Park Boundaries

In April Arthur E. Demaray informed Lewis that arrangements had been made for Peterson and another park service professional, Roy Appleman, to assist the commission. Appleman was one of the trained historians hired by Ronald Lee in 1935 as part of the Civilian Conservation Corps program for work in national and state parks. In 1947 he was regional historian in the old Region I office in Richmond, Virginia. Both Peterson and Appleman were present at a meeting in Philadelphia on April 18. Although this was described in the minutes as a meeting of the Philadelphia National Shrines Park Commission, the only member of that body present was Judge Lewis. As usual Sydney Martin represented the Fairmount Park Art Association, Dr. William E. Lingelbach the Independence Hall Association, and Robert E. Mitchell and Edmund Bacon the City Planning Commission. Simon was also present. The discussion focused on park boundaries. There was general agreement that the national park should extend east to Second Street. Edmund Bacon, on behalf of the City Planning Commission, displayed maps showing not only what was described as the "usual area" for consideration, but also the area south of Walnut Street to Lombard Street. Bacon believed that the latter area, with its concentration of eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century rowhouses, should be developed with "greenways," small parks and land-scaped walks. Both of the National Park Service men felt that the southern section, Washington Square East as it was designated on the city's plans, was not suitable for inclusion in the federal project. The areas shown were too narrow and long and were not interconnected. In the proposed national park, Bacon expressed concern for the appearance of the historic buildings as seen from the side. There was agreement, for example, that Strickland had designed the sides of the Second Bank knowing that they would be hidden from view by flanking buildings. Simon's plan took this into account, providing new, low buildings along Chestnut Street on sites where nonhistoric buildings would be demolished. Such buildings, he suggested, might be fitted up as inns and restaurants to serve visitors to the park. Thus, general agreement on the boundaries was combined with a variety of opinions on the treatment of specific sites and on possible additional acquisitions. Peterson called attention to the special interest and restoration potential of the Todd and Bishop White Houses on Walnut Street, and the mid-nineteenth-century Jayne Building on Chestnut Street. The group also discussed the desirability of acquiring the sites of the Franklin House, the Robert Morris House on Market Street, where both Washington and Adams had lived as president, and the Graff House, where Jefferson drafted the Declaration of Independence.

Both Appleman and Peterson spent time in Philadelphia over the next several months. In addition to his visit in April, Appleman was in Philadelphia for the last week of June and the first three weeks in July. Peterson spent about a month there in the spring and another two and a half months during the summer. Although both had been detailed to Philadelphia by the National Park Service, they worked independently, rather than as a team. They conferred on architectural questions, but otherwise saw very little of one another, and neither saw a copy of the other's report. Indeed, they seem to have approached the assignment with very different attitudes. When they arrived, Lewis offered to arrange for both men to stay at the Union League Club. Appleman felt that he could not afford to: the National Park Service per diem allowance of the 1940s, pegged to the small towns near which most parks were located, provided six or seven dollars a day. Appleman found that the cheapest respectable hotel he could find took all but a dollar of that. Despite eating most of his meals at Horn and Hardart's, he had spent about ninety dollars out of his own pocket by the end of his Philadelphia assignment. His meetings with Philadelphians were directly related to his assigned tasks. He conferred often with judge Lewis, with Joseph M. McCosker, who had been retained to write the historical background section of the Shrines Commission's report to Congress, and with Dr. Lingelbach, and he encountered other Philadelphians at various meetings.