It may not be clear from the fact that I readily admit that I am a lush, but I'm really a huge nerd. I admit this now, because its time we were honest with each other (all three people who read this), and because it explains this post, in which I explore historical Philadelphia in a half hour.
The time limit is because this half hour was my break from work. I sort-of-kind-of work in the entertainment industry (sorta. kinda.), so when there's nothing to promote there's nothing to do, and I spend 7 hours at a desk playing
travian and annoying my boss by asking her for work every twenty minutes. I finally got frustrated, pretended I was going to Cosi's for some overpriced coffee (entertainment people love overpriced coffee), and went walking through the streets.
Franklin's Court happens to be less than a block from my office. This is my favorite spot in the city, and has been since I was a child. Unfortunately, it closes its gates before my work day ends, so I rarely get to go there even though I'm so close.
The Court is the former home of Ben Franklin. In 1812 his grandchildren sold it for some reason, and the original house and printing office were torn down to make way for row homes, which were then torn down when the city realized what a great tourist trap Franklin's house was. The property is a square featuring gardens and hollow outlines (pictured) of where the house and printing office once stood. Best of all, and the original reason my mother and I came here all the time, it houses an underground museum, which is free to the public and air conditioned. Air conditioning is very important.
I love the area because since its literally inside of the block, very few people know its there. Once tourist season ends the place is virtually deserted. Even now, smack dab in the middle of the annual "tourists attack the city" month (the week around July 4th, for obvious reasons, is unbearable for natives), there were maybe seven people wandering around the entire square. That's heaven.
I like cutting through back alleys and finding the lesser known historical areas of the city. I took a picture today (which I may upload later if I remember) of the window where my best friend swears he saw a ghost one night. His story is helped by the fact that that house is supposed to be the most haunted house in the city (its diagonal to Carpenter's Hall, south of it, on the corner of 2nd if you want to go ghost hunting).
Post 9-11 Philadelphia, unfortunately, is not the Philadelphia I grew up with. Once upon a time the park behind Independence Hall was my playground. Today, to get anywhere near the building you have to go through a metal detector, stand in a 2 hour line, and be forced to tour the entire building and liberty bell first. No thanks. I love the building, and I love this city, but some nights when I wander by it I'm afraid to linger too long, lest some Park Ranger think I'm plotting something.
I find it sad that Ben Franklin is the city's patron saint (not literally of course. He wasn't Catholic.), who warned us that "those who sacrifice liberty for security deserve neither," and this is what his former neighborhood has become. Obsessed with pretending to be safe when, really, what the hell is a tiny fence that comes up to an adult's waist going to do?
While we're on the subject of Independence Hall, the geography of Philadelphia in National Treasure is wrong. It's the wrongiest most wrong layout of the city ever. Please do not come here and expect to be able to walk from the Hall to South Street to Reading Terminal in five minutes. You will be laughed at, and then keel over and die from trying it.
As a final note: I did eventually go get my overpriced coffee from Cosi. As I walked into the store, the woman behind me turned to her friend and said "yeah, this is it for historical Philadelphia. It's just these few block." That lady is wrong, and may inspire a future entry. Maybe.
