In Philadelphia’s historic district, just south of the Second Bank of the United States, stands a statue to Robert Morris, someone most of that city’s current residents will never have heard of. But Morris was a very important man in the country’s early history. If Robert Morris had had his way, the nation’s capital today wouldn’t be in Washington, DC. It would be in Philadelphia.
The JFK Library and Museum is like a physical evocation of Kennedy’s “New Frontier.” The whole place so evokes the optimism of that period in American history that I found myself wishing I could be transported back in time to see it for myself.
One of the most beautiful old buildings in Philadelphia’s historic district is a former bank with a lot of history behind it that’s now used as an art gallery. This is the Second Bank of the United States. It’s still called that, even though it hasn’t been used as a working bank for more than 180 years. It’s a hidden treasure. Really.
Lunch counters seem like a quaint piece of early 20th century Americana, and I have long loved them for that. But as with so much of the iconography of Americana, the ugly shadow of racism has tainted our memory of lunch counters and their place in the culture. And when I say lunch counters, I’m really thinking about one lunch counter in particular: the one that once stood in the Woolworth store in Greensboro, North Carolina.
One of the less well-advertised walking tours available at Independence National Historical Park takes visitors to a section of Philadelphia’s Old City loved by local residents but usually overlooked by visitors on their way to see Independence Hall or the Liberty Bell. This is a Philadelphia city park, just yards away from these more famous sites, that combines a quiet, shady respite from city hustle with an intriguing historical monument to the dead of the Revolutionary War.
I love the Freedom Trail. It’s basically just a red brick path that runs through historic Boston, but its existence transforms the visitor’s experience of that city. It’s very cool, and very Boston.
Fort Sumter in South Carolina is a good example of how times change in historical commemoration. Just as surely as the Confederate bombardment of the Union fort marked the start of that war on April 12, 1861, the calendar marked Sumter’s position at the leading edge of profound changes in Civil War centennial commemorations between 1961 and the sesquicentennial in 2011.
Whenever I see photos or newsreel footage of Martin Luther King’s “I have a dream” speech, I’ve taken a moment to wonder about the identities of the park rangers standing next to King. That also got me thinking more about King himself.
Dougie Does Monuments 