The Buildings To Remain!

Grant Simon's large-scale illustrations supplemented the written report. Several of these were merely pretty pictures, watercolor renderings of how some of the historic buildings would look after restoration. Others fleshed out the Shrines Commission's vision of the eventual appearance of the park. There were, however, some discrepancies among the drawings. An aerial photograph of Philadelphia, with the park areas skillfully airbrushed in, showed Project A bisected by a broad grass mall. All of the buildings on Walnut and Chestnut Streets were gone, with the exception of the main historic monuments and a few unidentifiable eighteenth-century houses on Walnut Street. Double rows of trees took the place of the buildings. A site plan drawing was more specific. The buildings to remain on Walnut Street were identified as the Moylan (Todd) and Bishop White Houses, plus the buildings at 339, 341, and 315-321. However, a perspective watercolor rendering of the same area, dated 1947, showed Walnut and Chestnut Streets lined with new, low construction, in the "colonial style." The 200-by-850-foot grass plot remained consistent. It was, indeed, integral to Simon's ideas for the east mall. He had developed all his plans on the assumption that the historic buildings were to be given a dignified and impressive setting through the creation of what he termed a "commons," a broad lawn with double rows of trees on all four sides, bordered by the historic buildings and new construction of sympathetic character. The plan of the proposed park also showed development at Franklin Court. It encompassed four buildings on Market Street, the passageway between them, and a reconstruction of Franklin's house. Project B, the southern extension, was also treated as a relatively broad mall, although a discontinuous one. It stopped on the north side of the graveyard of St. Mary's Church and began again to its south.

Despite the inconsistency of the drawings, the members of the Shrines Commission evidently believed that they had not only prepared a report demonstrating the desirability of a national park in Philadelphia, but also worked out the best scheme for its development. Section 3 of the proposed legislation incorporated in the report read, "The park shall be developed in accordance with the report of the Philadelphia National Shrines Park Commission to the Congress of the United States, dated December 29, 1947."