Southwest Philly continued

Happy St. Patty’s Day to all!  I figured I’d finish up blogging about the ride that I had earlier this week around Southwest Philly.  

To begin this continuation, I’ll honor St. Patrick’s Day by starting with one of the greener sites in Philadelphia, a visit to the Heinz Wildlife Refuge. The Heinz Wildlife Refuge is a 1,000 acre national wildlife refuge formed in 1972 by an act of Congress to protect a piece of what used to be a vast tidal marshland now a part of Southwest and South Philly.  According the National Park Service it is now the nesting grounds of 80 different species of birds.  This includes the Bald Eagle, which I saw fly over on a previous visit.  Although the whole site contains 10 miles of trails and extends well into Delaware County, Zack and I stayed at the visitor’s center.

The Cusano Environmental Education Center is a green building that is almost as old as LEED.  Finished in 2001, the center won national recognition as a green building using then-innovative  concepts such as: energy efficient light, heating and cooling, use of recycled materials and touting an indoor marsh that is used not only for education but to filter the water the building uses.  The building is set up on stilts above an intricately designed and landscaped wetland.  The landscape also includes a bird watching area that had some wild turkeys while we were there.

The center itself has some of the best informational graphics and exhibits I’ve seen. The nature center focuses on the importance of wetlands, the history of the Heinz preserve and the nature around the site.  One of the exhibits includes a building long, cross section diorama of various native and invasive species found in the wildlife refuge.

From the wildlife refuge we biked back up Lindbergh Blvd. to 82^nd Street through townhouses and a trail reminiscent of an urban renewal site.  Especially when we biked a little further down the trail to find a school that had some sort of modernist art sculpture outside and a path that has not been maintained since I was in 8^th grade.

The trail was so bad in some parts that some grassy reed was taking over the trail.  Oh and a giant tree was across it. 

From there we continued to up Elmwood Ave. to the Cobbs Creek Bikeway. There were signs along the street directing us, but me being me, I thought that I knew a better way.  Much to the dismay of Zack I did not and we wandered over more trolley tracks and were forced to enter Cobbs Creek by going down an on-ramp like road.  Cobbs Creek is less of a creek and more of a ditch that is a trash-strewn gully, but the bike path was recently paved so that was nice. 

All but 3 minutes up the trail we arrived at what I wanted to see the whole ride, Mt. Moriah Cemetery.  I was under the impression that the cemetery has long been abandoned.  That proved not true as placed helter-skelter there were gravestones of people that have passed within this decade.  The majority of the cemetery though was in rough shape.  Many obelisk and stones that have been toppled, worn or had prickly vines growing all over them.  Some plots seemed as if they had been purchased but empty for decades.

The cemetery was incorporated in 1855 and grew in its heyday to its current size, 380 acres.  The cemetery follows design intentions of other Philly cemeteries such as Laurel Hill and Woodlands, creating a rolling landscape that would be home to the deceased in order to free up land near urban churches for other development.  Over the years as the region expanded the cemetery fell into disrepair.  According to some website, the ownership of the cemetery is unknown, which seem baffling to me.  The cemetery contains not only large plots but mausoleums that have since been bricked off to prevent vandalism.  The mini-buildings are great examples of architectural styles of the time, including Egyptian and Greek revival. 

Along Kingsessing St, the cemetery’s main entrance, are the remains of an elaborate Romanesque enterance and gatehouse.  Built in the mid 19^th century by architect Stephen Button, it looks as if it has been abandoned since the “new” entrance was built in probably the 1920s. 

After the cemetery Zack and I headed back to his house and then I headed back over the Schuylkill, only this time across the still novel South Street Bridge.  Another exploration complete.