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American Treasure Tour
Back in August, on the first day of our road trip, I parked in a large, mostly empty parking lot next to a former tire factory. My mom, who prefers not to know most of our road trip stops ahead of time, was confused. Even I was wondering if I had the right location, but just a few minutes later we found ourselves in the middle of one of the most eclectic, enormous collections I’ve ever seen. The American Treasure Tour, located in a 100,000 square foot facility in Oaks, Pennsylvania, is the work of one, anonymous collector.
The facility is open for tours Thursdays through Sunday, but we were the only ones there on a Friday afternoon. Visitors are allowed to wander through portions of the collection on their own, but the guided tram tour is where you see the majority of the mind-boggling amount of stuff.
It’s probably easier to say what isn’t in the collection (if there’s anything actually missing)—but on the tour you’ll see mannequins, wax figures, stuffed animals, miniatures, doll houses, pianos, classic cars, holiday decorations, dolls, radios, signs, wheelchairs, bicycles, movie posters, circus wagons, pipe organs and pretty much anything else you can possibly imagine.
The collection also includes an enormous shoe, the World’s Largest Slinky and the World’s Largest Popsicle Stick Castle, made from nearly 400,000 popsicle sticks. Perhaps the most whimsical thing about the tour is that so many things move or make sound—animated window display figures do flips and Wurlitzer organs play in harmony as you slowly make your way around the complex.
The American Treasure Tour is impressive not just for its scale, but for its organization and cleanliness—when the entire collection has been dusted, the process immediately starts over again at the beginning. I’m dying to know more about the owner, who has been collecting for more than 50 years with no end in sight—our tour guide said that new pieces appear frequently.
They say one man’s trash is another’s treasure and that’s true here to the extreme. I appreciate the equalizing nature of the collection, with no one thing appearing to hold more significance than another—priceless cars are parked right next to old Chuck E. Cheese figurines and cheap, creepy dolls are perched on one-of-a-kind antiques, proving that under the right circumstances, everything—even a lowly popsicle stick—can have value.
American Treasure Tour
One American Treasure Way
Oaks, PA
Don’t miss the Happy Halfwit Muffler Man around the corner at Arnold’s Family Fun Center
Civil War Tails
Civil War Tails at the Historic Homestead is an attraction in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Located in the National Soldiers’ Orphans’ Homestead—used as an orphanage for soldiers’ children after the war—Civil War Tails is a museum featuring dioramas populated with hand-made miniature soldiers, trees, horses, cannon and ships. The “tails” part of the name is not a mistake—the miniature soldiers are actually cats, individually sculpted out of clay and painted to resemble Union or Confederate soldiers.
I shouldn’t have to explain why I wanted to visit a museum with dioramas filled with miniature cats, but unique, passion projects like Civil War Tails are my very favorite thing to see on road trips. The museum was started by identical twin sisters, Rebecca and Ruth. They both shared a love of cats, and an interest in the Civil War was sparked when they were young and read the biographies of Civil War generals Robert E. Lee and Ulysses S. Grant. Cats were easier to sculpt than humans, and thus Civil War Tails was born.
Every diorama is made on a one-to-one ratio with to-scale figures—each cat represents one soldier. The detail is incredible, and they continue to create new dioramas and improve upon their techniques. Current scenes include Fort Sumter, Pickett’s Charge, Little Round Top, Andersonville Prison and even photography pioneer Matthew Brady setting up his camera on the battlefield.
We were the only visitors the the Homestead, so we got a private tour led by one of the twins. She was clearly passionate about each scene and described them in great detail. There is a exhibit showing the evolution of the sisters’ craft, and you can take home a tiny clay cat souvenir if you wish. My favorite part about Civil War Tails was the ticket itself—an optimistic punch card that awards visitors with free admission on their tenth visit.
Civil War Tails
785 Baltimore Street
Gettysburg, PA
Hours vary by season-check here before you go
Mister Ed's Elephant Museum + Candy Emporium
After a night spent in Gettysburg, I couldn’t pass up a 20-minute detour to see what is billed as the “Gettysburg area’s most unique attraction.” Mister Ed’s was opened by “Mister Ed” Gotwalt in 1975 and he sold the business to his granddaughter Nicole and her husband Isaac in 2014.
The 82-year-old Mister Ed is something of a local celebrity—he stayed up 76 hours during the nation’s bicentennial and stages elaborate Fourth of July fireworks displays and Christmas celebrations. He received his first elephant as a wedding gift and the collection grew as he started to receive elephants as gifts and donations. The museum part of the general store can be viewed free of charge and now contains more than 12,000 elephant figurines.
In July of 2010, the store caught fire and was destroyed. More than 2,000 elephants were lost in the fire, but Gotwalt received thousands of donations from across the world and opened a new store in February of 2011. Outside the store is an elephant graveyard, full of the broken bits of figurines that couldn’t be saved.
In addition to the elephants that can be found nearly everywhere on the property, Mister Ed’s also has a lovely garden with Bigfoot, Jon Deer and a stairway to nowhere. I don’t really care about teapots, but I do love novelty architecture so I was charmed by Miss Pat’s (Ed’s wife) teapot museum shaped like a big teapot.
They sell more than 900 different candies, make more than 100 flavors of fudge and roast their own jumbo peanuts. Every Thursday is peanut day at Mister Ed’s and they roast at least five small batches of Virginia jumbo peanuts in a small shed outside. Sadly we didn’t visit on peanut day, so I’ll just have to believe Mister Ed when he says that “there are few things better than the smell of good nuts roasting.”
Mister Ed’s
6019 Chambersburg Rd
Orrtanna, PA 17353
Gettysburg Dime Museum
The Gettysburg Dime Museum opened in May of 2016, and sadly it is set to close for good in November. The owner and curator of the museum is Mark Kosh, an Air Force veteran and retired Pennsylvania state trooper, who had spent nearly two decades collecting hundreds of oddities with the hopes of eventually opening up a museum.
Dime museums were popular during the 19th and early 20th centuries and were so named because admission cost ten cents. The “museums” featured oddities, curiosities, strange taxidermy, wax figures and anything else you might find in a sideshow. It’s never clear which items are real and which are completely made up, which is the fun of the dime museum (predecessor to the cheesy, but still entertaining Ripley’s Believe it or Not! tourist traps).
My mom and I spent quite a while gawking at the collection, which includes medical oddities, taxidermy hybrids, a full-size wax replica of Jesus and his disciples during the Last Supper, the World’s Largest (and only) Ball ‘O’ Ties and a room filled with mementos and art from notorious serial killers such as John Wayne Gacy. Because this is Gettysburg, Kosh’s collection also includes Abraham Lincoln’s last bowel movement and a plaque containing the Gettysburg Address spelled out with alphabet soup noodles.
Unfortunately, not everyone appreciates such a low-tech, out-of-the-ordinary experience and Kosh is closing the museum after just two years. He told us that tourism in Gettysburg as a whole has declined over the years and the museum—despite the $7 admission price, not exactly a dime, but still very reasonable—has been losing money since it opened.
Kosh will be selling off most of his collection when the museum closes in November, although a lot of the more desirable pieces have already been claimed (like the serial killer memorabilia). When he asked me which of the pieces I was interested in, I found it impossible to specify (I can’t make that Sophie’s Choice!). He advised that I check his Facebook page for updates, but I’m just happy that we were able to take a tour while we still could.
Gettysburg Dime Museum
224 Baltimore Street,
Gettysburg, PA 17325
Open Saturdays only, 10am-5pm through November 17th, 2018.
Graffiti Highway
Centralia, located in Columbia County, Pennsylvania, became a virtual ghost town due to a coal mine fire that has been burning underneath the town since 1962. It is the least-populated municipality in Pennsylvania and in 2013 Centralia had just seven permanent residents. The USPS discontinued Centralia’s ZIP code in 2002 and in 2013 an agreement was reached with the seven remaining residents allowing them continue living in Centralia, with the stipulation that after they die the rights to their houses would transfer to the state.
The first mines opened in Centralia in 1856, and the town’s population peaked in 1890. World War I and the stock market crash of 1929 contributed to a decline in coal production through to the 1960s. And in 1962, when a fire in the town landfill, located in an abandoned strip-mine, was not properly extinguished, it spread into a maze of abandoned mines beneath Centralia. I was told that warmth from the fire can still be felt today through cracks in the pavement, and I think I felt something, but it’s probably more pronounced in the colder months.
In 1981, 12-year-old Centralia resident Todd Domboski fell into a sinkhole that appeared in his backyard. He was pulled out by his cousin, but it was discovered that the hot steam emanating from the hole contained a lethal level of carbon monoxide. In 1983, the government provided more than $42 million to relocate Centralia’s remaining residents, with more than 1,000 people accepting the offer while 500 buildings were demolished.
In 1992 all of the remaining property in Centralia was condemned and the fire spread beneath the nearby village of Byrnesville, which was also abandoned. A section of Route 61 was permanently closed in 1994 because of severe damage from the fire. In 2018, the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation ruled that it could never be used again as a highway and turned ownership of the three-quarters of a mile stretch of road—now known as the Graffiti Highway—over to adjacent property owners.
This change in ownership means state police are no longer issuing citations for trespassing, and word must have spread because on a Sunday afternoon the “abandoned” road was full of families adding their own spray-painted designs to the cracked and buckled pavement. While it wasn’t quite the desolate place that I was expecting—I could have done without the bros on four-wheelers—it was still a great place to get out of the car and stretch our legs amidst a colorful, post-apocalyptic backdrop.
Graffiti Highway
Runs parallel to the current PA-61 (there is parking along the side of the road)
Centralia, PA 17921
Muffler Man: Arnold's Half Wit
The Happy Half Wit, manufactured by International Fiberglass, was originally called Mortimer Snerd after ventriloquist Edgar Bergen's puppet. The Half Wits have faces that resemble Alfred E. Neuman of MAD magazine and they are a variant on the classic Muffler Man (others include Cowboys, Indians, Texaco Big Friends and UniRoyal Gals).
The Half Wits (a name coined by Roadside America) were produced for mini golf courses along the east coast and Ohio. They came in one of two color schemes: yellow shirt with suspenders and blue pants (with patches) or red shirt and yellow suspenders with blue pants (no patches). They also have one of two hat styles: a round farmer-type hat or a conductor hat that was made by modifying the round style.
The Half Wits are much more rare than the traditional Bunyan Muffler Men and I just recently met my third one (my first was at the Magic Forest in Lake George and my second was at Mr. Bill’s in New Jersey). There were once two Happy Half Wits on the boardwalk in Seaside Heights, NJ and both were damaged by Superstorm Sandy in 2012. In 2014, one was restored and moved to Oaks, PA where it currently sits outside of Arnold's Family Fun Center.
The Arnold’s Half Wit lost his suspenders in the renovation, but he’s still the best Half Wit I’ve seen. While the one at Mr. Bill’s does have the suspenders, his complexion is a bit off—and the Amish-style Half Wit at the Magic Forest begs many, many questions. While Arnold’s Family Fun Center might not be worth the price of admission—one review is titled “What a dump!”—luckily you can see their Happy Half Wit (and his giraffe pal) free of charge.
Arnold’s Family Fun Center
2200 West Drive
Oaks, PA 19456
Soldiers' National Cemetery
Soldiers' National Cemetery, in Gettysburg, is the final resting place of 3,512 Civil War casualties, 979 of which are unknown. It has sections for veterans of other wars, along with graves of the veterans' spouses and children. An annex was added in 1968 to accommodate servicemen killed in Vietnam, but soon filled to capacity and the cemetery officially closed to new burials in 1978.
Shortly after the battle ended, Pennsylvania Governor Andrew Curtin was horrified at what he saw: "ruined farms, homes filled with injured men, fresh graves of the fallen in every conceivable place on the field. Many of the Union dead lay in unmarked graves, only the fresh sod thrown over the remains identified the site as a burial. Heavy rains had washed away the earth from many of the shallow graves. Grotesquely blackened hands, arms and legs protruded from the earth like "the devil's own planting... a harvest of death" while the stench of death hung heavy in the air."
Several citizens approached the Governor with plans for a cemetery and he agreed that the commonwealth would provide funds and help transfer the remains of the Union dead from their initial burial plots. Soldiers' National Cemetery was established on the aptly named, Cemetery Hill, a portion of the nearly 4,000 acre-battlefield.
The cemetery is perhaps best known for its dedication ceremony, which took place on November 19, 1863. Edward Everett, who served as a US Senator, Governor of Massachusetts, Minister to Great Britain, Secretary of State and president of Harvard, delivered a two-hour keynote address. After a brief musical interlude, President Abraham Lincoln—invited to give a few remarks—rose and in just two minutes delivered his famous Gettysburg Address.
The cemetery has traditional, plain white tombstones set in rows like other national cemeteries, as well as flat numbered markers and several large sculptural monuments. Cemetery Hill has breathtaking views and it's hard to imagine that such a beautiful place could have been host to three days of such horror.
Soldiers' National Cemetery
1195 Baltimore Pike,
Gettysburg, PA 17325
Tiny World
Ernest Helm, creator of Tiny World in Shippensburg, Pennsylvania, died in October of 2015 at the age of 91. He had been working on Tiny World since after he retired in the early '80s. His first tiny building was a Victorian-style “cat house” for the multiple cats that (still) roam his property. Tiny World includes everything you'd need in a town, inspired by buildings from Helm's life—a gas station, church, mill, general store, water tower, outhouses, a school, log cabins, a restaurant, a barn, fire station and several tiny homes.
Since his death, Tiny World has been maintained by Helm's daughter and son-in-law, Wendell Myers. It's a bit overgrown, the plexiglass windows have clouded. It's a shame because each structure has an equally detailed interior to match its exterior, complete with tiny versions of furniture, food and artwork. Myers worked on the village with Helm, and the two added electricity to the buildings.
For someone who wasn't trained in carpentry or the arts, Helm certainly had an eye for creating miniatures. I particularly love the tiny shingles (presumably cut down from real shingles), the teeny shutters and decorative railings. I've always had a soft spot for miniatures and I once spent a summer making furnishings for a dollhouse (found in this book) that I never had. I also like things that are bigger than they should be, but miniatures are significantly easier to make and collect.
I don't know if Tiny World gets much day traffic since Helm is no longer creating new structures, but the Christmas lights, decorations and train display still attract a large crowd at the end of each year. In addition to several (very friendly) cats, the property is also home to a few peacocks. Tiny World doesn't charge an entrance fee and although our visit was brief, I made sure to drop a small donation in the box. "We're not doing it to make money, we're doing it because we enjoy it and we like to see people enjoying it," Myers said.
Roadside America has a great article about visiting Helm and his creations—my favorite part is the reason Helm gave for building Tiny World: "It was something to do." I love novelty architecture and big roadside statues, but my favorite part about these road trips is rapidly becoming places like Tiny World. Ernest Helm didn't create Tiny World to become Instagram famous or to please anyone but his cats. He needed a way to fill time and he ended up creating a perfect little place that people can continue to enjoy—even if Helm is no longer a part of our tiny world.
Tiny World
6720 Rice Road
Shippensburg, Pennsylvania 17257
Old St. Mary Cemetery
I had been to a few of the well-known cemeteries in Philadelphia—Christ Church Burial Ground and Mount Moriah—but it wasn't until my recent trip that I realized I should check out the Find A Grave app to see if there were any other little city churchyards I was missing. I had some time after my City Hall tour and before we had to catch our train, so I searched the app and headed to the closest cemetery, Old St. Mary's.
I've been frustrated in Philly (and other cities) before when I trekked to a cemetery only to encounter a locked gate, but I'm always cautiously optimistic. At first it appeared as if I had struck out at St. Mary's, but I circled the block and found an open gate near the parking lot.
Old St. Mary's Church was established in 1763, and in 1782 a parish school—the first in America to be connected to a Catholic church—opened and remains in operation today. It was the first Roman Catholic cathedral in Philadelphia and worshippers included George Washington, John Adams and several members of the Continental Congress (they officially attended services here four times from 1777 to 1781). The church also hosted the first public religious commemoration of the Declaration of Independence.
The cemetery was established in 1759 and the oldest legible tombstone belongs to Arthur Cample, who died on June 11, 1769. After the Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1793, the cemetery was enlarged by adding an extra layer of soil to the ground level. As a result of the epidemic, an orphanage was established for children that had been found wandering the streets. The Roman Catholic Society for Educating and Maintaining Poor Orphan Children (phew) was run by the Sisters of St. Joseph of Charity, who assisted the city during another epidemic (cholera) in 1832. At least one of these orphans and several Sisters are buried beneath a worn stone with the words "orphan asylum" still visible.
Other notable burials include Thomas Fitzsimons, a deputy from Pennsylvania to the Continental Congress and signer of the Constitution; Anthony Quervelle, a cabinetmaker chosen by Andrew Jackson to design tables for the East Room of the White House; Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis's great-great-grandfather Michael Bouvier; Commodore John Barry, father of the American Navy; and the Honorable James Campbell, who, in his 81 years of life, managed to be the Judge of the Court of Common Pleas, Attorney General of Pennsylvania and Postmaster General of the United States.
Old St. Mary's Cemetery
252 S. 4th Street
Philadelphia, PA 19106
Philadelphia City Hall Tower Tour
Construction of Philadelphia's ornate, Second Empire-style City Hall began in 1871 and it wasn't finished until 30 years later. It's currently the largest municipal building in the country—the ground floor is made of 22-foot-thick solid granite and the 548-foot tower is the tallest masonry structure without a steel frame in the world.
It wasn't until I was researching for this travel guide of Philadelphia that I discovered that the tower has an observation deck. I'm not afraid of heights and I love surveying cities from above, so I was eager to get back to Philly and take the tour. Tower tours are offered Monday-Friday 9:30am-4:15pm and only on "select Saturdays." We were in Philly for July 4th and our train didn't leave until 2pm the next day so I took a 10:15am tour on Thursday.
The most difficult part of the tour is finding the visitors' center in City Hall—I wandered in and out of the ground floor before I finally found it. Tickets for the tower tour can be purchased in the gift shop, and be aware that they are extremely limited. Although the official closing hour is 4:15pm, the tower was closing at noon on Thursday, probably due to the heat. You have to meet an elevator operator on the 7th floor no later than 15 minutes before your scheduled tour time, and the extremely small elevator only holds four people (including the operator).
The elevator operator asked if any of us were claustrophobic or afraid of heights and I lied when I said no to the former—enclosed spaces are not thrilling to me on a regular day, but in the extreme heat and humidity the tiny, airless elevator ride could not have been over soon enough for me. The inside of the tower itself is mainly just filled with support structures and a few pieces of communications equipment, but you pass behind the four, 26-foot-wide clock faces—bigger than Big Ben—as you ascend to the top.
The observation deck is small and mostly enclosed but the 360 views of the city are spectacular. The deck sits right under the 37-foot-tall, 27-ton statue of Penn, one of 250 sculptures created by Alexander Milne Calder for City Hall. In 1894, the statue was hauled to the top of the tower in fourteen separate sections and it is still the largest statue to sit atop any building in the world. A gentleman's agreement dictated that no building in the surrounding skyline was to rise higher than the top of Penn's hat—an agreement that held for nearly 100 years, until 1986 with the construction of One Liberty Place.
City Hall Tower Tour
1400 John F Kennedy Blvd
Philadelphia, PA 19107
Tours every 15 minutes Mon-Fri, 9:30am-4:15pm and select Saturdays
Travel Guide: Philadelphia
My mom and I recently took a day trip to Philly, and when I started adding it up, I realized that it was my fifth time in the city of brotherly love. Two of those trips were overnights and three were day trips. One of the joys of living in New York is its proximity to other places on the East Coast, and thanks to regional transit it's easy to take a day trip when you're in the mood for a change. Philly is an hour and a half away from New York by Amtrak, but if you're on a budget and don't mind some extra train time (🙋), regional transit will get you there in three hours (it will probably take you longer than that to read this travel guide).
GETTING THERE:
If time is more of a concern than money, Amtrak is your best bet. It will get you from Penn Station to the 30th Street Station in Philadelphia in and hour and a half (an hour and 12 minutes if you take the express). The lowest price for a one-way ticket is about $39 if you book far in advance and tickets can be much more expensive than that—especially if you want reasonable times.
For most of the day trips, I've taken regional transit. It takes twice as long, but it's cheaper and more flexible—$56 roundtrip and trains run every hour. At Penn Station in the NJ Transit area, buy tickets for 30th Street, Philadelphia. You'll get two sets of tickets, and you have to transfer trains once. The first train goes from Penn Station -> Trenton, and then at Trenton you'll board a train that terminates at Philadelphia. In both cases you're getting off at the last stop so you don't have to pay much attention, and there's usually no more than a ten-minute wait at Trenton for your transfer to Philly. After you get out at the 30th Street Station, be sure to check out the four eagles on the Market Street Bridge—they're from the original Penn Station.
There are bus options as well—Greyhound, Megabus and others—but I get car sick and prefer the train so I've never taken one. Once you're in Philly, Uber is much cheaper than it is in New York, and they also have their own Subway and Trolley systems.
My favorite place in Philly, by far, is the Mütter Museum. The museum began as a donation of 1,700 objects and $30,000 from Thomas Dent Mütter, MD. It has grown to include more than 25,000 objects, including sections of Einstein's brain, a large human skull collection, the Soap Lady, the conjoined liver of Siamese twins Chang & Eng, President Grover Cleveland's jaw tumor, the tallest skeleton on display in North America and the world's largest colon (above). Unfortunately photographs are not allowed inside the museum, but that hasn't stopped me from going three times since 2014. They have an exhibition space that hosts rotating art and photographic installations—Woven Strands: The Art of Human Hair Work is on display now until September 16th.
Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell
Tickets to Independence Hall are free, but required if you're visiting in March through December. Tours are given every 15, 20 or 30 minutes, depending on the season and you'll see where both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were debated and adopted. The building was completed in 1753 and hosted the Second Continental Congress from 1775 to 1783 and the Constitutional Convention in 1787.
Is it worth it to wait in a line that often snakes around the block to see the Liberty Bell? Probably not. But we did it on my first visit, so I can say I've seen it—and was frustrated with the inability to get a good, tourist-less photo of this iconic piece of American history. No tickets are required, but if you don't have much time, you can catch a pretty good glimpse of it from a side window without the wait.
Elfreth's Alley holds the distinction of being America's oldest residential street. It was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1966, but keep in mind that it is very much still a residential street, meaning that people actually live here. You can freely walk through the narrow street, but don't be a creep and peek into windows or linger in doorways.
I've never met a historical home tour that I didn't love, and while the Betsy Ross house may be geared toward school-age children, we still had a fun time on the tour. The best part was the historical actor who insisted to us that she was actually Betsy Ross, despite the fact that the real Ross's bones are interred just outside the house.
I love, love, love Eastern State Penitentiary, and I went to Philly for the day last year exclusively to tour the newly-reopened hospital wing. In operation from 1829 until 1971, Eastern State was considered to be the world's first true penitentiary. The tour is self-guided (which I prefer) and admission includes an excellent audio guide narrated by Steve Buscemi. Both times that I've visited I've spent several hours roaming around, and I'd love to go back for their Terror Behind the Walls haunted attractions in the fall.
This new(ish) art museum is completely overwhelming in the best way, and comprises the varied and exhaustive art collection of one fascinating man, Dr. Albert C. Barnes. I recommend watching this documentary or reading this book before you go—the art is impressive enough on its own, but knowing more about the eccentric Barnes and the turmoil involved in bringing his collection to the public will only enhance your experience.
Philadelphia's gorgeous city hall is the largest municipal building in the country. Construction began in 1871 and took more than 30 years to complete. The 548-foot tower is the tallest masonry structure in the world without a steel frame and it's topped with a 27-ton statue of Pennsylvania founder, William Penn. Until 1987, it was the tallest building in Philadelphia and a gentleman's agreement had prevented any building from rising taller then the statue of Penn. I highly recommend the tower tour, but be aware that availability is extremely limited (and the elevator is very, very small). Tours are offered every 15 minutes, weather and capacity permitting, Monday-Friday, 9:30 a.m.-4:15 p.m. and select Saturdays, 11:00 a.m.–4:00 p.m.
Public Art
There are four large pieces by Swedish-born American sculptor Claes Oldenburg on display in Philly. In 1976, Oldenburg was commissioned to do a sculpture to celebrate the bicentennial, and a 45-foot-tall clothespin was born. His second piece is the 5000-pound, 16-foot aluminum Split Button, installed on the University of Pennsylvania campus in 1981. His third piece is a ten-foot, three-prong electric plug made in 1970 and moved to the Philadelphia Museum of Art's sculpture garden in 2010 (I haven't seen the button or plug yet). The newest Oldenburg is the fifty-one-foot-tall, 11,000-pound Paint Torch, installed in 2011 in between two buildings that house the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts.
And of course no visit to Philly is complete without a selfie in front of Robert Indiana's surprisingly-diminutive LOVE statue, installed in 1976.
If you spend any time around South Street, you'll notice Isaiah Zagar's more than 200 mosaics scattered around the area on walls and down alleyways. You'll need tickets to get into his masterpiece, Magic Gardens, but it's worth it to see Zagar's extensive trash to treasure vision up close (I posted more from our visit here).
Cemeteries
I just posted about our recent visit to the Christ Church Burial Ground, but if you like historical cemeteries this one is not to be missed. If the $3 admission fee scares you off—or if the cemetery is closed—you can see the grave of their most famous resident, Benjamin Franklin, through a break in the brick wall.
Mount Moriah Cemetery is located in southwestern Philadelphia and you can get there via public transit but I recommend taking an Uber (it's not in a great neighborhood). Long abandoned and badly neglected, this historic cemetery is slowly being brought back to life by a group of volunteers but parts of it are still quite wild and overgrown.
On my first visit to this oddities and vintage shop, I scored an eyeball medical model for $40. I haven't had such good luck in subsequent visits, but I make sure to stop here every time I'm in town to browse their medical oddities and check in on the Odditorium—their about section on their site simply states that, "Professor Ouch's Bizarre Bazaar & Odditorium is the greatest shop in Philadelphia," and I can't argue with that. If you strike out here, head next door to the Philly AIDS Thrift, a huge, multi-level thrift store with excellent prices and a blissfully organized book section.
Update: as of July 2018 Professor Ouch's has closed their 5th Street store (sad!), but they still have an online shop for now.
WHAT TO EAT:
Diners
I had admired this signage for years but I didn't know the Midtown III Restaurant and Cocktail Lounge was actually a diner until recently. My mom and I went here for breakfast before tackling the Mütter Museum and it was an exceptional diner experience—friendly waitress, strong coffee, colorful vinyl booths and delicious breakfast food.
Unfortunately, the other Little Pete's closed last year after 40 years and New York developers (of course) are demolishing the charming diner to build a luxury hotel. But if you are looking for a place to eat before or after visiting the Eastern State Penitentiary, Little Pete's at the Philadelphian offers classic diner food served in a slightly newer setting. I didn't realize it before I went, but the Philadelphian must be a retirement complex—every other person eating breakfast at 3pm was over 80 and accompanied by nursing aids—and I fit in perfectly.
You (and I) cannot go to Philly without having at least one cheesesteak (whiz, witout). I'm so partial to Pat's that I've yet to try another place—notorious competitor Geno's Steaks is right next door, but their signage is just too aggressive for me.
There are so many options at the Reading Terminal Market that it's probably wise to just try all of them eventually. I've yet to have a pie better than the one we got here on our first visit, and if you're in the market for some chocolate kidneys, noses or ears the Mueller Chocolate Co. has you covered. If you're not hungry (how?) it's worth a stop just to check out all of the beautiful neon signage.
McGillian's opened in 1860 and is the oldest continuously operating tavern in Philadelphia. We stopped here for a drink and while the atmosphere was a bit loud and raucous for me (hi, I'm also 158 years old), I will never pass up a chance to visit anything with the distinction of "oldest."
Want to know even more about Philly? You can see all of my individual Philadelphia posts here.
Christ Church Burial Ground
On Saturday, my mom and I went to Philadelphia for the day. Our main destination was the Mütter Museum, but it was her first time in Philly so I wanted to show her some of the historic sites as well. The line for the Liberty Bell was around the block—pro-tip: you can see it through a side window without waiting—so we headed to the nearby Christ Church burial grounds. I'd been once, on my first trip to Philadelphia in 2014, but I never say no to a repeat spin around a historic graveyard.
Christ Church burial ground was established in 1719 and is now the final resting place for more than 4,000 people. Notable burials including five signers of the Declaration of the Independence, medical pioneers, military heroes and victims of a Yellow Fever epidemic. The most famous of those signers is Benjamin Franklin, who is buried alongside his wife and daughter. Visitors throw coins on his grave because of the phrase "a penny saved is a penny earned," which is attributed to Franklin. $5,000 a year is earned from the daily collections (they sweep them into a dustpan) and the money is used for cemetery maintenance and restoration.
Christ Church burial ground is still the only cemetery I've had to pay admission to enter, and the cost increased from $2 to $3 since my first visit. In 1858, an opening was placed in the brick wall at the request of Franklin’s descendants so his grave could be viewed by the public at any time. I think the admission price also keeps the cemetery relatively empty, which is probably good for preservation efforts and is great for me to take photos in peace.
The burial ground currently has 1,400 markers, and another 2,500 have disappeared over time. A lot of the stones are so worn that you can no longer read the inscriptions, but you can purchase a map for a $1 that points out notable graves. Luckily, records were kept and a lot of the stones have new plaques that explain their original inscriptions. My favorite stone was the one that my mom pointed out, above, that looks just as sad as you would expect a lonely, 18th-century tombstone to be.
Christ Church Burial Ground
340 N 5th St,
Philadelphia, PA 19106
Open Monday through Saturday from 10 AM–4 PM,
Sunday from 12 PM–4 PM (weather permitting)
Lancaster County
I never thought this day would come, but I *think* this is the last post I can squeeze out of the four-day road trip that my mom and I took back in October. We made 30+ stops through eight states over four days—and I made sure that we were kept busy right up until the end. After touring the Haines Shoe House, we drove 30 minutes east through southern Pennsylvania to Amish country. Lancaster County has the largest Amish population in the world, followed closely by Holmes County in Ohio.
By this point in the trip I had mostly forgotten why I had put certain destinations on the map, so our stop at Hershey Farm Restaurant and Inn was just as much of a surprise for me as it was for my mom. When we pulled into the parking lot and spotted Amos—the barefoot Amish giant—I immediately remembered that he was the reason that I had put the Hersey Inn on my list. Amos, a 15-foot-tall fiberglass figure—similar to a Muffler Man—stood outside of Zinn's Diner in Denver, PA from 1969 until the diner was sold in 2003.
Amos ended up at the The Heritage Center of Lancaster County, but he was too big for them to display, so he is currently "on loan" to the Hershey Farm Restaurant. Apparently the loan period was scheduled to end in 2009, but as of October 2017 Big Amos was still standing in the parking lot, near a pair of Amish buggies.
Less than half a mile from the Hershey Restaurant, we happened upon another statue outside of the former Freeze and Frizz—now Katie's Corner restaurant. This one features an Amish boy (also barefoot) and two pigs. The boy holds an enormous twist ice cream cone, one pig holds a hamburger, and the other has a banana split. The statue has obviously seen better days, with several layers of paint visible beneath the peeling top layer, but it's just strange enough (and surprisingly large) to warrant a quick stop.
Located two miles from Katie's Kitchen is Dutch Haven, the official last stop on our epic road trip. Originally this windmill-topped building housed a Pennsylvania-Dutch style luncheonette. In 1946 it became Dutch Haven, which bills itself as the "largest Amish souvenir store in Lancaster County." In addition to selling furniture, t-shirts, candy, glassware and other "Amish stuff," Dutch Haven is also famous for their shoo-fly pie—they offer in-store samples and ship their pies anywhere in the country for a flat rate. I'm not crazy about shoo-fly pie (it tastes like a soggy brown sugar cinnamon Pop-Tart?) but it's my friend Jim's favorite, so I got my money's worth by shipping one to him in California.
Dutch Haven made my list because of its novelty building, but I didn't expect it to also be a treasure trove of hand-painted signage and lettering. When I was a kid, I used to go to Ohio's Amish country frequently with my mom to do a little antiquing and a whole lot of cheese sampling, so Lancaster County was a fitting end to our short but mighty road trip.
Hershey Farm Restaurant and Inn
240 Hartman Bridge Rd
Ronks, PA 17572
Katie's Kitchen
200 Hartman Bridge Rd
Ronks, PA 17572
Dutch Haven
2857 E Lincoln Hwy A
Ronks, PA 17572
Other stops on our road trip:
Muffler Man: Pink Pants // Muffler Man: Cowboy // Enchanted Forest // Hills of Snow // Muffler Man: Bunyan + Babe // Muffler Men: White's Tire // South of the Border: Night + Day // Dinosaur Land // Muffler Man: Homer // Divine // Chang and Eng // Main Street of Yesteryear // Shell Station // Haines Shoe House // World's Largest things // Grahamland // Aspin Hill Pet Cemetery
Haines Shoe House
One of the last stops on our recent road trip, was the Haines Shoe House in York, Pennsylvania. The Shoe House is only about 3.5 hours from New York City, but it had never really been on the way to or from anywhere I'd traveled before. Since I was in complete control of our route this time—and because the trip was the destination—I made sure that we wound down the trip on a high note.
The Haines Shoe House is exactly what it sounds like—a shoe-shaped house—built by local shoe salesman Mahlon Haines in 1948. It's modeled after a Haines work boot, which he allegedly handed to his architect with the instructions "build me a house like this." The Shoe House was never a private residence, but functioned as an advertisement for his business, and was once highly visible from the main road and surrounding areas (a precursor to the Longaberger Basket headquarters). The 25-foot, five-story house was rented to couples, some of whom were newlyweds that won the opportunity to stay to for their honeymoon (along with a free pair of shoes!).
The house has two bedrooms, a living room, an eat-in kitchen and room for a maid and a butler. There are shoe details everywhere you look—stained glass shoe windows, a stained glass portrait of Haines, the "Shoe Wizard" himself, shoe-shaped planters and wooden shoe cutouts on the fences.
There are two miniature replicas of the house on the property—a dog house and a mailbox—and the house's official address is 197 Shoe House Road. I was doing a good job of keeping each destination a secret from my mom, who wanted to be surprised, but this one was prematurely revealed when the GPS instructed us to turn onto "Shoe House Road."
The Shoe House was recently purchased by locals Jeff and Melanie Schmuck, and Melanie was our (excellent) tour guide. She said that she grew up nearby, had always loved the Shoe House and was frustrated by the previous owner's inconsistent operating hours. When the house came up for sale, they jumped at the chance to buy it and have been trying to restore the house and its furnishings to its original condition ever since. There's an ice cream parlor in the heel (once a drive-through car port) and a small gift shop with "shoe"venirs (I just made that up, but Melanie, if you're reading this, feel free to use it).
Aside from being a standout addition to my "collection" of roadside novelty architecture, our visit was even more special because of Melanie and her enthusiasm for the Shoe House. She didn't have to explain to us why it was a necessity that her and her husband purchase the Shoe House, but I'm always happy to meet other people that appreciate the strange and find value in maintaining something that makes the world just a tiny bit more whimsical.
Haines Shoe House
97 Shoe House Road,
York, PA 17406
Hours:
First Day of Spring - Memorial Day: Fri, Sat, Sun 11-5
Memorial Day - Labor Day: Wed - Sun 11-5
Labor Day - Halloween: Fri, Sat, Sun 11-5
Closed Easter Sunday, Memorial Day and Labor Day.
Eastern State Penitentiary
I went back to Eastern State Penitentiary recently specifically to visit the hospital wing, but a return visit to ESP was never far from my mind. ESP is a former prison, operational from 1829 until 1971. The prison was one of the first examples of what would become known as the "Pennsylvania System" of incarceration, a system that encouraged separate confinement of prisoners. In contrast, the "New York System"—enforced at Sing Sing—forced inmates to work together.
By 1913, however, ESP abandoned its solitary system due to overcrowding. Even in the 19th century it was a tourist destination—once hosting Charles Dickens—and Al Capone was one of its most infamous residents. Al Capone's richly decorated cell is one of the main attractions here, although I overheard a guide explaining that tales of his lavish prison life and special treatment may have been greatly exaggerated.
ESP is one of my favorite places to take photos. It has all the appeal of an abandoned space—peeling paint, leftover objects, rusty metal—but without the stress of trespassing. Because they offer self-guided audio tours, I never felt rushed (except in guided-tour-only spaces like the hospital wing). It was significantly more crowded this time than the first time I visited, but that was probably just the difference between November and July. I was afraid that I would take exactly the same the photos this time around, but I was surprised to find that a lot of the object arrangements had changed—and even if they hadn't there's just so much here to see that I'm sure I still haven't seen everything.
I didn't know before I went that it was Bastille Day—ESP throws a big celebration later in the day, including a reinterpretation of the storming of the Bastille. They were still setting up for the festival as I was leaving, but if I had known that they would be throwing thousands of Tastykakes from the penitentiary towers, I definitely would have stayed longer.
Eastern State Penitentiary
2027 Fairmount Avenue
Philadelphia, PA 19130
Open daily, 10am-5pm
Philly
My recent trip to Philadelphia to check out the newly-opened hospital wing of the Eastern State Penitentiary just further confirmed what I've come to realize during my past trips—that Philly is endlessly charming. I walked to ESP through the Fairmount neighborhood, which was so quiet and idyllic (and close to ESP!) that I did a casual search for apartments there when I got home.
I'm certainly not done with New York quite yet (I only just celebrated my four year NY-iversary!) but it's comforting for me to know that I could potentially be happy living elsewhere. Growing up in Ohio, the only place I ever saw myself living as an adult was New York City, but it's prohibitively expensive and smelly and noisy and relentlessly competitive. I'm sure Philly has its downsides too—as all locations do—but I feel comfortable there in a way I haven't in other places that I've visited.
One great thing about living in New York is its proximity to other places—there are nearly limitless options for one- or two-day weekend trips via train, bus or car. Regional transit is a bit slow compared to other forms of transportation, but I love the hours of uninterrupted (ideally) quiet reflection that comes baked into a long train ride.
After I was done at ESP, I looked up diners in the neighborhood, and decided to check out Little Pete's a few blocks away. We had eaten at another Little Pete's when we were in Philly last year, and although this location was a little less charming, the food was still diner-good. This location is actually located in the ground floor of what I can only assume is a retirement community, and I fit right in with all of the locals and their nurses eating at 3pm.
I randomly came across Claes Oldenburg’s Paint Torch, a 51-foot sculpture installed at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. Oldenburg has a few other statues in the city including a giant clothespin, and he's one of my favorite sculpture artists. His pieces appeal to my love of things that are bigger than they're supposed to be and they always make me smile.
Like New York, Philly also has a Diamond District—full of great storefronts and signage—and a small Chinatown. I never made it to Laurel Hill Cemetery (next time!) but I did make sure to stop at Professor Ouch's Bizarre Bazaar & Odditorium. Last summer I bought an eyeball model from Professor Ouch's, and they have a great selection of oddities, vintage finds and circus memorabilia. This time I didn't find anything that I couldn't live without, but the small "odditorium" located at the back of the store—filled with bizarre taxidermy and other oddities—is always worth a visit.
I think the heat and humidity sucked my energy faster than usual, so I was back at the train station in time to catch the 5:44 pm train back to Trenton, but already thinking about my next trip to Philly.
Eastern State Penitentiary: Hospital
After a few months of thinking that I needed to check out the newly-opened hospital wing of Eastern State Penitentiary, I finally headed to Philadelphia for the day to do just that. I had been to Eastern State only once, but it's been high on my list of places to revisit ever since.
When David and I visited Philly last year, we took Amtrak. I've returned on two solo trips since (including my visit to Mount Moriah in the spring), and both times I've taken regional transit which is about twice as long but one-third as expensive as Amtrak. To get from NY to Philly via regional rail I took a NJ transit train from Penn Station (ugh) to Trenton, and then a SEPTA train from Trenton to the 30th Street Philadelphia station (which is basically Philly's version of Grand Central and 10,00000000 x better than the current Penn Station). Once in Philly I just walked to Eastern State, although I've used Uber a few times and it was cheaper than it is here in New York—my 30 minute ride back to the train station was under $4 (tip included).
One of the things I love most about ESP is that you can wander throughout the grounds on your own—I prefer to go at my own (snail's) pace and always feel rushed on guided tours. I had a mini-freak out when I arrived at ESP to find that the hospital wing appeared closed, and when I inquired about it I was told that it was open by tour only. Luckily, the short "Hand on History" tours are included in your admission price and occur frequently throughout the day, so I didn't have to wait long to (finally!) get inside of cellblock 3.
Eastern State Penitentiary opened in 1829, and cellblock 3 was part of the original plan. The hospital wing transformed throughout the years to keep up with disease and changing therapies, and included an "operating room, laboratories, pharmacy, X-ray lab, hydrotherapy rooms, psychiatric department and a solarium for treating tuberculosis patients."
I did feel a bit rushed during the tour—which lasted about 20 minutes—but only because I'm a slow creep who travelled three hours by train just to see a long-abandoned hospital wing and I could've spent much longer just soaking it all in.
Eastern State Penitentiary
2027 Fairmount Avenue
Philadelphia, PA 19130
Open daily, 10am-5pm, Tours of the hospital wing every half-hour or so.
Mount Moriah Cemetery
I finally made it to Mount Moriah Cemetery recently, an "abandoned" cemetery located in southwest Philadelphia. I put abandoned in quotes, because like Eastern Cemetery in Kentucky and the Historic Jersey City Cemetery, Mount Moriah was once abandoned but is slowly being cleaned up and maintained by a group of volunteers.
Mount Moriah was established in 1855 and encompasses 380 acres, making it the largest cemetery in Pennsylvania. The cemetery is separated into two sections by Cobbs Creek, and sits in two different counties. It was privately owned until the last known member of the Mount Moriah Cemetery Association died, and there has been confusion about who actually owns the cemetery since—it officially closed its gates in 2011.
At first glance, Mount Moriah doesn't even appear abandoned. A large portion of it has been cleared and mowed, and it looks like any other sprawling cemetery. But bordering the cleared sections are pockets of overgrown brush and weeds, studded with headstones—I'm guessing the whole cemetery looked like this before the volunteers stepped in.
I have been trying to get to Mount Moriah ever since my soul-sister-in-creep, Kaylah of The Dainty Squid, posted about it, but I could never get someone to go with me. I had heard that it was in a not-so-great neighborhood (not uncommon for an abandoned place), and I wasn't thrilled to have to go alone. But I recently had a weekday off for Passover and the weather was beautiful, so I hopped on a train (and then another train) headed for Philadelphia. This is where I apologize to my dad, for assuring him recently that I never go into sketchy, abandoned places by myself—I amend that statement to almost never.
I opted to take regional trains (Penn Staion > Trenton, Trenton > Philly) instead of a more direct (and more expensive) Amtrak train. Mount Moriah is located about four miles from the 30th Street train station, and because I didn't have a car I had to figure out how to actually get to Mount Moriah after I arrived in Philly.
I generally have no problems taking solo adventures—and sometimes I actually prefer to be alone—but my anxieties and indecisive tendencies seem to flourish when left unchecked by another person. My first instinct was to take Uber to the cemetery, but then I began to worry about where to get dropped off and even the judgement of my driver when he/she realized that my destination was an abandoned cemetery (which feels so dumb to admit). Then I decided to take the light rail, but couldn't find the station. Then I thought I'd take the streetcar—which is sort of an underground bus?—but I couldn't figure out how to pay, and I knew I didn't have exact change. So, after way too much time sort of wandering in circles, arguing with myself and wondering why I was so strange, I ended up taking Uber.
I do want to mention that as we were driving, the neighborhood kept getting sketchier and sketchier, to the point where I considered asking my driver to take me back to Philly proper. As we approached the cemetery, I noticed that the front gates were unlocked and open, and asked my driver to drop me out front. I basically ran into the cemetery, and instantly felt better—I'm so glad that I didn't prematurely bail.
There are a few military sections that have been meticulously maintained, and seeing row after row of identical stones (including several just marked "Unknown") like a mini-Arlington is really sobering. Mount Moriah was unlike any other cemetery I've visited, but there were still a few things that stood out: a full-sized tree growing out of the base of a broken monument, the marker that just said "orphanage," and a path that was made entirely out of broken headstones.
Friends of Mount Moriah Cemetery is a "nonprofit organization dedicated to the preservation and promotion of Mount Moriah Cemetery by honoring the memory of those interred here through community engagement, education, historic research, and restoration." I'm definitely appreciative of these volunteer groups that have stepped in to care for their neglected neighborhood cemeteries—a largely thankless and monumental task—but I'm also glad that I got see Mount Moriah before it was entirely restored to its former glory.
Mount Moriah Cemetery
The main gate is at Kingsessing Ave and S 62nd Street.
No regular hours posted, but I visited at noon on a Tuesday and the gates were open.
The most fantastic thing about the New York Botanical Garden’s annual Orchid Show is the orchids themselves