The Six Original Frigates of the US Navy

US merchant ships were susceptible to piracy in the late 18th century due to a weak US Navy. Prior to the Revolution, British Naval forces protected American ships, especially in the heavily trafficked waters of the Mediterranean. In the years after independence, the US could not afford a large standing Navy and so their merchants were left unprotected. With the outbreak of the French Revolution and the subsequent French-British wars, the Royal Navy found an easy source of manpower in American ships, pressing men from their ranks.

Early on the US Federal government, and especially the Anti-Federalist contingent, resisted building a naval force for financial reasons as well as for fear of provoking action with the European imperialistic powers. However, as piracy, impressment by the Royal Navy, and an undeclared naval war with France continued to grow, the need for a Navy became unavoidable.

In 1794, the House passed a bill allowing for the construction of the "original six frigates." Designed by Joshua Humphreys of Philadelphia, they were constructed in shipyards across the young country. The USS United States was built right in Philly and went on to have an illustrious career, famously capturing the HMS Macedonian in the War of 1812.

source: wikimedia commons

Of the six, the USS Constitution "Old Ironsides" still remains, berthed at the Charlestown Navy Yard. Her history is amazing, especially her performance in the War of 1812 when she defeated 5 British warships.

I find late 18th century and early 19th century naval history fascinating, and have been working my way through the Aubrey-Maturin series of books by Patrick O'Brian (of Master and Commander fame) and absolutely loving them. What is most amazing about America's "original six" is the success they had against the greatest navy of all time. Why were early American warships so lethal against their well-trained and powerful Royal Navy counterparts? Thats a good question.

The Constitution with its topgallant and royal masts rigged:

source: fas.org

source: flickr user Christine4nier

July 4th 1788 - A Constitutional Parade

Upon the successful ratification of the Federal Constitution by the required 9 states, Philadelphia's citizenry decided to celebrate that July 4th 1788 with a huge parade. Led by important Philadelphians each representing a constitutional ideology, event, or person, the parade also included representatives of city's tradesmen. The Order or Procession survives to this day, and is a neat look into the celebration of this momentous occasion.

source: explorepahistory.com

Detour: Montreal

Its been about a month since I've posted, for various reasons, but one is that I was away in Montreal for the past week attending a conference. The trip was fantastic. Its a city I had never been to, but have heard much about, so the expectations were high. It didn't disappoint. I'm just going to outline a few of the places I went with a few friends. We didn't see many of the major attractions like the museums or much of the old city or the biosphere, but concentrated on visiting neighborhoods and their restaurants / cafes / and bars.


Friday, October 1st

The conference started on Tuesday the 5th, but I arrived the previous Friday to see the city and stay with a friend / colleague and his wife. They live in a beautiful early 20th century apartment right off of McGill University's campus and 2 blocks from downtown. 

For dinner we walked down Prince Arthur street towards the “Plateau” area. Over Saint Laurent Prince Arthur turns into a pedestrian-only street, and is lined by French Bistros and other touristy shops. It seems to be the most touristy section of this French side of Montreal, but was reasonably priced and bustling with locals, students, and tourists alike. We had dinner (Duck Confit) and some house wine and just relaxed in the cool weather. 

Saturday, October 2nd
Once the whole party had arrived in Montreal, we decided to head up to Fairmount to get the famous bagels at
Fairmount bagel bakery
74 Fairmount Avenue West http://www.fairmountbagel.com/

Walking down Prince Arthur, we came to Avenue du Parc and caught the #80 bus going NW. Due to construction at the Fairmount stop, we got off at Saint Viateur and du Parc. Walking on Saint Viateur we encountered a really nice neighborhood with lots of people and really great looking cafes, patisseries, and bagel places. Plenty of Orthodox Jews were out wearing big cylindrical fur hats for the Sabbath. We decided we would have to come back and spend some time at the cafes. Taking a right down Saint Urbain, we came to Fairmount and made a left, arriving at Fairmount bagel.

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There was a line out the door and the wait was worth it. An “All dressed” (everything) bagel with lox and cream cheese was the order. Montreal bagels are good, but very different than NY bagels. Smaller with a much bigger hole, its almost like a pretzel - with much sweeter dough. Good, but I’ll stick with my NY bagels. Our next goal was to make it up to the
Jean Talon Farmers Market
7070 rue Henri-Julien http://www.marche-jean-talon.com/

We walked over to Saint Denis, and took the #30 up to Rue Jean Talon and walked SW down Jean Talon towards the market. The #30 took us up Saint Hubert which was densely packed with shops and people. The market is huge and dense with people and food. Lots of produce along with cheese shops, meat shops, creperies, etc. We split some sausage sandwiches and a chocolate and caramel crepe.

After some of a local Canadian-style red ale at a bar in little Italy, we moved on to find the Metro at Beaubien and Rue de Saint Vallier. The Metro is very fast and easy to use. Each line has dedicated tracks so its very simple to get around and hard to get confused. Its modeled after the Paris metro and runs on tires which allows it to accelerate and decelerate faster, travel at a higher max speed, and go up and down steeper grades.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montreal_Metro

That night, we made plans to check out a jazz show that was part of “Pop Montreal,” a city-wide music festival, and decided to hit up Schwartz’s for their famous smoked meat sandwiches. The line was too long so we ended up next door at Coco Rico bbq chicken. Real cheap, fast pulled pork sandwich or bbq chicken with roasted potatoes and a salad =  perfect.
In the course of wandering back to Saint Laurent from the jazz show at about 11:30, we stumbled upon a corner bar at Rue Roy E and Rue de Bullion:
Else’s
156 Roy Street East

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This turned out to be one of the best spots we found. Good beer, great scotch selection, great atmosphere and great bar tending. We hung around until after closing time (3am) when the bartender kicked us out with a shot of Jameson (as seems to be the custom). On the way out she recommended a place for brunch which turned out to be fantastic.

Even at 3:30am, Saint Laurent was packed with people looking for late night food, and we found it in
Shish-Taouk
3633 St Laurent This falafel place is open 24/7 and while not amazing, had really good baklava.

Sunday, October 3rd
Brunch happened at about noon on Sunday, when we took Anne-Marie’s word for it and found
Reservoir
9 Duluth E
brasseriereservoir.ca‎

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Make sure you pan around to the right to see some graffiti mural art typical of Montreal.

We had to wait a few minutes for seats, but this French Brasserie / cafe was worth a wait 10 times longer. Unbelievably good food (fall-off-the-bone short ribs with a brown sugar-ish glaze for starters) with great espresso. I won’t even try to describe the food which ranged from those amazing short ribs to poached eggs on cheese bread to omelets, but suffice it to say 5 stars. Perfect thing for a hangover.

It was a cool, overcast day, but not raining, so we trudged up towards Mont Royal and the large statue right off of Avenue du Parc. Here, every Sunday, a drum circle forms with many musicians and spectators along with a “gypsy market.” I was quite impressed with the group. There were enough legit musicians to hold each jam together and keep it from just becoming noise which is what happens at most drum circles.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tamtams

We spent the rest of the day working (my friends) and watching the Eagles implode (me) at the
Cafe Art Java
645, avenue Du President-Kennedy
caffeartjava.com‎
Good espresso and an urban-college-cafe type setting. We decided to get some Italian for dinner after a snack of homemade crepes made by our hosts. Yelp once again did not disappoint us and we loved
Chez Ennio
1978 Boul. de Maisonneuve Ouest
Run by an elderly couple, the inside of this small basement restaurant feels like my grandmothers house - lace doilies and all. Huge portions of pasta (looked like a half pound of linguine) and an all around delicious meal. I particularly thought the red clam sauce was fantastic. Its over on the west side of downtown, and to get there we walked down Saint Catherine. This seems to be the main drag for shopping and it was busy even on a Sunday night.

Monday, October 4th
To start off the day, we wanted to check out the cafes on Saint Viateur that we had stumbled upon on Saturday morning. We once again caught the bus on Avenue du Parc heading NW and got off at Viateur. After grabbing some bagels at Saint Viateur Bagel (not as good as Fairmount), we stopped in at a classic Italian cafe:
Cafe Olimpico
124 St-Viateur St. W

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This has been called the “best cafe in North America” by someone on Yelp. I won’t go that far, but it has a great feel, and great espresso. The Italian guys behind the counter are lightning quick and know what they’re doing. Italian soccer is always playing on the TVs and there is a nice patio with wooden benches for hanging out when the weather is nice (like this day) and discussing the relative merits of cafe au lait and cafe latte.
We walked over to Saint Laurent and down to Avenue Laurier. Heading NE on Laurier we walked into a beautiful neighborhood with a big park - Parc Sir Wilfrid Laurier. This seems like a great place to live - quiet, clean, and interesting. Every townhouse on the tree-lined streets is unique.

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Just down the street from the park is
Le Fromentier
1375, avenue Laurier Est
The bakery was rather quiet as it was Monday afternoon, but even the pre-made sandwiches were killer. Great bread and great ingredients =  great sandwich.

Walking back down Laurier, our next destination was a famous patisserie:
Patisserie de Gascogne
237 Laurier O
degascogne.com‎
Well known for its pastries and chocolates, we sampled some of each with some more great espresso. Top notch.

And as if we hadn’t already been spoiled with the best food and drinks known to man, we walked right up the street only 2 blocks away to
Brasserie Dieu Du Ciel
29 ave Laurier ouest
dieuduciel.com‎

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Literally “Brewery God of Heaven,” this is undoubtedly one of the best (if not the best) microbrewery I have ever visited. I wound up coming back 2 more times in the next week, each time amazed at the quality of the beer. The best imperial stout I’ve tasted, a fantastic American style IPA on cask, an incredibly well-balanced quadruple Belgian, and plenty of others. If you go one place in Montreal go here.

Tuesday, October 5th
Before the conference began on Tuesday, Erik and I went up the stairs behind McGill University to the top of Mont Royal. Gorgeous views of the city and the changing October leaves. Well worth the effort.

Wednesday, October 6th
After a long day in the conference rooms, a reception was held at the Ecole Polytechnique de Montreal at the Universite de Montreal. It was cool and raining, but my friends and I decided to head out on the town. Our first destination was back to Dieu Du Ciel which was packed and as fantastic as we had remembered. We spent a good 2 hours there before stopping at a very chic French bistro on Saint Denis:
Restaurant L’Express
3927 Rue Saint-Denis
Definitely a good place for a late night snack, and definitely very French. We sat at the counter and the waiters spoke only passable English. That was OK though as everything on the menu was tasty. My grilled cheese with ham hit the spot and my friend’s homemade raviolis and goat cheese salad looked great, especially all washed down with the distinctively malty Canadian-style red ale. I would definitely check this place out again.

Friday, October 8th
The conference ended at about 1pm, and before game 2 of the NLDS: Phillies vs. the Reds, we decided it was time to finally check out Schwartz’s smoked meat.
Schwartz’s Deli
3895 St Laurent
schwartzsdeli.com‎

The line was out the door as usual, but we only waited about 20 minutes. We all got the standard “smoked meat” sandwich. Its good - basically a type of smoked corned beef. The bread had something to be desired - untoasted and basically just a way to hold the insides of the sandwich together. I think the best way to have Schwartz’s would be to order a large amount to go and then make the sandwiches yourself at home. The other couple at our table was from south Jersey - so definitely a big tourist attraction, but worth the visit.


The rest of the evening was spent at a few bars on Rue Crescent downtown watching the ballgame. There seem to be plenty of good bars here, but one we stopped at was Hurley’s Irish Pub. It's huge and has a good beer selection and good bar food.

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Montreal: Parting thoughts
What a great city. Clean, vibrant, and interesting. Lots of great neighborhoods, and a great metropolitan center city. Tons of good food and drink. It left me with the impression that its a city I could live in, and also a realization that I had seen only a small fraction of what it has to offer.

Philadelphia's Early Clubs

Originally called the Colony in Schuylkill by its founders in 1732, and later the State in Schuylkill after the revolution, the Schuylkill Fishing Company is a club most famous for its Fish House Punch - a blend of rum, Cognac, and peach brandy. When founded, members were given titles such as Governor, Sheriff, and even Coroner, and membership is limited to 25 individuals at a time. It is America's oldest club and arguably the oldest men's club in the English-speaking world. This "august gentlemen's society devoted to escaping domestic tribulation, but also to cigars, whiskey, and the occasional fishing foray," was situated across the Schuylkill River from Philadelphia in what is now Fairmount Park. Many great Americans have been members, but perhaps the most famous is General Lafayette, who was granted membership upon his visit in 1825.

source: PhillyH2O

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source: APS

Though the Schuylkill Fishing Company was the first men's club, a club created by Benjamin Franklin would have possibly the most far-reaching impact of any 18th century Philadelphia organization. In 1727, the Junto was formed by Franklin amongst a group of 12 craftsmen to "debate questions of morals, politics, and natural philosophy, and to exchange knowledge of business affairs." The Junto wiki page has a great introduction to the idea, and a list of current Junto groups. As the colonies matured and the American Revolution fostered an independent American culture, the American Philosophical Society "for promoting useful knowledge" was formed (again by Franklin) and flourished as a direct descendant of the Junto. The wiki page and the APS website are great resources on the Society's history and philosophy. Today, membership in the Society alongside names such as Charles Darwin, Robert Frost, Louis Pasteur, and Thomas Edison is highly regarded. The society also "promotes useful knowledge in the sciences and humanities through excellence in scholarly research, professional meetings, publications, library resources, and community outreach."


The APS museum and house, located on 5th right around the corner from Independence Hall:

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source: IceNineJon on Flickr

source: Josh Self on Flickr

The Pennsylvania Hospital

source: chingers7 on flickr

The first hospital in the colonies, the Pennsylvania Hospital, was chartered in 1751 by the PA Assembly. The brainchild of Dr. Thomas Bond and Benjamin Franklin (of course), the hospital received great support from the city and set Philadelphia apart as a center for medicine in the new world. The beautiful building on Pine St between 8th and 9th was begun in 1755 and finished after the Revolution. Here it is in 1876:

source: phillyhistory.org

The inscription on the cornerstone, penned by Franklin, says:

In the year of Christ
1755
George the second happily reigning
(for he sought the happiness of his people)
Philadelphia flourishing
(for its inhabitants were publick spirited)
this building
by the bounty of the government,
and of many private persons,
was piously founded
for the relief of the sick and miserable;
may the God of mercies
bless this undertaking.

Franklin helped to raise funds for the project by "introducing what may have been the first dollar-matching scheme in American history. He prevailed upon the Assembly to grant £2000 to the hospital only when a like amount was privately raised." 

Now part of the University of Pennsylvania Health System (UPenn being another pet project of the ubiquitous Franklin), Pennsylvania Hospital is still going strong. Here is a history of the hospital. The virtual tour is particularly interesting.

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The Powell House

Philadelphia grew immensely in the mid 1700s. From 1746 to 1765, the population more than doubled from 10,000 to 25,000. In contrast, Boston remained stable at about 15,000. In 1765, Philly was probably the 4th largest city in the British Empire, behind only London, Edinburgh, and Dublin.

This great growth occurred because of Philadelphia's advantages as a commercial center. Being surrounded by hundreds of miles by prime farmland and forest, boasting a fine port, and being situated at the central point of the colonies were all advantageous. As the cash flowed in, many of the local merchants began building estates of their own, often settling on whole city blocks. One such house is the Powel House on 3rd between Spruce and Willing's Alley. At one point, the house and its gardens covered the whole block, but its town-house style was clearly designed with future development in mind. Built by Charles Stedman in 1765, some of the interior furnishings have been on display at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and the original structure is still standing. Samuel Powel was the last mayor of Philadelphia under British rule, and during the revolution hosted many of the continental congress and even Marquis de Lafayette.

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source: wallyg on flickr

The Holy Experiement - Philadelphia Churches in the 18th Century: Part 2

In a previous post, I wrote about the wealth of faiths that were attracted to Penn's city and how many of the original congregations are still active. By the mid 18th century, many Christian denominations other than the dominant Quakers had established strong footholds in Philly. Lutherans, Anglicans, Reformed Germans, and Presbyterians were among the strong congregations.

In general, Quakers were the most important political faction in the first half of the century, and their people controlled much of the wealth of the city. Anglicans, however, were increasingly important in shaping Philadelphia into a true city. Quaker beliefs towards education and art left those endeavors to others, and Anglicans would take a leading role.

Anglican

One of the most important architectural landmarks in Philadelphia's journey from town to city was the Anglican Christ Church. Begun in 1727 and finished in 1744, and with a 196 ft steeple added in 1754, the Palladian structure was built on the site of the original 1695 Anglican chapel. At the time it was the tallest building in the colonies, and would become one of the most important churches in American History. 15 Signers of the Declaration of Independence were members including George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, and Betsy Ross, and as the first Protestant Episcopal church in the country, Christ Church was the birthplace of the American Episcopal Church in the United States.

other sources: wiki

source: phillyhistory.org

View Christ Church in a larger map

source: teachandlearn on flickr

Plenty more great photos here.

Such was the growth of the Anglican population that in 1758 a new congregation was formed at 3rd and Pine Streets. St. Peters is often noted for its exceptional beauty within the sanctuary.

source: wallyg on flickr

View St Peter's Episcopal Church in a larger map

source: lisa cee on flickr

And in case you prefer your churches in high dynamic range.

Catholic

If there was a congregation in Philadelphia that had to deal with prejudice, it was the Catholics of St. Joseph's, particularly when England was at war with the Catholic Bourbon powers which was really most of the 18th century. In reality, other than a few rare occurrences of ill-will, it was the general belief in Philly that all were entitled to religious freedom. The worst incident was perhaps in 1755 when the defeat of Major General Edward Braddock during the French and Indian War aroused such fears that "an anti-Catholic mob attempted to destroy St. Joseph's and was turned back only through the persuasion of some brave Quakers." Catholics were also not allowed to serve in the militia during those times. The first Catholic chapel was built in 1733 on Willings Alley. Saint Joseph's soon outgrew its space and a new church was built in 1757. The current building was built in 1839 in the same location.

View Old St Joseph's Church in a larger map

source: teachandlearn on flickr

Atypical in design, the building does not look like a church from the outside, but is incorporated into a city block, perhaps as a way to stay under the radar. A photo of the interior courtyard can be found here. The second Catholic parish was added in 1763. St. Mary's is located just down the block at 4th and Manning Streets. When later enlarged, it would become the first cathedral of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.

Judaism

The first Jewish services were held in the 1740s on Sterling Alley in a private home near Race St between 3rd and 4th. This group would later become Mikveh Israel, one of the most historic Jewish-American groups. While the group is still active in Philly, their oldest trace is in the 1740 cemetery at Spruce and Darien Streets behind the Pennsylvania Hospital building. Perhaps the most well known member was Nathan Levy, whose ship carried the Liberty Bell to Philadelphia.

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While that wraps up this short review of the original 18th century congregations, it is by no means the end of religious history in Philly. In time, virtually all religions would be represented in the City of Brotherly Love, and Penn's "Holy Experiment" would truly come to pass. In the 1700s, Philly was a model of religious tolerance for its time. This would set the stage for many historic congregations such as the first African-American Episcopal Church, and the first African-American ordained priest of the Episcopal Church.