Читать книгу A guide book of art, architecture, and historic interests in Pennsylvania - Various Authors - Страница 14

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The earliest were connected with churches; some date almost from the beginning of the city.

Baptist. Blockley Cemetery, Meeting-House Lane, between Lancaster Avenue and Haverford Street; ground given, 1804. Church is at Fifty-third Street and Wyalusing Avenue. Dunker, Germantown, on Germantown Avenue above Sharpnack Street; oldest meeting-house of the German Baptists, or Dunkers, in America; erected, 1770. Burial ground opened, 1793; in it lie Alexander Mack, founder of the sect, and Harriet Livermore, the “Pilgrim Stranger” of Whittier’s “Snow Bound.” Mennonite, Germantown Avenue above Herman Street; church was built, 1770; many early Germantown settlers are buried in the yard. Pennypack, or Lower Dublin, Krewston Road near Pennypack Creek, one mile from Bustleton; here is oldest Baptist church edifice in Pennsylvania, built about 1707; in the old time graveyard are many curious moss covered tombstones.

Friends. When the graves are marked the stones are always small and inconspicuous. Fairhill Meeting, Germantown Avenue and Cambria Street; ground granted by William Penn; a large and beautiful old cemetery and near “Fairhill,” the great Norris estate. The Meeting House, Fourth and Arch Streets, was built in 1804, but the ground was used for burials many years before; it is one of the oldest cemeteries in Philadelphia. Some of the most prominent citizens of very early days lie here with nothing to mark their resting-place; it is computed that twenty thousand persons are interred here.

Jewish. Mikveh Israel, on Spruce Street, near Ninth; ground was granted to Nathan Levy by John Penn in 1738; here lies the beautiful Rebecca Gratz, original of Rebecca in Scott’s “Ivanhoe.” In August, 1913, the little burial ground was opened for the interment of her grandniece, the first burial for thirty years. Mount Sinai, Frankford Avenue, near Bridge Street, has imposing entrance, erected, 1854.

Lutheran. St. Michael’s, Germantown Avenue and Phil-Ellena Street, joins the church built about 1730; a notable grave, with flat marble stone resting on four columns, is that of Christopher Ludwig, “baker general” to the American army during the Revolution.

Methodist. St. Paul’s, Catharine Street near Sixth. Church is now used as an Italian mission; has a small graveyard.

Presbyterian. Of First and Third Churches, Southwest corner of Fourth and Pine Streets, First Church, Seventh and Locust Streets, has the eastern section. When the First Church abandoned its old Market Street site for the present locality, the bodies were moved whenever possible, and many of the old headstones were inserted in the south wall of the new graveyard. The Third Church, called “Old Pine,” divides the grounds, using the west section; both are most interesting, with many people of note interred, including David Rittenhouse; William Hurry, who is said to have rung the Liberty Bell when proclaiming independence; Dr. William Shippen, Director General of Hospitals during the war for Independence; many Revolutionary soldiers; and Captain Charles Ross of the First City Troop.

Protestant Episcopal. All Saints, Bristol Turnpike, Torresdale. Established 1772-73, when the first church edifice was built. Christ Church has two burialgrounds, one attached to the church on Second Street, North of Market, dating from the earliest days of the church, the other southeast corner of Fifth and Arch Streets, where first interment was made in 1730; graves of Benjamin Franklin and Deborah, his wife, are in the northwest corner; may be seen from Arch Street through an iron railing set in the brick wall; in these graveyards are buried many distinguished Americans; among them Peyton Randolph, first President of the Continental Congress; Commodores Truxton, Biddle, Bainbridge, and Dale; Robert Morris; several signers of the Declaration of Independence; Dr. Benjamin Rush, Dr. Philip Syng Physick, Bishop White, and Dr. William Augustus Muhlenberg. Gloria Dei (Old Swedes’), Front and Swanson Streets, south of Christian; church built, 1700, being the oldest church building in Philadelphia; a most interesting graveyard surrounds it; the celebrated ornithologist, Alexander Wilson, is buried here. St. James, Kingsessing, Sixty-eighth Street and Paschall Avenue; church erected, 1762; General Josiah Harmer, of the Revolution, is buried in the graveyard. St. James the Less, Hunting Park Avenue and Clearfield Street; this beautiful little Gothic church, brownstone, built 1847, has a number of fine monuments in the burial ground; John Wanamaker is buried here. St. Luke’s, Germantown Avenue and Coulter Street, church dates from 1818; the famous Philadelphia annalist, John Fanning Watson, is interred in the churchyard. St. Peter’s, southwest corner of Third and Pine Streets; in the graveyard lies the body of Commodore Stephen Decatur, the grave surmounted by an Ionic column supporting an American eagle; other notable names here are Chew, Cadwalader, Mifflin, Binney, Biddle, Peale, Waln, Meade, McCall, Duché, Norris, Kuhn, Montgomery. Trinity, Oxford, near Fox Chase, east of old Second Street Pike; present church dates from 1711; began as a log meeting house, 1698; tombstones date as early as 1708; the inscriptions on some are quaint and original.

Roman Catholic. Holy Trinity, northwest corner of Sixth and Spruce Streets, dates from 1789; on the old tombstones may be deciphered names of many of the early German and French inhabitants of Philadelphia. Stephen Girard was buried here until 1851, later his body was removed to Girard College. Most Holy Redeemer, Richmond Street, opposite Hedley Street, Bridesburg; many of the Redemptorist Fathers are buried here.