Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Toss a penny, earn some good luck at Ben Franklin's gravesite

After you’ve seen Independence Hall and the new Constitution Center, you may want to swing by the Christ Church Burial Ground at the southeast corner of 5^th and Arch Streets.  Here you’ll find the grave of Philadelphia’s most illustrious citizen, Benjamin Franklin. Franklin died on April 17, 1790 at the age of 84. Statesman, Diplomat. Inventor, Womanizer. Franklin was America’s original Renaissance Man. But you knew all that.

 You can’t enter the cemetery, but you can see the tombstone from the street through the iron fence. You may notice a number of pennies dotting the stone. According to local custom, tossing pennies onto the stone brings good luck to the tosser. Supposedly this practice began at the time of Franklin’s funeral. It was said that, if a new bride tossed a penny and it didn’t bounce off the stone, the marriage would experience additional good luck. These days, you don’t have to be a new bride You just need a few pennies in your pocket..

Franklin himself probably wouldn’t approve of the practice. Wasn’t it he who said, “A penny tossed is a penny lost.”

Christ Church Burial Ground is located at 5th & Arch Streets in Center City Philadelphia .Directions To Franklin Gravesite

Contributed by The Editors

Margate, New Jersey

World's largest elephant watches over the Jersey shore 

Driving south on Atlantic Avenue along the New Jersey seashore, it comes as something of shock when you first spy Lucy, the 65-foot tall elephant standing serenely next to one of Margate’s more popular watering holes. First built in 1883, hers is a long and colorful story of  construction, deconstruction, reconstruction, neglect, deterioration, multiple and varied uses,  and finally acceptance as a National Historic Landmark.

Lucy was the brainchild of  a Philadelphia land speculator,  James V. Lafferty, Jr., who built her in 1881 at a reported cost of $25,000. Later, he patented his idea. Lafferty reasoned that Lucy would be an irresistible attraction to prospective land buyers in the then undeveloped South Jersey shore area. When the speculator’s land dealings put him in a financial pinch, he sold his ponderous pachyderm to Anton Gertzen of Philadelphia and for many years Lucy remained in the care of the Gertzen family. In the years that followed, Lucy assumed the role of summer home,  motel,  tavern and  tourist attraction. For a time, visitors paid 10 cents to tour the furnished interior of the 6-story high elephant and climb the 130-step spiral stairway to the howdah or observatory on its back. One such visitor was a Virginia lawyer destined to become the 28th President of the United States, Woodrow Wilson.

Although heavily damaged by a storm in 1903 and later threatened by fire, Lucy survived to this day. In 1970, all 90 tons of her were gingerly hauled by a house mover to her present location at 9200 Atlantic Avenue. Directions To Lucy the Elephant

Admission: $5.00 adults, $3.00 under 12 Children under 2 years old are free

Contributed by The Editors

Ocean City, New Jersey

Clowns! Bassets! Celebrities! It's the Doo-Dah Parade!

You won't find any slot machines here. You'll have to go 4 miles north to Atlantic City for that. You won't be able to buy a glass of Bud here either. Ocean City's been bone dry since its founding over 100 years ago. What you will find is an immaculately maintained 2 1/2 mile Boardwalk and miles of clean, sandy beaches. And, if your timing is right-- about mid-April, say-- you'll find yourself in the middle of one of America's goofiest events, the annual Doo-Dah Parade. That's when a gaggle of dog owners, along with a supporting cast of uninhibited extroverts, dress their pets and themselves in the gaudiest of Goodwill rejects and parade down the wooden walkway impervious to shame and embarrassment. The whole event-- which is said to celebrate the day when the Feds no longer dip into our pockets for our hard-earned earnings-- is presided over by a celebrity judge. Like Broadway legend Carol Channing, for instance. Also on hand are a battery of celebrity look-alikes: Abbott & Costello, W. C. Fields, Marilyn Monroe are sure to be performing their shtick. And before you return to the land of sanity, treat yourself to some caramel corn at Johnson's Popcorn stand, a slice of pizza from Mack & Manco's or a bi-flavored frozen custard from Kohl's. 

Ocean City, NJ is not to be confused with its name-alike and much larger cousin in Maryland. NJ's OC is located on a barrier island, reachable by boat, a small airport, or by way of causeways that bridge Egg Harbor Bay. Directions To Parade Viewing Area on Boardwalk

Contributed by The Editors

West Norriton, Pennsylvania

The Civil War General who helped repulse Pickett’s charge 

Apart from Grant, most Union Civil War generals don’t get good marks for their military skills.. In fact, only 16 Union generals received the Thanks of Congress for their performance in the conflict. One of these was Major General Winfield Scott Hancock. It was Hancock who organized the Union defenses on Cemetery Hill in Gettysburg on those steamy 3 days in July 1863—the so-called high water mark of the Confederate Army’s push to the North. It was Hancock who commanded the Union center that repulsed the infamous charge of Confederate Major General George Pickett on July 3^rd. Hancock was severely wounded by friendly fire-- a bullet drove a nail through his horse's saddle into his groin. Afterwards, he is reported to have remarked that, if the Confederates were using nails for ammunition, it was little wonder the Union was winning the war. Despite the pain, Hancock refused to leave the battlefield. After the assassination of President Lincoln in July 1865, Hancock presided over the execution of the assassination conspirators. He ran unsuccessfully for president in the election of 1880. Six years later, he was dead from an advanced form of diabetes. He was 62. 

Hancock lies within a small stone mausoleum which he designed located within an anchor fence enclosure in Montgomery Cemetery, which sits between Main Street and the Schuylkill River, in West Norriton, PA., a Philadelphia suburb. To reach the cemetery, drive west on Main Street from nearby Norristown; go one block past the CVS store on your left, turn left at Hartranft Avenue, which takes you directly to the cemetery entrance. Hancock’s grave is on the far left as you enter the cemetery. Directions To Hancock Gravesite

Contributed by The Editors. Hancock photo and supplementary information courtesy of W. S. Hancock Society

New York, New York

Time-travel to New York of 1882 at the Dakota Apartments 

OK, this one takes a little imagination. But if you're into fantasies, try this one. Visit the elegant Dakota at 1 West 72nd Street at the corner of Central Park West (photo left). The Dakota was once the home of Yoko and John Lennon and is the site of the former Beatle's murder on Dec. 8, 1980. In Jack Finney's cult classic, Time and Again., the Dakota was the departure point for commercial artist Sy Morley when he left the 20th century and time-traveled to 1882 New York  Walk across Central Park West and seat yourself on one of the benches on the park's perimeter. Then eye the elegant century-old stone lady, close your eyes and let your mind float free. In no time at all, you too will be emerging from the building onto the snow-covered streets of 1882 New York, skating on the frozen pond in Central Park (right), sledding merrily along in a horse-drawn sleigh, gaping at the still unassembled arm of the Statue of Liberty, gawking at the stately homes along 5th Avenue and sharing the adventure and perils with Sy and his 19th century ladylove as they escape from a burning building in downtown Manhattan.

 And, if not, you can always get a hot dog from the vendor on the corner. Directions To Dakota Apartments

Contributed by The Editors

Collegeville, Pennsylvania

The Bottleneck Bridge Built with Lottery Funds 

It’s about as narrow as a bridge can get. 3 lanes of traffic squeezed between two formidable stone walls. During morning and evening rush hours, traffic headed west from Germantown and Ridge Pikes and traffic headed east from Main Street in Collegeville converge on the span and create a daily motoring nightmare. But while everyone curses the unending lines of snarled traffic, no one seems to want to do anything about it. And there it stands, the only route across the Perkiomen Creek for miles in either direction -- a  beloved, perpetual bottleneck for traffic 

The story goes back to the late 1700s, when the only way to get across the creek was to wade across at a place called Phillips Ford.  In time, when the number of drowning victims  became excessive, it was decided that a bridge would be a better way to cross over the creek. So in 1797, the Pennsylvania Legislature approved a lottery, the proceeds from which would be used to build a bridge. Two years later, the stone arch bridge was completed at a cost of $60,000. In 1867, a toll house was erected on the bridge, but the locals didn't like the idea much; they threw the gate into the creek and torched the toll house. Originally, the bridge was only two lanes wide; in the early 1900a, however, it was widened to three lanes to accommodate a trolley line.  In 1988, the bridge was added to the National Historic Register. Today, it is regarded – proudly and fondly-- as one of the oldest bridges in the U.S. still in use .Directions to Perkiomen Creek Bridge

Contributed by The Editors

Stockton, New Jersey

The  "Small Hotel" Celebrated by Broadway Icons Rodgers & Hart

                                        There's a small hotel
                                        With a wishing well
                                        I wish that we were there together

In 1933, so the story goes, Lyricist Larry Hart came upon the Stockton Inn in this tiny borough a short distance north of the New Hope, PA artist's colony. The Inn sits in the heart of town directly at the end of the short road  leading from the bridge that spans the Delaware River. On the premises, near the outdoor dining area, there is-- sure enough-- a wishing well. The song that the hotel inspired. "There's a Small Hotel," was featured in the Rodgers & Hart musical, On Your Toes, and was recorded by several popular musicians of the era, notably Hal Kemp & His Orchestra.

Nor is the wishing well the Stockton Inn's only claim to fame. In 1935, during the Hauptman-Lindbergh trial in nearby Flemington, the Inn, then known as Colligan's, was a favorite watering hole for reporters covering the infamous kidnapping of the Lindbergh baby. Famed writer Damon Runyon, whose stories later inspired the musical "Guys and Dolls," wrote his columns on the trial from Flemington's Union Hotel and The Stockton Inn. Other celebrities who frequented the Inn included Band leader Paul Whiteman. Novelist F. Scott Fitzgerald, and pundits Dorothy Parker, Robert Benchley and their Algonquin Roundtable friends. Directions To Stockton Inn

Embreeville, Pennsylvania

Visit the 'Stargazers Stone,' Reference Point for the Mason-Dixon Line

The Mason-Dixon line, popularly regarded as the cultural dividing line between the North and the South, was actually laid out in the mid-1700s in an effort to resolve a boundary dispute between the British colonies of Maryland and Pennsylvania/Delaware. To resolve the dispute, two well known surveyors --Charles Mason (1728-1786) and Jeremiah Dixon (1733-1779)—were imported from England in 1763 to physically define the territories. 

A 1750 court ruling fixed the boundary between Pennsylvania and Maryland as 15 miles south of the southernmost point of Philadelphia. At the time, this point was determined to be a house on the south side of Cedar Street (now South Street) near Second Street. Since going straight south would take them through the Delaware River, the surveyors elected to start the next phase of the survey from the same latitude (39^o56’29.1”N)  but at a point 31 miles due west. This took them to at a farm owned by John Harlan in Embreeville, Pennsylvania, in Chester County. 

On the Harlan farm, they set up a reference stone, now known as the Stargazer’s Stone, at the same latitude as the house on Cedar Street. However, the West line (the boundary separating Pennsylvania and Maryland) had to lie 15 statute miles south of this latitude. So, Mason and Dixon hacked their way south thru the brush and bramble until they arrived at what is now known as the Possum Hill section of  White Clay Creek State Park in Delaware. There, they placed an oak post called “Post mark’d West” at a latitude of 39^o43’ 26.4”N.

Starting in March, 1765, the two surveyors and their work crews slowly edged westward from the "Post mark'd West," setting up milestones and crownstones (some of which remain to this date) to define the boundary. Two hundred thirty-three miles west of the "Post mark’d West," the survey came to an end when Indians refused to allow further incursions into the land they regarded as their own.

The Harlan house (right) still stands at the intersection of Embreeville Road (PA Route 145) and Stargazer Road. About 100 yards north of the house is the Stargazer’s Stone (left). Directions To Stargazer's Stone

Epilogue. Mason and Dixon never again worked together after completion of the five-year-long project. They returned to England in 1768. Eleven years later, Dixon died at age 45. Although already gravely ill, Mason returned to Philadelphia with his second wife, Mary, and eight children, in July 1786. He died three months later and is buried in Christ Church burial ground on Arch Street, the same resting place of Philadelphia icon Benjamin Franklin. (See story above.).

 Contributed by The Editors  

Amherst, Massachusettes

Safe in her alabaster chambers sleeps America's unofficial poet laureate

American poet Emily Dickinson lies buried behind a protective iron fence in West Cemetery just a short distance from the Amherst, Mass. home in which she lived for most of her 55 years. Dickinson—the daughter of a prominent Amherst attorney—led a conventional childhood but, after a short stay at nearby Mt. Holyoke Female Seminary, she retired to her family’s house, The Homestead. Thereafter, she became increasingly reclusive, rarely leaving her house or even leaving her room to greet family friends. Her reclusive lifestyle and white clothing earned her the sobriquet, “The Belle of Amherst.”  Dickinson wrote over 1800 poems, only a handful of which were published during her lifetime. Only after her death-- when her sister, Lavinia, discovered the cache of poems—were Dickinson’s poems published. Compared with typical poems of the day—especially poems penned by female authors—Dickinson’s poems were a radical departure in both style and theme: terse, staccato-like, erratically punctuated, characterized by startling imagery and often dealing with themes of death, immortality and nature. In the years following her death in 1885, her literary reputation has grown steadily and today she is often regarded as America’s greatest poet.

  Contributed by The Editors  

                
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