Fairmount Park Conservancy

The Celebration Continues…

Final preparations are being made for the benefit cocktail reception on Sunday, September 16, 2007 hosted by the Women for the Water Works at the Water Works Restaurant & Lounge. Proceeds benefit the campaign to restore the Cliffside Paths and provide for a maintenance endowment for the Water Works landscape.

It promises to be another dazzling and enjoyable evening. The award-winning Water Works Restaurant and Lounge will provide a myriad of delectable bites and beverages. This year’s entertainment includes performances by the Rock School for Dance Education; Harpist, Madeline Blood; and a talented group of jazz musicians from the University of the Arts School of Music. Also, the event’s presenting sponsor, Northeast Lincoln Mercury, will be raffling off a two year lease for a 2008 Lincoln MKX.

From its opening in the early 1800s, the Fairmount Water Works, the nation’s first municipal water filtration and delivery system, was considered an engineering marvel and an architectural masterpiece. The South Garden, with its graceful trees, statuary and centerpiece fountain, was a tourist sensation and formed the basis for what would become the Fairmount Park System. The original Cliffs Path, carved into the stone face of “Faire Mount,” ascended from the Water Works to the elevated reservoir that held the City’s main water supply. Today, the Water Works is a national historic landmark. By the early 1900s, the Water Works were no longer in use, popularity of the South Garden, and, eventually, the condition of the South Garden and Cliffside declined.

In 1974, the Junior League of Philadelphia took up raising the funds needed to restore the iconic, neoclassical buildings of the Water Works. Susan Myers and Virginia Maloney chaired a committee dedicated to bringing the issue of restoration to the forefront in Philadelphia. In the 1990s, local feminist and environmentalist Ernesta Ballard, a founding member of the Fairmount Park Conservancy and a former Park commissioner, began working with the Junior League to pull in the big dollars needed to complete the restoration. Before her death in August 2005, she had helped raise $23 million over the course of a decade for renovations to the elegant terrace, pavilions and Federal Style buildings of the Water Works complex.

To continue this signature project, the Fairmount Park Conservancy formed the Women for the Water Works in January 2006. This volunteer committee of more than 100 members has raised $4.5M for the restoration of this unique civic space. Last summer, we celebrated the opening of the Central Cliffside Path, providing a seamless connection from the Water Works to the Philadelphia Museum of Art. At last year’s celebration, the newly restored South Garden was unveiled to all in attendance.

We hope you will join us for a remarkable evening celebrating women’s leadership and the exquisite crown jewel of Philadelphia. For more information, please call 215-988-9334 or visit www.fairmountparkconservancy.org

Andorra Meadows Anytime, Any Season

By Trish Fries
Environmental Education Planner, Fairmount Park

The summer heat makes many of us long for the cool shade of the steeply sloped Wissahickon Valley Park. But, if you’re looking for a quiet corner of the park, sunny and warm, rich with sounds of birds and insects, take a short walk from the Wissahickon Environmental Center to the meadows of the Andorra Natural Area. In contrast with most of the Wissahickon Valley, the Andorra meadows lie high above the valley offering open space, sunshine, and fewer people.

The meadows were once farm fields, supplying corn and fresh produce at a farm stand at Ridge Avenue.  After the farm fields were abandoned in the 1970’s, they became overgrown with vines, young trees and unfortunately invasive plants. Fairmount Park staff and volunteers from the Friends of the Wissahickon have worked for many years to establish and maintain the Andorra meadows. Well maintained, the meadows attract a variety of plants and birds not found in the forests of the Park. Volunteers have placed bird boxes in the meadows to attract such cavity nesting birds as the Eastern Bluebird, Carolina Chickadee, and Tree Swallows.

There is wildlife to see and hear anytime of the year. As you enter the meadow in the spring and summer, your arrival is likely to be announced by the Eastern Towhee. Listen high in the tree for this bird’s characteristic, “drink-your-teeeee” call. Look for bluebirds and other cavity nesting birds inhabiting the bird boxes.

Visiting the meadows at sunset gives the visitor a chance to see the fields come alive with sparkling light as thousands of fireflies light up the sky. Bats can also be seen flying high above the fields searching for insects. Look for the deer and fox at the meadow’s edge.

 Late summer is a colorful time of year in the meadows. Goldenrod and asters provide a sea of yellow and purple, outdone only by the splendid monarch butterflies attracted to the dogbane and milkweed. Blackberries can be found along the edges of the fields, feeding hungry hikers and wildlife alike.

In autumn, the color of oaks and dogwoods along the edges of the meadows contrast with the beiges of the field grasses. Praying mantis are full grown and easy to spot along the tall stems of goldenrod.

Winter is the quietest time of year in the meadows. After a fresh snowfall, strap on your snow shoes and head out to see signs of fox and deer, and mice (they inhabit the bird houses vacated by the summer residents.)

The Wissahickon Environmental Center offers programs throughout the year interpreting the life of the meadow. Firefly Fireworks in July provide a natural firework display with a hike to the meadows.  A Critter Picnic in September allows participants to look up close for insects as they picnic in the fields. Full moon hikes each season include a walk to the meadows where the moon is so bright no additional light is needed for walking. Phone the Wissahickon Environmental Center at 215.685.9285 for further information.

Discover Fairmount Park in Your Neighborhood
Ice Cream and Historic Houses

What could be better than eating ice cream in Fairmount Park on a sunny June morning?  Absolutely nothing, unless of course that ice cream is homemade and served to you directly out of a wooden ice cream churn. Community members of Strawberry Mansion, Brewerytown, and Sharswood enjoyed homemade ice cream and colonial games at Fairmount Park’s “Historic House Walk & Ice Cream Making” program in East Park on Saturday, June 2, 2007 from 10am-noon.  The free program was one of four events in the Discover Fairmount Park in Your Neighborhood initiative in East Park sponsored by Fairmount Park in partnership with the East Park Revitalization Alliance and Audubon Pennsylvania.  Participants met at 33rd & Dauphin Streets and strolled along the Boxers’ Trail (named for boxers--including Joe Frazer--who used the trail to train) and stopped at Woodford and Laurel Hill Mansions where guides gave a tour of the historic houses.  The morning event was topped off with lemonade and homemade ice cream served on Laurel Hill’s lawn overlooking the Schuylkill River.  The event drew 51 adults, children and volunteers.

Discover Fairmount Park in Your Neighborhood is a new outreach program initiative of Fairmount Park’s Environment, Stewardship & Education Division, providing environmental programs in the East Park community.  The goal for this initiative is to help community members become familiar and comfortable in the natural areas of their adjacent parks and to then use these park areas for their own recreation and enjoyment….and ultimately to become stewards for the park! This initiative targets a variety of populations including schools, community members, and families.

Upcoming events include A Tree Walk......In Your Neighborhood. Join us on Saturday, September 15, 2007 in front of the Cowboy Mural at Natrona and Montgomery Streets in the Strawberry Mansion neighborhood to discover ways to identify trees in your own neighborhood and why trees are important.

My Favorite Part

By Mark A. Focht, ASLA
Executive Director, Fairmount Park

I am very pleased to serve as the author of the inaugural What's Your Favorite Part column in Fairmount Park NEWS.  However, to be truthful, asking me to write about my favorite place in the Fairmount Park system is like asking someone to pick a favorite child.  How can I choose among our 63 parks, with their diversity and beauty?

So, I’m not going to do it!  How is that for defying the very concept of this column?  Instead, I want to write about something more important than a particular place.  The spirit of Fairmount Park.  Whether it is one of the smallest (LaNoce, Christ Church) or largest (Pennypack, Wissahickon Valley), our parks contain a sense of place and serenity that is very valuable in hectic urban environments.  I will never forget how, in the days following September 11, 2001 many people commented to me how they sought solace in parks and open spaces throughout the city.  I personally found myself in Rittenhouse Square following a memorial service in a nearby church.  It just seemed natural to gravitate towards the peace of the Square.

The richness of spirit of the park system is embodied in its diversity.  From north (Poquessing Creek) to south (FDR) and east (Penn Treaty) to west (Cobbs Creek), the places that comprise our great park system serve to enhance the lives of a broad range of Philadelphians, our friends, families and guests.  The system provides active recreation, environmental education, passive learning and quiet contemplation.  Whether it is a sculpture or building, meadow or forest, lake or garden, it is difficult to not find a place in Fairmount Park to sooth your soul.

Need a break from your routine?  How about tending a community garden in Fisher Park, riding the carousel in Franklin Square, lying under a tree in McMichael Park or visit the animals at Fox Chase Farm?  It is all available to you in one of the largest urban park systems in this country.  The diversity of experiences you have and people you meet are a hallmark of the Fairmount Park system.  It is an incredible idea which began 152 years ago and continues to grow to meet an ever-increasing thirst for open green space.

I hope you will join me in continuing to enhance the spirit of the park.  Get engaged.  Volunteer, support, donate.  Help however you can.  The park system is collectively and singularly one of Philadelphia’s greatest assets.  It is ours to use, respect and enjoy.   

I would like to think that William Penn would be very proud of his city and our park system.  Thank you for allowing me to share my thoughts about the spirit of Fairmount Park.  I look forward to reading about others’ favorite places in the park system.  And yes, you must play by the rules and write about a place!