posted on 26 June, 2017 by Benjie Layug — Leave a reply

The two-storey Old Philadelphia City Hall, located within the Independence Hall complex of Independence National Historical Park, next to Independence Hall, in Center City, was built with red bricks in the Georgian and Federal style from 1790 to 1791 by master carpenter David Evans, Jr.

Old Philadelphia City Hall

During the 1790s, Philadelphia was the nation’s temporary capital and, although originally intended as Philadelphia’s City Hall (its second), the building was lent to the federal judiciary, serving as the home of the U.S. Supreme Court from the completion of its construction, from August 1791 until February 1800, when the national capital was moved to Washington, D.C. The City Council met on the second floor while court convened below.

Here, the U.S. Supreme Court made its first decisions. Three chief justices, John Rutledge (Rutledge Court), John Jay (Jay Court), and Oliver Ellsworth (Ellsworth Court), officiated the Supreme Court from this location. The portraits of the latter two (Rutledge did not attend any session in Philadelphia), as well as those of associate justices William Cushing, Bushrod Washington (nephew of George Washington) and Samuel Chase, can be seen in the Second Bank portrait gallery.

The ground floor area where the Supreme Court met

Also in the Second Bank is a very large painting of Philadelphia’s first City Hall (the one that used to stand on 2nd Street). Naturalization ceremonies for new citizens also took place in this courtroom and the building was the volunteer headquarters in the battle against the Yellow Fever epidemic of 1793.

Afterward, the building continued to serve as Philadelphia’s City Hall until 1901 when the new city hall at Penn Square was completed. A contributing property to Independence National Historical Park, the building is owned by the City of Philadelphia which leases it to the National Park Service. The building was added to National Register of Historic Places on October 15, 1966.

Old Philadelphia City Hall: 501 Chestnut Street at 5th Street, Philadelphia 19106, Pennsylvania. Open daily, 9 AM – 5 PM. Admission is free but entrance is on a first-come, first-served basis. Capacity is nine visitors at a time. Coordinates: 39°56′52″N 75°8′53″W.

Arch Street Friends Meeting House (Philadelphia, U.S.A.)

Posted on 26 June, 2017 by Benjie Layug — Leave a reply

The Arch Street Friends Meeting House, within the Old City neighborhood, is a Meeting House of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers). Built in the Georgian architectural style to reflect the Friends’ testimonies of simplicity and equality, this building has, after more than two centuries of continuous use, changed little. Its grounds was the first burial ground for Quakers in Philadelphia.

Arch Street Friends Meeting House

The oldest Friends Meeting House still in use in Philadelphia, it is also the largest in the world. Originally designed by the Quaker carpenter Owen Biddle Jr. (best known as the author of a builder’s handbook, The Young Carpenter’s Assistant, published in 1805), architects Walter Ferris Price and Morris & Erskine also contributed to the design and construction of the building.

The two-storey meeting house has two separate entrances at the front of the building, a large first floor meeting space with benches, and an interior second-storey gallery. Since worship involves silent contemplation without clergy or ritual, there is no need for an altar, pulpit, steeples, stained glass windows and other religious symbols.

Here is the historical timeline of the building:

In 1701, Pennsylvania founder and Quaker William Penn deeded land to the Society of Friends to be used as a burial ground.
Between 1803 and 1805, the east wing and center of the meeting house was built according to a design by the Quaker carpenter Owen Biddle Jr.
From 1810–11, the building was enlarged with the addition of the west wing.
In 1896, an external restroom facility with toilets was added behind the West Room.
In 1902 and 1908, a kitchen was constructed
From 1968–69, the 1896, 1902, 1908 additions were removed and the well-known architecture firm Cope & Lippincott renovated the interior of the east wing and designed the two-storey addition (with a smaller room for meetings and worship and second floor conference rooms) behind the center building.
In 1971, the meeting house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
In 2011, as a consequence of the building being the only surviving documented work by Owen Biddle, it was declared as a National Historic Landmark and the Arch Street Meeting House Preservation Trust was formed.

Today, the Meeting House continues to be a center for worship and the activities of the Monthly Meeting of Friends of Philadelphia, conducted since the 19th century, and the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting of Friends living in Philadelphia, the southern half of New Jersey, Delaware and parts of Maryland is held here every spring.

Notable members of the Religious Society of Friends who worshiped at this meeting house include Sarah and Angelina Grimke, both abolitionists and woman rights advocates. Noted painter Edward Hicks, the cousin of Elias Hicks, also attended meetings here.

The Meeting House has an entrance hall and three distinct sections. The West Wing, added in 1811 to accommodate the women’s Monthly Meeting, is now the room used for worship. Here, two staircases lead to the balcony. The middle section serves as the site of Monthly Meetings and special events.

The East Wing houses dioramas depicting the main events in the life of illustrious Quaker William Penn – Penn the Peacemaker laying down his sword (1668); Penn the Defender of Liberties in prison (1670); Penn the Builder of Democracy writing his “Frame of Government” (1682); Penn the Friend of the Indians completing a treaty with a tribe (1682); Penn the City Planner with his surveyor Thomas Holme, studying Holme’s map (1683); and Penn the Founder of Schools (1699). Also on display is a dollhouse representing the home of noted Quaker journal-keeper Elizabeth Drinker and her husband Henry. Special shows are also held in the East Wing.

Since as early as 1683 (when Mary Lloyd was buried here), burials had been taking place at the ground upon which the meetinghouse was built. Around 20,000 are buried here including many victims of the yellow fever epidemic of 1793. In 1880, burials here were officially ended. Samuel Carpenter (1649–1714), a Deputy Governor under William Penn and the “First Treasurer” of Pennsylvania, and most of his family and his brother Abraham Carpenter (a non-member who married a Quaker) were buried here. At dawn of November 10, Marines mark the grave of Samuel Nicholas (1744–1790), the founder and first commandant of the United States Marine Corps (curious considering the pacific stance of Friends), with a wreath.

Other notable interments here include:

Owen Biddle Jr.
Charles Brockden Brown (1771–1810) – the first American novelist (Wieland)
Lydia Darrah (1728–1789) – Revolutionary War spy
James Logan (1674–1751) – secretary to William Penn who, along with Penn and Benjamin Franklin, is one of the three most important men in Philadelphia’s Colonial period. He lies here in an unmarked grave.
Robert Waln (1765–1836) – U.S. Congressman
Thomas Wynne (1627–1691) – one of the original settlers of Philadelphia, this Wales-born personal physician of William Penn accompanied Penn on his original journey to America on the ship Welcome.
Caspar Wistar (1761–1818) – American physician, professor of anatomy and vice president of the American Philosophical Society who mentored Meriwether Lewis before Lewis joined William Clark on the expedition to cross the western part of the continent.
Thomas Stretch (1697-1765) – American clockmaker

Arch Street Friends Meeting House: 320 Arch Street cor. 4th Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Our Open Tuesdays – Saturdays, 9 AM – 5 PM (Grounds), Fridays – Saturdays, 10 AM – 4 PM (Building). Admission: US$5 (general) and US$2 (children, seniors, veterans and students). Website: www.historicasmh.org. Coordinates: 39°57′7.2″N 75°8′50.17″W.

Statue of Liberty National Monument (New York City, U.S.A.)

Posted on 26 June, 2017 by Benjie Layug — 1 Comment ↓

The iconic Statue of Liberty

Our visit to New York City wouldn’t be complete without visiting its iconic Statue of Liberty. After breakfast at our hotel, we all took a taxi to Battery Park in Lower Manhattan, our gateway to Liberty Island, in Upper New York Bay. Though entrance to the national monument is free, we had to pay the cost (US$25.5 for adults and US$16 for children 4 – 12 years old) for the ferry service that all visitors must use.

A Statue Cruises ferry

Since 2007, Statue Cruises has been operating the transportation and ticketing facilities, replacing Circle Line, which had operated the service since 1953. The ferries also depart from Liberty State Park in Jersey City. After paying up, we all boarded our ferry that would take us to Liberty Island.

L-R: Cheska, Kyle (partly hidden), Grace, Jandy and the author at the third level of the ferry

Our ferry would also stop at Ellis Island, north of Liberty Island, making this a combined trip. Both islands, which comprise the Statue of Liberty National Monument, were ceded by New York to the federal government in 1800. To have best views of the Statue of Liberty, we all sat at the third level. Our sailing time to the island took approximately 15 mins.

Check out “Ellis Island Immigration Museum”

This colossal, Neo-Classical copper sculpture, a gift from the people of France to the people of the United States, was designed by French sculptor Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi and built by Gustave Eiffel. An icon of freedom and of the United States, this statue’s foundation and pedestal was aligned so that it would face southeast, greeting ships entering the harbor from the Atlantic Ocean. Thus, it was a welcoming sight to immigrants arriving from abroad as vessels arriving in New York had to sail past it as they proceeded toward Manhattan.

Liberty Island

Here are some interesting trivia regarding the statue:

This robed female figure, representing Libertas (the Roman goddess of freedom), wears a stola and pella (gown and cloak, common in depictions of Roman goddesses) and holds a torch aloft above her head. In her left arm, she carries a tabula ansata (used to evoke the concept of law) inscribed in Roman numerals with “JULY IV MDCCLXXVI” (July 4, 1776), the date of the U.S. Declaration of Independence. A broken chain, lies at her feet, half-hidden by her robes and difficult to see from the ground.
The statue is one of the earliest examples of curtain wall construction, in which the exterior of the structure is not load bearing, but is instead supported by an interior framework.
The pedestal’s poured concrete walls, up to 20 feet (6.1 m) thick (the concrete mass was the largest poured to that time), was faced with Stony Creek granite blocks (from the Beattie Quarry in Branford, Connecticut).
New York’s first ticker-tape parade was held during the statue’s dedication. The parade route, beginning at Madison Square, proceeded to Battery Park at the southern tip of Manhattan by way of Fifth Avenue and Broadway, with a slight detour so the parade could pass in front of the World building on Park Row. As the parade passed the New York Stock Exchange, traders threw ticker tape from the windows, beginning the New York tradition of the ticker-tape parade. Estimates of the number of people who watched it ranged from several hundred thousand to a million.
Originally, the statue was a dull copper color but, shortly after 1900, a green patina (also called verdigris) caused by the oxidation of the copper skin, began to spread and, by 1906, had entirely covered the statue. The Army Corps of Engineers studied the patina for any ill effects to the statue and concluded that it protected the skin. The statue was painted only on the inside. The Corps of Engineers also installed an elevator to take visitors from the base to the top of the pedestal.
In 1917, during World War I, images of the statue were heavily used in both recruitment posters and the Liberty Bond drives that urged American citizens to support the war financially. This impressed upon the public the war’s stated purpose—to secure liberty and served as a reminder that embattled France had given the United States the statue.
The statue sustained minor damage (mostly to the torch-bearing right arm) on July 30, 1916, during World War I, when German saboteurs detonated carloads of dynamite and other explosives that were being sent to Britain and France for their war efforts, on the Black Tom peninsula in Jersey City, New Jersey, in what is now part of Liberty State Park, close to Bedloe’s Island. Seven people were killed, the statue was closed for ten days and the cost to repair the statue and buildings on the island was about US$100,000. Since 1916, the narrow ascent to the torch was closed for public safety reasons, and it has remained closed ever since.
In 1929, the only successful suicide in the statue’s history occurred when a man climbed out of one of the windows in the crown and jumped to his death, glancing off the statue’s breast and landing on the base.
The statue was only illuminated every night, all night, beginning in 1957. During World War II, the statue, though open to visitors, was not illuminated at night due to wartime blackouts. It was lit briefly on December 31, 1943, and on D-Day, June 6, 1944, when its lights flashed “dot-dot-dot-dash,” the Morse code for V, for victory. From 1944 to 1945, new, powerful lighting was installed and, beginning on V-E Day, the statue was once again illuminated after sunset. The lighting then was for only a few hours each evening.
In 1946, the interior of the statue within reach of visitors was coated with a special plastic so that graffiti could be washed away.
In 1984, when the statue was closed to the public for renovation, workers erected the world’s largest free-standing scaffold,which obscured the statue from view.
The Statue of Liberty was one of the earliest beneficiaries of cause marketing. Its fundraising arm, the Statue of Liberty–Ellis Island Foundation, Inc., raised more than $350 million in donations.
The statue and the island was closed to the public a number of times. From May to December 1938 and from 1984 to 1986 it was closed for renovation and restoration. Following the September 11, 2001 attacks, the statue and the island was again closed to the public. The island reopened at the end of 2001, the pedestal in August 2004 and the statue on July 4, 2009 (however, only a limited number of people would be permitted to ascend to the crown each day). The statue, including the pedestal and base, closed on October 29, 2011, for installation of new elevators and staircases and to bring other facilities, such as restrooms, up to code. The statue was reopened on October 28, 2012 but closed again a day later due to Hurricane Sandy. The statue and Liberty Island reopened to the public on July 4, 2013. For part of October 2013, Liberty Island, along with other federally funded museums, parks, monuments, construction projects and buildings, was closed to the public due to the United States federal government shutdown of 2013.
The current torch, installed in 1986, has a flame is covered in 24-caratgold which reflects the sun’s rays in daytime. It is lighted by floodlights at night.
is a frequent subject in popular culture. In music, the statue has been evoked to indicate support for American policies, as in Toby Keith‘s song “Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue (The Angry American).” In protest and opposition of the Reagan administration, it appeared on the cover of the Dead Kennedys‘ album Bedtime for Democracy.
In 1942, the torch is the setting for the climax of director Alfred Hitchcock‘s movie Saboteur. In the 1968 picture Planet of the Apes, the statue makes one of its most famous cinematic appearances in which it is seen half-buried in sand. In the 1996 science-fiction film Independence Day, it is knocked over while in the 2008 film Cloverfield, the statue’s head is ripped off.
In Jack Finney‘s time-travel novel Time and Again, the right arm of the statue, on display in the early 1880s in Madison Square Park, plays a crucial role.
Hundreds of replicas of the Statue of Libertyare displayed worldwide. A smaller version of the statue, one-fourth the height of the original and standing on the Île aux Cygnes, facing west toward her larger sister, was given by the American community in Paris to that city. A 9.1 m. (30 ft.) tall replica, which once stood atop the Liberty Warehouse on West 64th Street in Manhattan for many years, now resides at the Brooklyn Museum. From 1949–1952, in a patriotic tribute, the Boy Scouts of America, as part of their Strengthen the Arm of Liberty campaign, donated about 200 replicas of the statue, made of stamped copper and 2,500 mm. (100 in.) in height, to states and municipalities across the United States. During the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, a statue known as the Goddess of Democracy, though not a true replica, was temporarily erected. Similarly inspired by French democratic traditions, the sculptors took care to avoid a direct imitation of the Statue of Liberty. A replica of the statue, as well as other recreations of New York City structures, is also part of the exterior of the New York-New York Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas.
The Statue of Liberty, as an American icon, has been depicted on the country’s coinage and stamps. It appeared on commemorative coins to mark its 1986 centennial and New York’s 2001 entry in the state quartersIn 1997, an image of the statue was chosen for the American Eagle platinum bullion coins and was placed on the reverse (or tails) side of the Presidential Dollar series of circulating coins. Two images of the statue’s torch appear on the current ten-dollar bill. However, the statue’s intended photographic depiction on a 2010 forever stamp instead proved to be the replica at the Las Vegas casino.
Between 1986 and 2000, New York State issued license plates with an outline of the statue to either the front or the side of the serial number. The Women’s National Basketball Association‘s New York Liberty used both the statue’s name and its image in their logo (however, the torch’s flame doubles as a basketball). Beginning in 1997, the New York Rangers of the National Hockey League depicted the statue’s head on their third jersey. The National Collegiate Athletic Association‘s 1996 Men’s Basketball Final Four, played at New Jersey’s Meadowlands Sports Complex, featured the statue in its logo. The Libertarian Party of the United States also uses the statue in its emblem.

The Statue of Liberty seen from our ferry

Édouard René de Laboulaye, French law professor and politician, president of the French Anti-Slavery Society, a prominent and important political thinker of his time and an ardent supporter of the Union in the American Civil War, was said to have commented in 1865 that any monument raised to U.S. independence would properly be a joint project of the French and U.S. peoples and he inspired Bartholdi to create the statue. Due to the post-war instability in France, work on the statue did not commence until the early 1870s and, in 1875, Laboulaye proposed that the French finance the statue with the U.S. providing the site and building the pedestal.

Frederic Auguste Bartholdi

Before the statue was fully designed, Bartholdi completed the head and the torch-bearing arm. For publicity, the torch-bearing arm was exhibited at the 1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia and, from 1876 to 1882, in Madison Square Park in Manhattan before it was returned to France to join the rest of the statue.

The torch-bearing arm

The head was exhibited at the 1878 Paris World’s Fair. To experience a changing perspective on the statue, Bartholdi gave it bold Classical contours and applied simplified modeling, reflecting the huge scale of the project and its solemn purpose. The statue was first built in France.

The statue’s head

Aside from Bartholdi, the following were also involved in the construction of the statue:

Architect Eugène Viollet-le-Duc, the chief engineer of the project and Bartholdi’s friend and mentor, designed a brick pier within the statue, to which the skin would be anchored. After consultations with by the Paris firm of Gaget, Gauthier et Cie (Cie is the French abbreviation analogous to Co.), the metalwork foundry, Viollet-le-Duc chose copper sheets, the metal which would be used for the skin, and repoussé, the method used to shape it, in which the sheets were heated and then struck with wooden hammers. An advantage of this choice was that the entire statue would be light for its volume. The head and arm had been built with assistance from Viollet-le-Duc, who fell ill in 1879 and soon died, leaving no indication of how he intended to transition from the copper skin to his proposed masonry pier.
Gustave Eiffel, the innovative designer and builder of the Eiffel Tower, and structural engineer, Maurice Koechlin, decided to abandon the proposed masonry pier and instead build an iron truss To prevent galvanic corrosionbetween the copper skin and the iron support structure, Eiffel insulated the skin with asbestos impregnated with shellac. To make it easier for visitors to reach the observation point in the crown, Eiffel included two interior spiral staircases. He also provided access to an observation platform surrounding the torch. As the pylon tower arose, Eiffel and Bartholdi coordinated their work carefully so that completed segments of skin would fit exactly on the support structure. The components of the pylon tower were built in the Eiffel factory in the nearby Parisian suburb of Levallois-Perret.
Joachim Goschen Giæver, a Norwegian immigrant civil engineer, designed the structural framework for the Statue of Liberty. Working from drawings and sketches produced by Gustave Eiffel, he did the design computations, detailed fabrication and construction drawings, and oversight of construction.
Ferdinand de Lesseps, builder of the Suez Canal, succeeded Laboulaye (upon his death in 1883) as chairman of the French committee.
Richard Morris Hunt designed the pedestal on Bedloe Island. Containing elements of classical architecture, including Doric portals, as well as some elements influenced by Aztec architecture, its large mass is fragmented with architectural detail, in order to focus attention on the statue. In form, it is a truncated pyramid, 19 m. (62 ft.) square at the base and 12 m. (39.4 ft.) at the top, with four sides identical in appearance.
Charles Pomeroy Stone, a former army general, oversaw the construction work on the pedestal.
Frederick Law Olmsted, renowned landscape architect and co-designer of New York’s Central Park and Brooklyn’s Prospect Park, supervised a cleanup of Bedloe’s Island in anticipation of the dedication.
Gutzon Borglum, who later sculpted Mount Rushmore, redesigned the torch, replacing much of the original copper with stained glass.

Check out “Eiffel Tower“

In a symbolic act, the first rivet placed into the skin, fixing a copper plate onto the statue’s big toe, was driven by United States Ambassador to France Levi P. Morton. The completed statue was formally presented to Ambassador Morton at a ceremony in Paris on July 4, 1884. By January 1885, after sufficient progress on the pedestal pedestal (its cornerstone was laid in 1884 and it was completed on April 1886) had occurred, the Statue of Liberty was disassembled and crated for its ocean voyage to New York City on board the French steamer Isère.

Liberty Island Pier

On June 17, 1885, the statue safely reached the New York port, with 200,000 people lining the docks and hundreds of boats putting to sea to welcome the French vessel. Upon arrival, it was assembled on the on what was then called Bedloe’s Island (officially renamed Liberty Island in 1956 by an Act of Congress).

The statue’s pedestal

A dedication ceremony on October 28, 1886, presided over by President Grover Cleveland (a former New York governor), marked the statue’s completion. Until 1901, the statue was administered by the United States Lighthouse Board and then by the Department of War. Since 1933, it has been maintained by the National Park Service. In 1924, President Calvin Coolidge used his authority under the Antiquities Act to declare the statue a National Monument.

Liberty Island Pavilion

Diorama of Bartholdi inside pavilion

In 1933, President Franklin Roosevelt ordered the statue transferred to the National Park Service (NPS) and, in 1937, the NPS gained jurisdiction over the rest of Bedloe’s Island. In 1965, nearby Ellis Island was made part of the Statue of Liberty National Monument by proclamation of President Lyndon Johnson. In 1984, the Statue of Liberty was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The author with grandson Kyle

At the western end of Liberty Island is a group of statues, all works of Maryland sculptor Phillip Ratner, honoring those closely associated with the Statue of Liberty.

Emma Lazarus

Two Americans— Joseph Pulitzer (publisher of the New York World, a New York newspaper, who announced a drive to raise $100,000 for the statue) and poet Emma Lazarus (whose sonnet, “The New Colossus,” is uniquely identified with the Statue of Liberty)—and three Frenchmen—Bartholdi, Eiffel, and Laboulaye—are depicted.

Grace and Jandy

Kyle and Cheska

The statue has the following physical characteristics:

Height of copper statue – 46 m. (151 ft., 1 in.)
Foundation of pedestal (ground level) to tip of torch – 93 m. (305 ft., 1 in.)
Heel to top of head – 34 m. (111 ft., 1 in.)
Height of hand – 5 m. (16 ft., 5 in.)
Index finger – 2.44 m. (8 ft., 1 in.)
Circumference at second joint – 1.07 m. (3 ft., 6 in.)
Head from chin to cranium – 5.26 m. (17 ft., 3 in.)
Head thickness from ear to ear – 3.05 m. (10 ft.)
Distance across the eye – 0.76 m. (2 ft., 6 in.)
Length of nose – 1.48 m. (4 ft., 6 in.)
Right arm length – 12.8 m. (42 ft.)
Right arm greatest thickness – 3.66 m. (12 ft.)
Thickness of waist – 10.67 m. (35 ft.)
Width of mouth – 0.91 m. (3 ft.)
Tablet, length – 7.19 m. (23 ft., 7 in.)
Tablet, width – 4.14 m. (13 ft., 7 in.)
Tablet, thickness – 0.61 m. (2 ft.)
Height of pedestal – 27.13 m. (89 ft.)
Height of foundation – 19.81 m. (65 ft.)
Weight of copper used in statue – 27.22 tons (60,000 lbs.)
Weight of steel used in statue – 113.4 tons (250,000 lbs.)
Total weight of statue – 204.1 tons (450,000 lbs.)
Thickness of copper sheeting – 2.4 mm. (3/32 of an inch)

Back at Liberty Island Pier for ferry to Ellis Island

Statue of Liberty National Monument: Liberty Island, New York Harbor, New York City 10004, United States.Tel: +1 646 356 2150. Open daily (except December 25), 8:30 AM – 7 PM.

All ferry riders are subject to security screening, similar to airport procedures, prior to boarding. Visitors intending to enter the statue’s base and pedestal must obtain a complimentary museum/pedestal ticket along with their ferry ticket. You can buy tickets online at www.statueoflibertytickets.com.

Those wishing to climb the staircase within the statue to the crown purchase a special ticket, which may be reserved up to a year in advance. A total of 240 people per day are permitted to ascend: ten per group, three groups per hour. Large bags are not allowed on Liberty or Ellis Islands. Backpacks, strollers and large umbrellas are not permitted in the Monument. Climbers may bring only medication and cameras—lockers are provided for other items—and must undergo a second security screening.

St. Augustine Catholic Church (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.A.)

Posted on 26 June, 2017 by Benjie Layug — Leave a reply

St. Augustine Catholic Church

The historic and pretty ornate St. Augustine Catholic Church (also called Olde St. Augustine’s), built to replace the Old St. Augustine Church (the first Order of Hermits of St. Augustine church founded in the United States) which was completed in 1801 and burned down in the anti-Catholic Philadelphia Nativist Riots on May 8, 1844 (all that remained was the back wall of the altar), was designed by architect Napoleon LeBrun who also designed Philadelphia landmarks as the Academy of Music (eventual home of the Philadelphia Orchestra) and the Cathedral Basilica of Sts. Peter and Paul.

The church’s Palladian-style facade

The present church, whose cornerstone was laid on May 27, 1847, was completed in December 1848 and consecrated by Bishop Francis Kenrick and Archbishop John Hughes who presided over High Mass on November 5, 1848.

The main entrance

In 1922, the altar area underwent significant restoration and change, the vestibule of the church was changed significantly and stairs were put in when 4th Street was excavated to pass under the Benjamin Franklin Bridge. The nave of the church is original. The color in the brick facade of the church indicates where the original church brick ends and where the 1922 brick begins. On June 15, 1976, the church was listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The magnificent interior

On December 1992, a severe storm severely damaged the church’s steeple whose debris fell onto the Benjamin Franklin Bridge, closing for three days. The damaged steeple had to be disassembled and removed. A 50-ft. chasm opened in the church roof caused the priceless painting and murals inside to suffer water damage. On October 18, 1995, a new steeple was erected.

Dr. Malcolm Crowe (Bruce Willis) meets the scared Cole Sear (Haley Joel Osment) inside the church in The Sixth Sense

The interior and exterior of St. Augustine’s Church was featured in the 1999 M. Night Shyamalan spooky thriller The Sixth Sense (where Bruce Willis, as Dr. Malcolm Crowe, and Haley Joel Osment, as Cole Sear, meet for the first time) and the 2007 action movie Shooter (in which the church’s bell tower figures in an assassination plot).

The Shooter

This church is the parish of choice of many Filipino-American Catholics (who increased the congregation’s numbers in the 1990s) from Philadelphia, the city’s suburbs and the tri-state area (Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware). In fact, on January 11, 1992, an exact replica of Santo Niño de Cebú was installed and dedicated here and Filipinos have held a special mass and festivals (also called Sinulog) for the Santo Niño, making it the National Shrine for devotion to Santo Nino in North America.

This Palladian-style (an Italian-Renaissance variant) church, with its non-cruciform plan, has a flat, decorated roof, semicircular arched window, an enormous cleaving balcony and two sets of stained glass windows, each dedicated to a saint. The impressive, ornate foyer, though lower than the church (you need to take another set of stairs to go up into the church), is treated like a part of the interior.

The main arched altar, framed by an archway supported by brown Corinthian columns flanked by flying angels, consists of white marble with shafts of Mexican onyx bordering the tabernacle. Behind the altar is a Crucifixion tableau, painted by Hans Hansen in 1926, crowned by the words “The Lord Seeth.” Above it sits a domed skylight. The wrap-around, 3-sided gallery essentially divides the space vertically in half.

The main altar

The beautiful ceiling frescoes, depicting scenes from “St. Augustine in Glory,” as well as murals on either side of the altar were painted by Philip Costaggini (who painted part of the frieze on the rotunda of the Capitol in Washington, D.C.) in 1884 and are the oldest in any church in America.

Statue of St. Nicholas Tolentine at the ornate foyer

Statue of St. Thomas of Villanova

St. Augustine Catholic Church: 243 North Lawrence St., Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19106, United States. Tel: +1 215-627-1838. Fax: 215-627-3911. E-mail: staugustineparish09@gmail.com. Website: www.st-augustinechurch.com. Mass schedules: Mondays – Fridays: 12:05 PM (10 AM during legal holidays), Saturdays (Vigil – 5:15 PM) and Sundays (9 AM, 11 AM and 7 PM). Novena prayers to Santo Nino are held after the 11 AM Sunday Mass. Open Mondays to Fridays, 9 AM to 5 PM; weekends, 9 AM to the conclusion of the evening masses.

30th Street Station (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.A.)

Posted on 26 June, 2017 by Benjie Layug — Leave a reply

30th Street Station

The 52,000 m² (562,000 ft²) 30th Street Station, the main railroad station in Philadelphia and one of the seven stations in Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority‘s (SEPTA) Center City fare zone, sits across from the former United States Post Office-Main Branch. A major stop on Amtrak‘s (National Railroad Passenger Corporation) Northeast and Keystone Corridors, it is Amtrak’s 3rd-busiest station and the busiest of the 24 stations served in Pennsylvania. On an average day in 2013, about 11,300 people boarded or left trains in Philadelphia, nearly twice as many as in the rest of the Pennsylvania stations combined. This was to be our entry point to Philadelphia (from New York City) and exit point from Philadelphia to Baltimore (Maryland).

The main concourse

Originally known as the Pennsylvania Station–30th Street (in accord with the naming style of other Pennsylvania Stations), the enormous, steel-framed structure was designed by the Chicago architectural firm of Graham, Anderson, Probst and White (the successor to D.H. Burnham & Company). Construction began in 1927 and the station opened in 1933, starting with two platform tracks.

The author and son Jandy at the waiting area

From 1988-1991, the building was restored and renovated, at a cost of US$75 million, by Dan Peter Kopple & Associates, with updated retail amenities added including several shops, a large food court, car rental facilities, Saxby’s Coffee, Dunkin’ Donuts, both in the South Arcade and South Concourse, and others.

Dunkin’ Donut outlet

Above the passenger areas, 280,000 sq. ft. of office space was modernized to house approximately 1,100 Amtrak employees. The former mail handling facility was converted into an underground parking garage. The 30th Street Station is now listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Train Schedule Display Board

The building’s architecturally interesting exterior, an adaptation and transformation of Neo-Classical elements into a more modern, streamlined Art Deco architectural style, has a pair of soaring, columned porte-cocheres on the west and east façade, its best known features.

Waiting Area

The cavernous, 290 by 135 ft. main passenger concourse, notable for its stylistic and functional elements, has ornate Art Deco décor, with a vast waiting room faced with travertine and a soaring coffered ceiling, painted gold, red and cream, with beautiful chandeliers.

Ticket offices

Works of art are located throughout the building. Prominently displayed within the waiting area is the Pennsylvania Railroad World War II Memorial, sculpted in 1950 by Walker Hancock. Honoring 1,307 Pennsylvania Railroad employees (listed in alphabetical order on the four sides of the base of that sculpture) killed in World War II (out of the more than 54,000 who served), it consists of a bronze statue of the archangel Michael lifting the body of a dead soldier out of the flames of war.

Pennsylvania Railroad World War II Memorial

The Spirit of Transportation, a bas relief sculpture of Karl Bitter, was executed in 1895 and originally placed in the waiting room of Broad Street Station, Philadelphia. On January, 1955, it was moved to current site in the North Waiting Room. The Spirit of Transportation is represented in triumphal procession of progress. It features a central female figure sitting in a horse-drawn carriage, while children cradle models of a steamship, steam locomotive and dirigible, a prophetic vision of a mode of transportation to come.

Spirit of Transportation bas-relief sculpture

The station was featured in the 1981 film Blow Out, the 1983 film Trading Places, the 1985 film Witness, the 2000 film Unbreakable, the 2010 video game Heavy Rain, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Season 2 Episode 7, and the 2015 film The Visit. It is within walking distance of various attractions in West Philadelphia, notably the University of Pennsylvania, Drexel University, and the University City Science Center, all in University City.

Kyle, Grace, Cheska and Jandy waiting for our train to Baltimore at the train platform

30th Street Station: 2955 Market Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States

This travel blog, a diary of the author’s local and international travels, aims to provide the reader with news and information on people, places and events that would interest the avid traveler and tourist. But, it also aims to be much more, providing insights on the wonders of this beautiful country, as well as the world, beyond the strict confines of the city. Have a BLAST seeing old churches, exotic temples, educational museums as well as palm-fringed islands; white sand beaches; thundering waterfalls; placid lakes; fiery sunsets; turquoise seas; cathedral-like caves; swirling rivers; majestic mountains; stupendous, amphitheater-like rice terraces; awesome volcanoes and the like. Get to know the movers and shakers in the tourism industry; find out where to titillate the palate; rejuvenate your body; feed your adrenalin, unwind and relax; satisfy your craving for history and culture; and find out what's being celebrated and where.

BENJAMIN “BENJIE” LAYUG, an architect by profession (he finished his B. S. Architecture degree from the University of the Philippines Diliman in 1982), is an avid reader, traveler and free-lance travel writer in his spare time, contributing articles to Travel Update, Philippine Daily Inquirer, COLORS, TODAY, 7107 Islands Magazine, Business Day, Bluprint and the Business Mirror.

He is also the author of the following travel books:

A Philippine Odyssey (New Day Publishers, 2005)
Pathfinder’s Travel Guide: Boracay (Great Books Trading, 2006)
A Tourist Guide to Notable Philippine Churches (New Day Publishers, 2007)
A Tourist to Notable Philippine Historical Landmarks, Monuments and Shrines (New Day Publishers, 2010)
A Tourist Guide to Notable Philippine Museums (New Day Publishers, 2012)

Some of his books now appear in the local library shelves of the National Library of the Philippines, De La Salle University, Ateneo de Manila University, University of Sto. Tomas, U.P. Diliman, Centro Escolar University, San Sebastian College, Miriam College, Silliman University, to name a few, as well as internationally at the National Library of Australia and the University of California Berkeley Library.

Now a senior citizen, he is probably one of the oldest, if not the oldest, active travel blogger in the country today. He also has a lifestyle blog called F.Y.I.:Firing Your Imagination (www.firingyourimagination.blogspot.com). Benjie has traveled to two-thirds (53) of the country’s 81 provinces and over 20 countries in 4 continents.