John W. Coltrane, Philadelphia, Philadelphia County

I'm back! It was a very lovely vacation - I can say now that we were on a cruise to Bermuda, thanks to the generosity of my parents, and it was exactly what the doctor ordered. I've been feeling kind of run-down and burned out in recent weeks, so this did me a world of good. It was my fourth time on that beautiful island, but we've already picked out one or two new things to do if there's another visit in our future. 

I hadn't decided what my topic would be when I returned to the blog, but I sort of had the decision made for me thanks to a new addition to the list of guest photographers. Kevin's brother Darren sent me a photo of a marker I didn't have in Philadelphia. (I considered saving it until September, for the 100th birthday of the gentleman in question, but knowing me I'd forget.) My prior knowledge of John Coltrane was extremely limited; it mostly stemmed from having seen the movie Mr. Holland's Opus in my late teens, in which the title character names his son Coltrane after the musician. While researching this quest, though, I learned a lot of things, some of which surprised me. For one, this is the first time I'm writing about a canonized saint, although it won't be the last.

Reading Terminal & Market, Philadelphia, Philadelphia County

We're bidding farewell to the most beautiful month of the year in just a couple short days, and meanwhile sending my prayers for those being affected by Hurricane Melissa. I never saw a weather radar map which colored a storm black until this, that was really bizarre. 

For this week's quest, I have a confession. I've never actually been inside of this building, which is why I don't have any pictures of the interior to share. But you can see lots of pictures at the various sources I've linked at the bottom, and it's most certainly on my list of places to see in Philadelphia "someday". (I have a lot of things scheduled in that very nebulous timeframe.) I got the marker a few years back, when my mother and my BFF Andrea and I took a double-decker bus tour around the city to see different locations, and today I'm going to tell you about what goes on inside.

Betsy Ross, Philadelphia, Philadelphia County

Coming to you live from the blog's department of "Did That Actually Happen?" is the latest in unexpected developments. I check my blog's statistics regularly, and I recently noticed a curious uptick in hits on my 2020 post about the Dorsey Brothers. I wasn't sure why that would be until I received a private message on Facebook. The person contacting me was Tommy Dorsey's granddaughter Joanne - someone found my blog and shared the post with the surviving family members! She was able to give me a little bit of information that was missing from my post and had nice things to say about my work. As you can imagine, it was pretty exciting to hear from someone connected with one of my subjects.

Who knows, maybe it'll happen again.

Today's post is a name I'm sure most if not all of my readers will recognize. Americans all learn in elementary school that Betsy Ross is credited with designing and making the first flag for the United States. She was indeed a real person, and her house in Philadelphia is one of the popular tourist stops in "America's Most Historic Square Mile." Much of the information I'm about to share with you actually comes from the signage throughout her house. I didn't actually get to go inside, because of time constraints on the day of my being there, but I'm hoping to make another trip and get more photographs to add to this post in the future.

The Union League of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Philadelphia County

The next few weeks are going to be very busy for me - not only do I have Zenkaikon coming up next week, but in April I'll be on a family trip out of the country. (No marker hunting? What do normal people do on vacation?) Throw in the job, the writing gigs, the book I'm trying to finish... well, there's a reason I'm actually working on this blog post the night before it goes live instead of on Wednesday morning.

I'm not complaining, though. I do like to keep busy. Now if it would just stop snowing...

For today we're going back to that very un-snowy day last August, when my mother treated the BFF and me to a day in Philadelphia and helped me catch some markers there. This was one of the markers I spotted while we were riding on the upper level of a double-decker bus tour; for that reason, my current photo of the marker is not the clearest, and I promise to replace it with a better one at the first opportunity.

Veterans Stadium, Philadelphia, Philadelphia County

Here we are, the final blog post of 2022! Well, almost - next week I'll be sharing my annual wrap-up post, where I talk about the statistics of the blog and the new friends I've made and what I've got in mind as I head into the next year. I will then be radio silent, apart from occasional posts on Facebook, for the month of December. (Why? Because as my longtime readers know, my day job is retail. That pretty much says it all.) In 2023, I'll be heading into my fifth year of this blog, which kind of astounds me.

We're going to close out the active blogging year with a visit to a place that has been gone for many years. Unlike many of the buildings I've profiled on this blog, however, this one is like the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia - I've actually been inside. I grew up roughly an hour's drive away from Philadelphia, depending on traffic anyway, and the two big settings for much of anything in those days were Veterans Stadium and the Spectrum Arena. Nothing else really compared to the two. Both were part of the South Philadelphia Sports Complex; both were home to Philadelphia pro sports teams (baseball and football at the Vet, hockey and basketball at the Spectrum); and both were popular venues for concerts and other large-scale events. Both are also gone.

David Salisbury Franks, Philadelphia, Philadelphia County

August has come to an end very quickly. It always does, and I don't know why. Tomorrow I'll be sending out the September newsletter, in which I recap the events of this very topsy-turvy month. (If you don't already receive it, why not subscribe using the form on the right side of the page? It's free and I never ask for a loan. Heck, I don't even ask people to join my Patreon, because I don't have one.) September is my birthday month, and this year I'll be celebrating a little harder than usual - my friend Rachel, who has in the past contributed images and knowledge to some of the Bethlehem posts on this blog, is coming to spend my birthday week with us and we have all sorts of adventures planned. So I'll be scuttling to get next week's post ready ahead of time.

To close out August, let's travel back to Revolution-era Philadelphia, and learn about a man who was wrongfully accused of helping to betray the infant United States.

U.S. Sanitary Commission Great Central Fair, Philadelphia, Philadelphia County

A friendly hello to the members of the Retro York group on Facebook! They very kindly welcomed me and took great interest in last week's post about York House. 

This week's quest brings us back to Philadelphia, for the second marker that I collected on my last visit. I'll admit this one had me scratching my head a little bit, because I'd never heard of either the organization in question nor the event they operated. But then again, I'm here to learn and then share what I learn.

Meriwether Lewis, Philadelphia, Philadelphia County

First, thank you to those who wished me a happy anniversary last week! Husband Kevin and I had a very nice day at the Franklin Institute, which he and I have visited many times over the years. They were even so kind as to feature us on their Twitter page that day.

The weather was not entirely compatible with marker hunting, as it rained a lot; however, there are two markers right near the Franklin itself, and I was able to grab both of those before we returned home. This one, which was the first one I spotted, is about a man who opened the western frontier before meeting with a tragic end - and a mystery which has never been solved.

Fairmount Water Works, Philadelphia, Philadelphia County

Autumn returns to Pennsylvania! It's my favorite time of year, and I hope that the weather will be nice enough to let us all get out and enjoy it.

As I mentioned in the post about Hilda Doolittle, my birthday was at the beginning of September and I spent part of it collecting markers for this blog. There was one in particular that I wanted to get while we were in Philadelphia, and it was a bit of a haphazard drive to find it (fortunately, I myself was not doing the driving). See, I got pictures of today's subject a few years ago, before I started this project, but the marker isn't located in quite the same spot so I never saw it. I couldn't very well write about the marker without a photo of the marker, so I needed to find it!

Although I had the information from the PHMC website about its location, we were still just slightly surprised to come across the marker. We were stopped at a red light, so Kevin urged me to get out of the car quickly to snap the photo. I managed to do so, probably to the utter confusion of the twenty or so people who were in the vicinity (assuming, that is, that they noticed me at all), and today's blog post thus became feasible. Remember, kids, don't try this at home, because I have no idea what I'm doing.

The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia County

Today's blog post once again makes use of photos sent by my friend and former coworker, Sheila Clever, who works at the subject location. Thank you, Sheila! I also want to say thank you to my mother's dear friend, Mitzi Smith, who recently provided me with the 1991 edition of the Guide to the State Historical Markers of Pennsylvania as well as a pile of information regarding George Taylor, which will all be of use to me in publishing this blog. So thank you very much!

I admit I was slightly surprised to receive these photos, because it managed to escape my notice that the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia has its own historical marker, which it received in 2007. However, I haven't been there in - well, more years than I want to admit. I was a patient, a long time ago, and I know they do great things there.

The Solitude, Philadelphia, Philadelphia County

Two weeks ago, I promised my Facebook followers that whichever of two post subjects they did not select would be the focus of this week's update. Having given my attention to the heavily requested David Tannenberg, I now take us back to Philadelphia to visit a mansion in the middle of the zoo.

I visited the Philadelphia Zoo with my husband last summer, and wrote about it on a very cold day when I was in need of some sunshine. At the time, I didn't give too much focus to the beautiful Colonial mansion in the middle of the grounds, because it has its own marker and I knew I'd be telling you all about it in another post. And here we are.

The Philadelphia Zoo, Philadelphia, Philadelphia County

It's really cold in Pennsylvania right now - no surprise, it's December. Speaking for myself, I don't do particularly well in the cold, so as I write this post I've bundled myself into a sort of fleece burrito and I'm thinking warm thoughts. 

I don't know if I agree that it's always sunny in Philadelphia, but it was definitely sunny the last time I went down there. Over the summer, my husband Kevin and I were startled to learn that my best friend Andrea had - despite growing up an hour away from it - never been to the Philadelphia Zoo. Naturally, this needed to be rectified.

The Penn Relays, Philadelphia, Philadelphia County

As I mentioned back when I first started this blog, I'm approaching it somewhat like the quest journal of a video game. Well, sometimes in my favorite games, there are quests that I can't undertake alone; sometimes things are just simply inaccessible to me. That's when I have to rely on one of my companions for assistance. Whether they build a bridge, lend me a horse, or just act as my bodyguard on the mission, it's always good to have friends.

Today's blog post is crafted with the help of one of my real life "NPCs." My former coworker Sheila was kind enough to take some pictures of a couple of markers and their subjects down in Philadelphia and send them to me.