French Kiss — Part 1 — Real Philly History with Jim Murphy

Michelin Green Guide promotes Philly’s close connections to France

Most Philadelphians have been around French influences for so long here … that we don’t even notice them any more.

But they’re all around us in Frenchadelphia

That’s probably why the new Michelin Green Guide calls Philly “the Frenchest American City.”

Here are our most obvious French connections:

*Philadelphia’s City Hall, with its mansard roof, is a prime example of Second French Empire Style. Photo by Jim Murphy, author of “Real Philly History, Real Fast.”*

City Hall: This mammoth building at Broad and Market Street was built in the Second French Empire style. The biggest clue: its mansard roof, defined by slate-maker Cupa Pizarras as: “two slopes at different angles that allow for better use of the interior space.” (Unfortunately, this style went out of fashion before City Hall was even finished … 30 years after it began. And some people wanted City Hall torn down right away.) Cooler heads prevailed and now we have one of the best examples of Second French Empire style in the world. City Hall is a spectacular building and I’m glad we kept it.

The Ben Franklin Parkway, our Champs-Élysées: It’s also known as our Museum Mile. In Paris, the Champs-Élysées runs about 1.2 miles. Our Parkway is just a touch less than that. Considered by some as “a little slice of Paris in Philadelphia,” the Parkway was designed by French architects Paul Crét and Jacques Gréber. The American Planning Association praises its “generous amounts of green space through the use of wide medians, parks and two large traffic circles.” We built the Parkway as part of the City Beautiful Movement to bring more greenery to what was then a very industrial city. For many years, we were known as “The Workshop of the World.” In all, about 1,300 homes were destroyed to make the Parkway possible.

Joan of Arc, now near the Philadelphia Museum of Art, is also the logo of The Philadelphian, a nearby high-rise condo. Originally installed in 1890 near the eastern entrance of the Girard Avenue Bridge, the sculpture was moved to its current location in 1948. Photo by Jim Murphy.

Joan of Arc (or Joanie on a Pony): This statue is in front of The Philadelphian at 2401 Pennsylvania Avenue — across from the Art Museum. Created by Emmanuel Frémiet, it was supposed to be one of only three like it , with one each in Paris, Nancy and Philadelphia. Today, there reportedly are six of these statues in the world. How or why? I have no idea.

Many Philadelphians are unaware that Joseph Bonaparte, who called himself the Comte de Survilliers, lived at 260 S. 9th Street for a year or so before moving to an estate in Bordentown, NJ. He spent 23 more years there. Photo by Jim Murphy.

Joseph Bonaparte: Napoleon’s elder brother, and exiled king of Spain and Naples, lived at 260 S. 9th Street in Philadelphia from 1815 to 1816. He then moved to a larger estate in Bordentown, NJ, where he spent many years. The Pennsylvania historical marker near his Philly home says it was “a gathering place for Bonapartist refugees and other French nationals.”

*The Thinker by Auguste Rodin sits alongside Philly’s Benjamin Franklin Parkway. Photo by Jim Murphy*

The Rodin Museum: A gift to the city by movie-theatre magnate Jules Mastbaum, this museum contains one of the largest collections of sculptor Auguste Rodin’s works outside of Paris. Here, you’ll find a statue of The Thinker, his best known piece, outside the museum. It’s one of over 60 copies of this popular work found around the world.

Here are lesser-known (but still important) French connections:

Even many Philly residents don’t realize that the Free Library Building on the Parkway and the Philadelphia Family Court Building next door are similar to two “palatial buildings” in Paris. To compare them, check out this site: **https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Fontaine-place-de-la-concorde-paris.jpg** **. Photo above by Jim Murphy**

The Free Library of Philadelphia “and its mirror image” the Philadelphia Family Court Building on the Parkway: These reportedly were modeled after the Hôtel de la Marine and Hôtel de Crillon, “two palatial buildings on the Place de la Concorde,” says A View On Cities. This website focuses on “Sights and Attractions in Some of the World’s Greatest Cities.”

Anthony Benezet: A French Huguenot forced out of France for religious reasons, he became a Quaker in his new country. An avowed abolitionist and all-around good guy, Benezet also established America’s first school for girls in 1754, and set up a school for Black children in 1770, says the Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia. Plus, when the British brutally displaced and transported 450 Catholic Acadians or “Cajuns” from Nova Scotia to Philadelphia in 1755 on three ships, and just left them sitting in the Delaware River — Benezet helped get them lodging and food. Unfortunately, many of the Acadians died from yellow fever. And eventually most of them left and went south to Louisiana.

Evangeline: The Acadians’ sad story was the subject of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s long poem, “Evangeline” — which ends in Philadelphia. There Evangeline and her lover Gabriel lie “Under the humble walls of the little Catholic churchyard” … “unknown and unnoticed.” Even though this epic poem was fictional, people still come looking for Evangeline and Gabriel at the tiny churchyard at Holy Trinity Church, 615 Spruce Street, just one block away from where many Acadians really lived.

The Barnes Foundation: Although it didn’t move to center city from Montgomery Country until 2012, this extraordinary art collection, right up the street from the Rodin Museum, adds a powerful touch of Paris to the Benjamin Franklin Parkway. Inside, you’ll find 181 paintings by Pierre Auguste Renoir, 69 by Paul Cézanne, 59 by Henri Matisse, 46 by Pablo Picasso and many more.

To be continued …

We’ll cover more French connections in Part 2.

Some Sources:

Gallery, John Andrew, Philadelphia Architecture: A Guide to the City, 3rd ed., Philadelphia: Center for Architecture, 2009.

https://aviewoncities.com/philadelphia/benjamin-franklin-parkway

https://billypenn.com/2023/05/10/philadelphia-michelin-green-guide-tourism/

https://blog.phillyhistory.org/index.php/2015/01/philadelphia-and-the-second-empire/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Franklin_Parkway

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeanne_d'Arc_(Fr%C3%A9miet)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_The_Thinker_sculptures

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rodin_Museum

https://neworleanshistorical.org/items/show/1478