Logan Square, Logan Circle / The Heart of the Parkway

Logan Square, Logan Circle, also, The Heart of the Parkway. . , Logan Square, Logan Circle , 1919 , Standing here in Logan Square, at the center of the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, it’s hard to imagine this was a pasture – and burial ground – in 1821., Though William Penn envisioned “Northwest Square” as a green space to keep city dwellers healthy, locals used it for public hangings. A gallows stood here as late as 1823., In 1825, the square was renamed for Penn’s secretary, James Logan. The city began to improve the neighborhood, moving graves and planting trees., When the city unveiled revised plans for the Parkway in 1919, Logan Square changed once more. The square would be the midpoint of a grand boulevard. Inside the square, a traffic circle; inside the circle, formal flower beds., Swann Fountain, with its bronze sculptures by Alexander Stirling Calder, was completed at the heart of Logan Square in 1924., Statesman James Logan , James Logan was just 25 when he came here as William Penn’s secretary in 1699. Smart and capable, Logan moved up in politics, becoming secretary of the province of Pennsylvania, mayor of Philadelphia, and Chief Justice of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court., Fur trading brought him the great wealth needed to build a mansion and assemble a library of over 2,000 books, which he later left to the city., The Heart of the Parkway , 1924 , Swann Fountain sits halfway between City Hall and the Philadelphia Museum of Art. It was built to honor Dr. Wilson Cary Swann and is a focal point of the Benjamin Franklin Parkway. Swann was a 19th-century doctor who founded the Philadelphia Fountain Society because he believed that the city should have more public drinking fountains for people and troughs for animals., The fountain was completed in 1924. Alexander Stirling Calder created its sculptures. The three central figures represent Philadelphia’s major waterways: the Delaware River, the Schuylkill River and Wissahickon Creek. Swann Fountain is also known as “The Fountain of the Three Rivers.”, These nearby rivers were important natural resources in the early days of the city. People used water from the rivers for drinking, bathing, and fighting fires. in fact, William Penn specifically close this spot for Philadelphia because of its location between the Schuylkill and Delaware rivers., The Calder Family Legacy , You can find the works of three generations of Calders along the Parkway. Alexander Stirling Calder (seen above) created the Swann Fountain sculptures. His father, Alexander Milne Calder, sculpted William Penn and the other figures at City Hall., At the other end of the Parkway, inside the Philadelphia Museum of Art, hangs the mobile “Ghost.” It was created by Stirling’s son, Alexander “Sandy” Calder.