The Acorn Club occupies a handsome brick mansion on Locust Street, distinguished by the understated elegance of its federal style facade and arched windows. Founded in eighteen eighty-nine, it began as a space where Philadelphia women…
Rittenhouse Square Mansions
This stroll highlights the majestic Gilded Age mansions, private clubs, and elegant public park of Philadelphia's nineteenth-century elite. It is a perfect way to experience the quiet grandeur and historic brownstones of the city's premier neighborhood.
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1. The Acorn Club
2. Saint Mark's Church
The spire of Saint Mark’s Church climbs two hundred feet above Locust Street, a sharp limestone needle designed in the English Gothic style. When construction finished in eighteen fifty-one, the parish intended to create an authentic…
3. Curtis Institute of Music
The Curtis Institute of Music occupies the former nineteenth century mansions facing Rittenhouse Square, identifiable by their limestone facades and the understated, elegant brass plaque by the front door. Mary Louise Curtis Bok founded…
4. Philadelphia Art Alliance at University of the Arts
The Philadelphia Art Alliance occupies the Wetherill Mansion, a brownstone wearing a striking, rounded bay that curves directly onto the sidewalk of Rittenhouse Square. Christine Wetherill Stevenson commissioned the house in nineteen oh…
5. The Barclay
The Barclay rises eighteen stories over Rittenhouse Square with a facade of dark, textured brick and limestone trimming. When it opened in nineteen twenty-nine, developers marketed it as a residential hotel for the city’s elite, offering…
6. Rittenhouse Square
The square features a heavy, bronze goat statue that children have been climbing on since nineteen forty-eight. This park is one of the five original open spaces William Penn planned for Philadelphia in the late seventeenth century. While…
7. Anthropologie
The facade of this Anthropologie features an intricate, terra-cotta archway that once belonged to the old LuLu Temple. Built in nineteen twelve, the building originally served as the headquarters for a local branch of the Shriners. The…
8. The Rosenbach
The Rosenbach is a pair of joined nineteenth century townhouses marked by an unassuming brick facade that hides a vault of literary treasures. It houses the personal collections of brothers A.S.W. and Philip Rosenbach, two rare book…