Route 1-Landmarks of the Early Swedes—25.0 m. Crossing Catharine Street (2.0), named Swedes for religious services, beginning for Catharine Swanson, and passing through Trinity Sunday, 1677. The present buildQueen Street (2.1), on the way to Chris- ing was dedicated in 1700, on ground given tian Street, names commemorative of Queen by Catharine Swanson. Christina of Sweden, we recall that these To the right of the church entrance, street names are Swedish landmarks. On against the outside walls, is an almost oblitQueen Street near Swanson, and on Swan- erated tombstone which in a favorable light son Street below Queen, old Swedish houses shows the name of “SWAN.” This is prob(some abandoned), attract especial notice; ably the inscription of Swan Johnson (mencellars once underground being now the tioned by Watson in his "Annals”), who was first stories.

born in 1685 and died in 1733. On Swanson Street (2.1), west side, be- The Swedish woodcarving of Cherubim, tween Queen Street and Beck's alley, is the overhanging the rear gallery, and the ansite of the log home of the Swansons, orig- tique baptismal font will arrest attention as inal Swedish owners of the bigger part of objects brought over by early colonists. The Southwark. The house stood on a little hill, inscriptions on the open Bible are significant some thirty feet north of Beck's alley, and not only for their meaning-("The people had a large garden and various fruit trees that have walked in darkness have seen a behind it. It was used later as a school, great light"; "Glory to God in the Highand an eyewitness speaks of it as being one est”), but also as memorials of the earliest and a half stories high, with a piazza all use of the Swedish language in America. around it, having four rooms on a floor, and The mural tablet, on the left, to the Rev. Dr. a very large fireplace with seats in each Nicholas Cullin, the last of the Swedish pasjamb. Professor Peter Kalm, the Swedish tors, who arrived from Sweden in 1771 and traveller, who visited here in 1748, saw the died in 1831, and whose death ended all conhouse and has left a striking description of nection of the American Swedish Church the home where "was heard the sound of the with that of Sweden, should not be overspinning wheel before the city was ever looked. Of especial interest, in the center thought of.” The house was taken down aisle (immediately in front of the chancel), when the British occupied Philadelphia, and is the tomb of the Rev. Andrew Rudman, the the property itself descended to Paul Beck, learned missionary sent over by Charles XI well known in the later annals of the city. of Sweden, and the builder and first pastor Looking south from this site one can see

of the new church. the projecting walls of the most cherished In the vestry-room may be the landmark of the Swedes in Philadelphia - American “naturalization papers” granted

,"Gloria Dei," or Old Swedes' Church. The to Andrew Rudman by William Penn, signed entrance is on South Water (formerly Otse- and dated 1701, 6th month and 12th day. go) Street, a small street off Christian Street, The long ride from Old Swedes' Church between Swanson and Front.

by way of Christian Street (2.4), MoyaTurning the corner at Christian Street mensing Avenue, Penrose Ferry Road, Is(2.2), note the antique house at Nos. 5 and land Road, and Tinicum Avenue to the site 7 Christian Street, long thought the only of the old Swedish settlement on Tinicum “log-house” in Philadelphia, now concealed Island (now Essington), shows the great by its board front, and curious as having extent of the southern section of the city as been framed and floated to its present spot well as many evidences of widespread imin earliest times from Chester county. provement and progress since the days when

The vista of Old Swedes' Church that one the Swedes dwelt along the Delaware or gets on entering the churchyard from South were scattered widely in Moyamensing and Water Street (2.3), evokęs reverence and de- Passyunk. light. A rude blockhouse stood on this site Crossing Penrose Ferry (7.2), on the left, in 1669, and was later used by the pious we get a charming view of the mouth of the

seen

a

JOHN PRINTZ, GOVERNOR AT TINICUM

QUEEN CHRISTINA OF SWEDEN Gift of King Gustav V to the Swedish Colonial Society of This portrait of the founder of the first Swedish settle. Philadelphia. The original is in the church at Bottnaryd, ment on the Delaware was given to the Historical Society Sweden.

of Pennsylvania in 1877.

Route 1-Landmarks of the Early Swedes—25.0 m.

BIG-EYED ANGELS-OLD SWEDES' CHURCH Early specimens of Swedish wood-carving, these cherubim guard the record of the earliest use of the

Swedish language in America. Schuylkill River, now guarded by a mighty At Bow Creek (10.4), once the highway commercial giant—the Girard Point grain by which the Swedes paddled to their church elevator, but once the site of one of the at Tinicum in canoes, we cross the southernearliest Swedish forts.

most boundary of the city of Philadelphia, Across the bridge (7.4), we are on the which offers striking contrast with the pressoil of Kingsessing, now the 40th ward of ent South Street, the southernmost boundary Philadelphia. "Chinsessing" is mentioned of Penn's day. in the deed given by Queen Christina to the Driving up to the doorway of the hosSwanson family in 1653, and named on a pitable Corinthian Yacht Club (13.7), which map issued in 1654-55 by the Swedish en- overlooks the Delaware River at Essington, gineer Lindstrom. The eye is diverted on Tinicum Island, we see on the right a shortly by the Hog Island sky-line with its tablet recording that the lawn and river bewildering labyrinth of cranes and its front of the Club at this spot were part of forest of ship masts. The Cannon Ball the seat of the Swedish government during Farm (8.2) recalls Revolutionary days when its occupation of the Delaware River, 1638a British gunboat appeared in the Delaware 55. The Swedish Chapel was situated to the and fired a shot still registered. The old eastward, near the line between the Club's Boon Dam Public School (9.0), and the new property and that of the adjoining Rosedale, Boon Dam Public School, conserve the an- now Tinicum Inn. The burying ground was cient Swedish name of Boon, once Bond, near the chapel, on what is now part of the and originally Bonde,–Andrew Bonde being Club's lawn. The large stone doorstep beone of the two Swedes who had been in neath the tablet was the step of the Chapel. the country fifty-four years when Penn made Directly in front of Tinicum Inn, once his inventory of the Swedes in 1693.

marked by a fower bed, is the site of the

Route 1-Landmarks of the Early Swedes—25.0 m. Mileage 6.5 Cross Girard Point Branch, Penna. R. R. Cross Penrose Ferry Bridge at 7.2. 7.4 Penrose Ferry Inn; turn right, avoiding left-hand road. 8.2 Pass Cannon Ball Farm House on left. 8.9 Pass into Tinicum Ave. 9.0 Boon Dam Public School. 10.4 Pass Bow Creek into Delaware County. 10.6 View of Hog Island, on left. 13.5 Tinicum Inn, on left; site of mansion of the Swedish Governor, John Printz. 13.6 Turn left into Yacht Club driveway to entrance. 13.7 Corinthian Yacht Club, Essington. Tablet. Stop and walk through gateway to Tini

cum Inn. Reverse to 14.0 Wanamaker Ave.; turn left with trolley. 15.0 Cross bridge over Darby Creek; on left, old Morris Ferry House; 1698, on door; birth

place of John Morton. 15.4 Chester Road; turn right. 18.7 Turn right into Main St., Darby. 19.2 Caution; R. R. grade crossing. 19.7 Cobb's Creek dam; site of water-mill put up by the Swedish Governor Printz, 1643. 20.2 St. James' Church, Kingsessing, Woodland Ave., between 68th and 69th Sts. 21.2 59th St. and Woodland Ave. (No. 5835 Woodland Ave.), old log farmhouse, type

used by original Swedes. 21.7 Cross 54th St., leading to Bartram's Garden. 23.1 39th and Woodland Ave., University of Pennsylvania, Dr. Charles J. Stillé, Provost

1868-80. 23.8 Market St. at 32nd; turn right. 25.0 City Hall, PHILADELPHIA.

SITE OF THE SWEDISH GOVERNOR'S MANSION. 1643
The flower-bed of Tinicum Inn, at Essington on the Delaware, marks the location. The near-by Corin-

thian Yacht Club celebrates Governor Printz as the "first American Yachtsman."

Route 1—Landmarks of the Early Swedes—25.0 m.

mansion house of John Printz, the Swedish two stories high, which was sufficient to Governor (1643), who the Corinthians ,

secure the people from the Indians.” claim had a yacht on the river and there- This humble old Swedish log cabin on fore was the “first American yachtsman.” Darby Creek (15.0) was the birthplace of

The fort, called new Gottenborg, is be- John Morton (1724-1777), a delegate to the lieved to have been on the shore some two First Continental Congress, a signer of the hundred yards to the westward of the club- Declaration of Independence, and forever house. An Indian council was held here and distinguished as the man who left a sick bed a treaty was made by the Swedes with the to cast the deciding vote that put PennsylIndians on the seventeenth of June, 1654. vania on the side of Independence. When

The view of the river from the Club's many of Morton's old friends turned from lawn across to little Tinicum Island and the him because of his action, he left them a distant Jersey shore is still primitive and death-bed message, saying: “Tell them that charming

they will live to see the time when they shall Returning to Philadelphia by way of acknowledge it to be the most glorious servTinicum Avenue and Island Road (14.0), we

ice that I ever rendered to my country.” soon cross Darby Creek (15.0), to the main

John Morton was descended from one of land, noting on the left, just beyond the

the first Swedish settlers on the Delaware,

the Swedish form of the ancestral name bridge, the old Morris Ferry House, a time

grave

and monument are worn timber house once occupied by the being Marten. His keeper of the ferry, the antiquity of which

at Chester, Pa. See Route IVR (9.5; 19.4). is also attested by the carved date on the Turning into Chester Pike (15.4), condoor, 1698.

tinuous with Main Street (Darby), and with This house is one of the few original log Darby Road, and finally with Woodland houses still standing and in use. It is the

Avenue (Philadelphia), we pass over the type of house described in 1702 by Thomas oldest highway in Pennsylvania, begun as Campanius Holme, grandson of the Swedish an Indian trail and developed into a roadpastor John Campanius, who came to Tin- way by the early Swedes. On the way we icum with Governor Printz in 1642. In his pass rapidly through a succession of small "Short Description of the Province of New suburban towns and reach again the boundSweden” Holme speaks of "substantial log ary of the city at Cobb's Creek (19.7). houses, built of good strong hard hickory, At Cobb's Creek (73rd and Woodland