Eakins Oval
Encyclopedia
Benjamin Franklin Parkway
Benjamin Franklin Parkway is a scenic boulevard that runs through the cultural heart of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Named for favorite son Benjamin Franklin, the mile-long Parkway cuts diagonally across the grid plan pattern of Center City's Northwest quadrant...
, just in front of the Philadelphia Museum of Art
Philadelphia Museum of Art
The Philadelphia Museum of Art is among the largest art museums in the United States. It is located at the west end of the Benjamin Franklin Parkway in Philadelphia's Fairmount Park. The Museum was established in 1876 in conjunction with the Centennial Exposition of the same year...
, is Eakins Oval. The loop of road is usually host to a large volume of traffic as it connects the core of the city with Fairmount Park
Fairmount Park
Fairmount Park is the municipal park system of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It consists of 63 parks, with , all overseen by the Philadelphia Department of Parks and Recreation, successor to the Fairmount Park Commission in 2010.-Fairmount Park proper:...
, Kelly Drive
Kelly Drive
Kelly Drive, or more formally, John B. Kelly Drive, is a winding four-mile road along the Schuylkill River from Eakins Oval before the Philadelphia Museum of Art to the neighborhood of East Falls, Philadelphia, just south of Wissahickon Creek, where it connects with Lincoln Drive.-East River...
(formerly East River Drive), and Martin Luther King, Jr. Drive (formerly West River Drive). During holiday parades and other major municipal events, such as the Thanksgiving Day Parade, it is shut down to automobile traffic and it becomes the center stage for the gathering.
The oval was part of urban planner Jacques Gréber
Jacques Gréber
Jacques-Henri-Auguste Gréber was a French architect specializing in landscape architecture and urban design. He was a strong proponent of the Beaux-Arts style and a contributor to the City Beautiful movement, particularly in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and Ottawa, Ontario.-Early life and...
's design for the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, which he proposed in 1917.
The oval is named for Thomas Eakins
Thomas Eakins
Thomas Cowperthwait Eakins was an American realist painter, photographer, sculptor, and fine arts educator...
, Philadelphia resident, world-famous realist painter, and fine arts educator.
The southeastern side of the oval is used as a parking lot
Parking lot
A parking lot , also known as car lot, is a cleared area that is intended for parking vehicles. Usually, the term refers to a dedicated area that has been provided with a durable or semi-durable surface....
; it was originally part of the Parkway until traffic modifications isolated it in the 1960s.
The Washington Monument
Just inside the northwest edge of Eakins Oval, in front of the Philadelphia Museum of Art stairs, stands the Washington Monument fountain. It was commissioned and designed by sculptor Rudolf SiemeringRudolf Siemering
Rudolph Siemering was a German sculptor known for his works in Germany and the United States.-Biography:...
. The sculpture was dedicated in 1897 at the Green Street entrance to Fairmount Park
Fairmount Park
Fairmount Park is the municipal park system of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It consists of 63 parks, with , all overseen by the Philadelphia Department of Parks and Recreation, successor to the Fairmount Park Commission in 2010.-Fairmount Park proper:...
. It was moved in 1928 to its present location after construction on the parkway was completed. In 1997, work began to restore the statue under the direction of Margo Berg of the Philadelphia Art Commission. Over the years, the sculpture had loosened from its base, and the fountain had ceased to function properly. The restoration was completed in June of the same year, 100 years after it was dedicated.
The bronze and granite sculpture features a uniformed George Washington
George Washington
George Washington was the dominant military and political leader of the new United States of America from 1775 to 1799. He led the American victory over Great Britain in the American Revolutionary War as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army from 1775 to 1783, and presided over the writing of...
mounted on a horse. Washington and his horse are poised on top of the fountain, facing southeast down the Benjamin Franklin Parkway towards Philadelphia City Hall
Philadelphia City Hall
Philadelphia City Hall is the house of government for the city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. At , including the statue, it is the world's second-tallest masonry building, only shorter than Mole Antonelliana in Turin...
. The face of the sculpture was made from an impression of the former president made while he was still alive. The lowest level of the monument features animals and plants that are native to the United States.
Other fountains
The Washington Monument fountain is flanked by two smaller fountains, honoring Eli Kirk Price IIEli Kirk Price II
Eli Kirk Price II was a prominent Philadelphia lawyer, called "the foremost civic and cultural leader in early twentieth-century Philadelphia". He was the commissioner of Fairmount Park during the planning and development of the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, of which he was one of the principal...
and John Ericsson
John Ericsson
John Ericsson was a Swedish-American inventor and mechanical engineer, as was his brother Nils Ericson. He was born at Långbanshyttan in Värmland, Sweden, but primarily came to be active in England and the United States...
respectively.
Transportation tunnels
Beneath Eakins Oval and the surrounding area are two tunnels, both originally for rail traffic, and constructed in the 1920s at the same time as the Oval, the Parkway, and the Art Museum. The lower tunnel, built for the Baltimore and Ohio RailroadBaltimore and Ohio Railroad
The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was one of the oldest railroads in the United States and the first common carrier railroad. It came into being mostly because the city of Baltimore wanted to compete with the newly constructed Erie Canal and another canal being proposed by Pennsylvania, which...
, is owned by successor CSX and carries freight trains on a single track (originally double). The upper tunnel carried streetcars on the Spring Garden Street line (Route 43) of Philadelphia Rapid Transit (PRT) and successor Philadelphia Transportation Company (PTC) until 1956. This double-track tunnel was then completely rebuilt in 1960 to carry two lanes of one-way (westbound only) traffic on Spring Garden from Pennsylvania Avenue to the Spring Garden Street Bridge over the Schuylkill River
Schuylkill River
The Schuylkill River is a river in Pennsylvania. It is a designated Pennsylvania Scenic River.The river is about long. Its watershed of about lies entirely within the state of Pennsylvania. The source of its eastern branch is in the Appalachian Mountains at Tuscarora Springs, near Tamaqua in...
; currently only one lane is in use. This tunnel crosses over the top of the CSX tunnel in the middle. Today's Route 43 buses, operated by SEPTA, circle the Oval and do not use the tunnel.
Gallery
Image:Image-Detail from Washington Monument in Philadelphia-0.jpg|Detail from the top of the monument, facing southest.
Image:Detail from Washington Monument in Philadelphia-1.jpg|Detail from the southeast side of the monument.
Image:Detail from Washington Monument in Philadelphia-2.jpg|Detail from the northeast side of the monument.
File:Washington Monument in Philadelphia, Pa - detail.jpg|Detail from the southeast side
Image:George_Washington_Monument.jpg|The monument with the Museum in the background.
See also
- Center City, PhiladelphiaCenter City, PhiladelphiaCenter City, or Downtown Philadelphia includes the central business district and central neighborhoods of the City of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. As of 2005, its population of over 88,000 made it the third most populous downtown in the United States, after New York City's and Chicago's...
- List of monuments dedicated to George Washington
External links
- The City of Philadelphia Department of Public Property - Additional Photographs of the Washington Monument fountain
- Fairmount Park Official Website
- Photosynth of the Washington Monument fountain 3D look at the Washington Monument fountain