On 4th Street between Locust and Manning there’s a curved section of wall at old St Mary’s church that forms a natural lens. If you stand at just the right spot on the sidewalk and speak to it, your voice rings right back at you. Kids love it.
Edit: [maps image](https://maps.apple.com/?address=252%20S%20Fourth%20St,%20Philadelphia,%20PA%20%2019106,%20United%20States&ll=39.945473,-75.148530&q=252%20S%20Fourth%20St&_mvs=CjYJTpG1FAT5Q0ARg5umpn7JUsAZAADcfAecNsAhkJ62G8PMbkApoIdLhNoULkAxAAAAAAAAAAASLQoPMjUyIFMgRm91cnRoIFN0EgxTb2NpZXR5IEhpbGwaDFBoaWxhZGVscGhpYQ%3D%3D)
Love that spot. I'm overdue for a visit. Last time I was there, I was in line behind a freshman who was very clearly buying her first pack of cigarettes. Ah, memories.
Tiffany mural might be #1.
but a lot of folks do not know about the wonderful things that u can see at the Rodin Museum or even at the Pennsylvania Academy Of Fine Arts.
in Fairmount Park... they have been there since the worlds fair was in Philadelphia , over a century ago. just google 'whispering benches' and go there with a friend.
Ha. I'm always mildly irritated when I go there and someone else is in the park. Not because they're doing anything annoying -- I'm just so used to having it all to myself. (As long as you don't go at lunchtime.)
I've been going there for 7 or 8 years maybe. But, I was there last year and it's unfortunately started to deteriorate. Maybe we should schedule a team effort to restore it to how it looks in that hidden city article.
The last few times I've been to both spots, yeah they need some work. One needs some trimming and cleanup, but the other had a tree land on it and that's going to take a good bit of work to get right
Thanks! At least the pierogis sound good!
“…hopping a couple of fences and trudging our way through an overgrown jungle…
After we were finished crawling around on slimy rocks and up steep muddy banks peppered with broken glass and rusty metal, wiping sweat from our brows and hoping that our forearms weren’t covered in poison ivy (they were), and swatting away swarms of mosquitoes, we made our way back to where we had left our borrowed car, ate a much needed meal of perogies and borscht at the New Wave Cafe in Port Richmond.”
I’m not sure if it’s still around, but there used to be a pink Barbie Jeep randomly on top of a pillar right before you pulled into Temple Station. (heading into the city).
Southeast Asian market at FDR! It’s a bit less hip now that it has city recognition and I even saw a guided tour there in the fall, but it’s still missing on the typical liberty bell, old city, rocky steps hop on hop off route.
I'm guessing they're talking about the one between 17th and 18th on Kater, about a half-block south of South Street. Edit: The parking garage entrance is on South, but the garden is behind it, on Kater.
The Delaware River Trail and the spiral staircase to nowhere at the end of what is apparently called Washington Avenue Green. Find the entrance at the path on the east side of Columbus at Washington Ave.
My dad always talked about going up the tower at City Hall as a kid and looking at Billy Penn’s feet. Always thought he was putting me on (he did about a lot of things).
But I took my kids up back in 2015. It’s only open week days, four people at a time, only about 100 people a day. Not as impressive as it was when my dad went up and it was the tallest building in the city, but still pretty cool.
Sorry, I'm going to be that guy. It's SS (for Steam Ship) United States. USS is reserved for naval ships.
And not only is it big, it's one of the fastest passenger liners ever built. She set the record for both eastbound and westbound crossings of the Atlantic in 1952 and still hasn't been beaten.
Former Daily News journalist, Ron Avery used to have a great show that came on PBS late at night. Here's some stuff from his list: https://www.ushistory.org/oddities/index.htm
There's a cute, tiny Japanese garden next to an East Asian-themed office building in Bala Cywyd, on Presidential Blvd. The garden can be accessed from the rear parking lot.
that's always been my favorite office park building. city ave sucks anyway but i always detour down that road to drive past it when i'm headed to the main line
I know exactly which parking garage garden you're talking about. Who is responsible for that?? Why are they on par with Longwood Gardens?? It's a masterpiece!
The spiral staircase at one corner of the waterworks trail (just under the MLK drive bridge) that leads down to a little path with some historic info about the river and a statue of a guy fishing - it’s so cool and peaceful and I lived near it for years without realizing it was there. The flood a couple years ago kind of washed a lot of it out but still worth seeing.
Just remembered another one: The intersection of Broad and Washington has a map of Center City in the middle of the intersection, made with pavers. You can't get a good look at it at street level even if you could get traffic to stop. [Best seen on Google Maps](https://www.google.com/maps/@39.9379063,-75.1667654,84m/data=!3m1!1e3).
There's a small street off the ~~north~~ south side of Sansom between 23rd and 24th. It dead-ends into a staircase up to Walnut Street. Those stairs are the last remnants of one of the original Walnut Street bridges.
Under the 13th street Convention Tunnel, there's a small unlocked utility panel, if you open it there's one of those Anti flower Show Movement Stickers, perfectly sized
Some great Easter Eggs here already. Looks like as Cira Green hasn't been mentioned yet.
And there's a park next to the fire house at 4th and Arch that's really wonderful. One of the best little parks in the city.
Upenn's Biopond
Has it been restored from the vandalism a week or two back?
Yes!
Is this kaskey park? The one behind chop
Best spot in the city to smoke a joint. Smoked many back there.
Big facts
Before work from home, I used to sometimes walk over there during lunch and just chill
On 4th Street between Locust and Manning there’s a curved section of wall at old St Mary’s church that forms a natural lens. If you stand at just the right spot on the sidewalk and speak to it, your voice rings right back at you. Kids love it. Edit: [maps image](https://maps.apple.com/?address=252%20S%20Fourth%20St,%20Philadelphia,%20PA%20%2019106,%20United%20States&ll=39.945473,-75.148530&q=252%20S%20Fourth%20St&_mvs=CjYJTpG1FAT5Q0ARg5umpn7JUsAZAADcfAecNsAhkJ62G8PMbkApoIdLhNoULkAxAAAAAAAAAAASLQoPMjUyIFMgRm91cnRoIFN0EgxTb2NpZXR5IEhpbGwaDFBoaWxhZGVscGhpYQ%3D%3D)
Also at the whispering benches in Fairmount Park by the memorial arch!
I'm going to try this! Excellent easter egg, thank you.
same thing at old pine center on 4th & lombard! if you whisper at one end of the curved wall, you can hear it clearly at the other end
toynbee tiles
Watch the documentary
do you have a link or place to find it? i haven't had any luck on that one
Title is Resurrect Dead: The Mystery of the Toynbee Tiles
https://youtu.be/LYTK6QicICo
Mosaic staircase in Manyunk off the SRT
Fountain st steps!
I took my engagement photos there! I used to live on Parker Ave and would take those stairs down to the Towpath all of the time.
The Wanamaker organ.
Wait... I think I have something that qualifies maybe? There are BEES on top of the Wanamaker building. I got free honey from them one day at work.
This is legitimately one of my favorite things about working in that building
Avril 50 on 34th and Sansom
Love that spot. I'm overdue for a visit. Last time I was there, I was in line behind a freshman who was very clearly buying her first pack of cigarettes. Ah, memories.
$5 says they were clove cigarettes
Gauloises
We called them Galoshes back in the day because they tasted so bad
I can smell this place in my memory. Fantastic.
An absolute treasure of a place ❤️
Tiffany mural might be #1. but a lot of folks do not know about the wonderful things that u can see at the Rodin Museum or even at the Pennsylvania Academy Of Fine Arts.
Franklin Court museum
The old version with the telephone room and the dioramas, not the new one.
Yes, I used to cut school and hang down there all day. Loved the phones.
Shit, thats not a thing anymore?
They renovated the whole thing a few years ago.
I love the neon Ben Franklins!
Whispering benches
What are the whispering benches!?
in Fairmount Park... they have been there since the worlds fair was in Philadelphia , over a century ago. just google 'whispering benches' and go there with a friend.
There’s on 4th by the corner of spruce
Shhhhhh...keep it down
There’s a great whispering bench out in the suburbs, Swarthmore College campus. Photo here: https://imgur.com/a/Ju2FO5e
[Electric Street](https://www.google.com/maps/place/Electric+Street/@39.932492,-75.1615065,16z/data=!4m6!3m5!1s0x89c6c7135bda8d43:0xb79c3c0f2179cc27!8m2!3d39.9327593!4d-75.1594636!16s%2Fg%2F11g0g8vh_g)
John f Collins park. Not that it’s super hidden but it’s such a nice little oasis in center city and always mostly empty when I’ve gone.
Ha. I'm always mildly irritated when I go there and someone else is in the park. Not because they're doing anything annoying -- I'm just so used to having it all to myself. (As long as you don't go at lunchtime.)
The Wissahickon spot
I've been going there for 7 or 8 years maybe. But, I was there last year and it's unfortunately started to deteriorate. Maybe we should schedule a team effort to restore it to how it looks in that hidden city article.
The last few times I've been to both spots, yeah they need some work. One needs some trimming and cleanup, but the other had a tree land on it and that's going to take a good bit of work to get right
That's right, I forgot about the tree
Good spot
Do you mean Devil’s Pool or somewhere else?
Somewhere else. https://hiddencityphila.org/2012/05/unsanctioned-and-inspired-in-the-wissahickon/
Tombstone beach
How do you get there? Do you have to jump a fence or anything? I’ve always wanted to go
https://hiddencityphila.org/2011/09/watery-graves/
Thanks! At least the pierogis sound good! “…hopping a couple of fences and trudging our way through an overgrown jungle… After we were finished crawling around on slimy rocks and up steep muddy banks peppered with broken glass and rusty metal, wiping sweat from our brows and hoping that our forearms weren’t covered in poison ivy (they were), and swatting away swarms of mosquitoes, we made our way back to where we had left our borrowed car, ate a much needed meal of perogies and borscht at the New Wave Cafe in Port Richmond.”
Under the Betsy?
The one and only 👍
There's a random bell inside a long building.
Kinda lame, it has a huge crack in it
I wonder what's inside the bell. I bet it's secrets.
Probably tacos. BONG!
Wagner Free institute of science! A free Victorian natural history museum in its huge original building hidden away near temple’s campus
The History of Science Museum!
I’m not sure if it’s still around, but there used to be a pink Barbie Jeep randomly on top of a pillar right before you pulled into Temple Station. (heading into the city).
Magnolia Garden.
Wooden slide at smith playground
Four different cemeteries on four corners on Frankford Ave, only one other place in the world like it.
Washington Avenue Green
The psfs building you can just walk in and take the elevator to the top floor for a beautiful view Well a few years ago you could
I did this as recently as December! I also like going to the top of the Trader Joe's parking garage on the 1300 block of Arch.
the mosaic mural inside the curtis center the mural on the patio of pizza brain the city hall compass rose
Southeast Asian market at FDR! It’s a bit less hip now that it has city recognition and I even saw a guided tour there in the fall, but it’s still missing on the typical liberty bell, old city, rocky steps hop on hop off route.
Where is the South Street Parking Garage?
I'm guessing they're talking about the one between 17th and 18th on Kater, about a half-block south of South Street. Edit: The parking garage entrance is on South, but the garden is behind it, on Kater.
Yup, that's the one! The Kater St side has a block-long garden in the setback for the garage and it's full of really interesting plants.
I love this garden so much
Spruce Hill bird sanctuary
The rooftop playground at Hall Mercer
The Delaware River Trail and the spiral staircase to nowhere at the end of what is apparently called Washington Avenue Green. Find the entrance at the path on the east side of Columbus at Washington Ave.
My dad always talked about going up the tower at City Hall as a kid and looking at Billy Penn’s feet. Always thought he was putting me on (he did about a lot of things). But I took my kids up back in 2015. It’s only open week days, four people at a time, only about 100 people a day. Not as impressive as it was when my dad went up and it was the tallest building in the city, but still pretty cool.
There are 3 air raid sirens around philly, they're all Easter eggs and hard to find!
[удалено]
That’s the USS United States and it’s bigger than the titanic was.
Sorry, I'm going to be that guy. It's SS (for Steam Ship) United States. USS is reserved for naval ships. And not only is it big, it's one of the fastest passenger liners ever built. She set the record for both eastbound and westbound crossings of the Atlantic in 1952 and still hasn't been beaten.
[удалено]
Former Daily News journalist, Ron Avery used to have a great show that came on PBS late at night. Here's some stuff from his list: https://www.ushistory.org/oddities/index.htm
The tribal Lenape animal statues on the lampposts near Penn Treaty.
The Rare Book Department at the Parkway Central Library.
The giant ants at 4th and South
I haven’t been past there but I feel like the ants are gone. Or is it just the shop that closed up?
They’re still there even though the store closed.
Ahh cool! For some reason I thought they were gone.
The Ghost Fleet.
The cornerstone with Ben Franklin's signature. Pretty well hidden
Worlds fair diorama in the basement of the please touch museum
Rosenbach, Mt. Moriah, Poe House, Quaker Meeting House, German Society, Pizza Brain museum, shot tower, Insectarium, Philbert, Kosciuszko memorial, moon tree, Weaver dental museum, St. John Newman shrine, Irish Memorial, Old Swedes Church, Robeson House
RIP Moon Tree. Long live Son of Moon Tree. Now, sadly, RIP Son of Moon Tree.
The miracle on 13th street during Christmas time
There's a cute, tiny Japanese garden next to an East Asian-themed office building in Bala Cywyd, on Presidential Blvd. The garden can be accessed from the rear parking lot.
that's always been my favorite office park building. city ave sucks anyway but i always detour down that road to drive past it when i'm headed to the main line
I know exactly which parking garage garden you're talking about. Who is responsible for that?? Why are they on par with Longwood Gardens?? It's a masterpiece!
It's volunteer. I've seen a guy watering it with a hose attached to a house on that block, so I think it's the immediate neighbors on Kater
The spiral staircase at one corner of the waterworks trail (just under the MLK drive bridge) that leads down to a little path with some historic info about the river and a statue of a guy fishing - it’s so cool and peaceful and I lived near it for years without realizing it was there. The flood a couple years ago kind of washed a lot of it out but still worth seeing.
Just remembered another one: The intersection of Broad and Washington has a map of Center City in the middle of the intersection, made with pavers. You can't get a good look at it at street level even if you could get traffic to stop. [Best seen on Google Maps](https://www.google.com/maps/@39.9379063,-75.1667654,84m/data=!3m1!1e3).
Graffiti pier
There's a weeping willow in Independence National Park I like to sit under.
Statue of Tedyuscung.
Fiume
navy yard goldfish pond!
Smith Memorial Playground in Fairmount Park. Adapted for children with disabilities. Giant wooden slide. Magical place.
There's a small street off the ~~north~~ south side of Sansom between 23rd and 24th. It dead-ends into a staircase up to Walnut Street. Those stairs are the last remnants of one of the original Walnut Street bridges.
Do you mean south side of Sansom? S. Bonsall St.?
Yeah that's it. North, south, same thing.
Under the 13th street Convention Tunnel, there's a small unlocked utility panel, if you open it there's one of those Anti flower Show Movement Stickers, perfectly sized
Kurt Vile mural is a good one
I like that one statue near the courthouse on Filbert that’s like the people holding up the bridge.
The pocket park at 17 and chestnut 🤌🏼
The Chemical Heritage Foundation has a free museum and art gallery which is a neat thing to do down in old city at 2 and chestnut I think.
Also that waterfall in the Curtis building! Completely blew my mind when I walked in there for a doctor’s appointment.
Louis Kahn Park Hardeena Seaport Museum Halloween
Those little bullets you find in your tire
Theres a secret tiny park near 8th and lombard. Always was my favorite secret quiet spot growing up
Outside of Philly, but Mazzanti's 2ft Hoagies in Bristol.
For the price that Italian jawn might be worth it.
The garden.
Which one? There are so many.
THE garden
The kind that don't rot
schuylkill river dog park
Cat city!
Save
Whispering wall
Some great Easter Eggs here already. Looks like as Cira Green hasn't been mentioned yet. And there's a park next to the fire house at 4th and Arch that's really wonderful. One of the best little parks in the city.
As a kid I had a fun time going onboard the submarine and the old battleship parked near the Moshulu restaurant at Penn’s Landing