There’s a statue on Mount Washington, high above Pittsburgh, that tells an important story, It depicts George Washington and Seneca leader Guyasuta in a tense dialog and is titled “Point Of View.”
The meeting took place in 1770 around a campfire as the two discussed the future of this region which was at the western edge of the British colonies. It was still wilderness and home to only about 200 white people.
This bronze sculpture was created by Pittsburgh native James West and dedicated in 2006. There’s a terrific narrative on this website if you are interested in the full history. Click here.
I want to point out how important this statue is. For one, public art of any kind is always special and this piece is particularly wonderful because it tells a story that is still relevant as we continue to have tense conversations regarding the future of this place we call America.
It’s also important because it captures one moment in time and tells a much bigger story that is not taught in schools. It brings to life something that might otherwise be just a footnote in a book. I’m a history buff and still often found high school history class an absolute snooze. I marvel at how we take interesting stories and reduce them to something so dull.
So it’s gratifying when art collides with a fascinating story like this one to create a powerful testament to our origins.
Also, know that you get a great view of the city from up here and that this is the best place to catch the sunrise.
If you go looking for it, know that there is not one online source that provides good directions to this statue. Not one. It is located on Grandview Avenue at the corner of Sweetbriar Street on Mount Washington. It’s a relatively short walk from the incline stations.
Around here, there’s a lot to say and nothing to say about how my time has been occupied and where my thoughts wander. Sunsets are welcome as are good books, long weekends and days when I don’t even consider turnjng on the tv.
Around here, I’m trying hard to dial back my stress levels and all around busyness and am avoiding troubling situations when possible. I’m trying to drill to the core of some health issues and am starting to feel like that is a lost cause.
But, around here, we don’t quit and we don’t lose hope. They say the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, expecting different results. That may be the case but I’m convinced it will work one of these days.
Around here, Scout is suddenly sleeping very close to me at night and I’m drinking in the warmth of his little body and the purrs and soft snores that lend such comfort.
Around here I’m still thinking about the wonderful hike I took Saturday and about how lucky I am to live in a place where nature is so accessible to the public.
Around here I’m still thinking about the art we saw, the book shopping we did, and the great pizza we had from a little place in Columbus on Sunday. These handmade prints are accompanied by an old recording of natives speaking that sent shivers down my spine.
I like art that feels meaningful, that I can find a connection to so it’s not just something on a wall but something I will remember.
What a nice day that was.
Around here, it has been windy and cooler than normal. I’m bracing for the summer that’s to come and thinking about ways I can lean into the misery and try to enjoy it. Stay tuned.
Most of all, around here, I’m thinking about the sacrifices made by the brave men and women who have served our nation over our storied history. We are a young country and one with a government prone to mistakes but I will always be grateful for those who answered the call to serve our nation and I am proud of our military.
I didn’t do anything patriotic this Memorial Day weekend other than think about this very topic, admire the flags our local volunteer firefighters put out, and watch the National Memorial Day concert on PBS.
Nonetheless, I have something to say. If you are reading this and you are a veteran or active duty military, I want you to read these words:
Thurman, Ohio today is just a few short streets next to a four lane highway. It was once someone’s booming town. Sometimes I detour through specifically to admire this old store. The window used to say Ruff’s Grocery, established 1907 but that window is clear now.
That Coca Cola sign still advertises groceries and cigarettes. Look at the trim work and picket fence. It’s charming!
It makes me wonder what these walls would say if they could talk. Generations of folks walked through those doors, picked up their mail, and bought their necessities. How many tall tales shared among the local farmers? Recipes shared? How many tots left here with pockets full of penny candy?
When the roof of the Spaghetti Warehouse in Columbus, Ohio partially collapsed back in March 2022, many of us gasped in dismay. Sure, it’s a chain restaurant but it felt special and the historic building that had given it shelter for so long was packed with unique antiques and decor including an old trolley car.
That’s right, there was a trolley car in the middle of the restaurant and it was used to hold tables for dining. Not to mention, this place was a destination for tourists and for locals who celebrated special occasions as well as regular old dinners in this late nineteenth century building.
I was there just a few weeks before the collapse and was shocked at the idea that this building that looked and felt so solid could just begin falling in on itself.
News reports over time first gave hope that repairs could be made but became increasingly dark as it was clear the great old building we all knew and loved wasn’t long for the world. Many were especially concerned about the artifacts displayed inside including that historic trolley car.
But we finally got a bit of good news this week as we learned the trolley had been safely removed. In fact according to local news reports in Columbus, the demo crew is treading carefully as they unearth a number of historic treasures including an 1890s era steam wheel from when the building was used as an ice house.
Photo courtesy NBC 4, Columbus
The trolley will be restored before being given a new home in a park on Livingston Avenue. That park is being built by the Rickenbacker Woods Foundation whose mission is to honor the accomplishments of Captain Eddie Rickenbacker and of Granville T. Woods. Mr. Woods was a Columbus native and an African American inventor who held over sixty patents. He was the inventor of the third rail which today still powers subways and streetcars around the world.
The new park will be part of the foundation’s campus which also includes the boyhood home of Captain Rickenbacker.
Honestly, the salvaging of that trolley is a true bright spot in all of this. A week ago the future was grim for the old gal. No one had yet stepped up with the right combination of means and desire to fund the expensive project to remove it from a condemned building and give it a new home.
Let us celebrate and say amen.
Meanwhile back at the old Spaghetti Warehouse, the owner plans to develop the property into apartment buildings.
Notice I referred to it as the old Spaghetti Warehouse? Well, they did open a new location in downtown Columbus. So, you can still get some of the old menu items but the menu is scaled back. I missed the manicotti.
It’s a nice restaurant with modern ambiance but it doesn’t hold a candle to the old location. So, if you’ve been there before and expect an experience similar to which you were accustomed, it will be a disappointment. If you’re just in the mood for some decent ravioli in downtown, they’ve got you covered.
Luckily, the Dayton location still gives us the classic vibe and you can eat in a trolley car there!
Can we also pause a moment to appreciate the fact that someone in this disposable society of ours saw fit to rescue a piece of local history? It’s encouraging knowing that it didn’t go down with the ship but will instead be preserved for generations to come.
Whoever designed the Benjamin Franklin Museum has a great sense of humor and playful creativity not commonly found in history museums. It’s a fun place for all ages to visit and well worth the five bucks it costs to enter.
Franklin was a Renassiance Man through and through. He was a scientist, printer, writer, publisher, statesman, diplomat and political philosopher. He was curious about the world in ways that seem almost boundless and his contributions to society continue to be felt today. I read something describing him as an American polymath, a word I did not know. That’s Greek for someone who has learned much on different subjects.
They tell the story of his life and work through the lens of his character attributes and use an assortment of artifacts, computer animations and hands-on exhibits to do so. There’s a little squirrel named Skuggs who helps to tell the stories. You see, Franklin was fond of small creatures like squirrels, or skuggs, as they were called.
It’s a fun museum with plenty to keep the kids engaged and lots of big ideas and some quality artifacts to keep the grownups interested too. Rather than try to recreate his home, the courtyard features a ghost house where his home once stood. There are markers on the ground for his well, ice house and privy. There are pretty flowers, trees and some images too. Plus, you can go in a print shop and witness pages being set and printed.
Franklin owned slaves early in life but eventually became an abolitionist. He studied electricity and invented all kinds of things we still use today including the lightning rod, flexible catheters, and drumroll please….. bifocals – a creation I don’t enjoy needing but will be forever indebted to him for giving us!
Franklin lived his life by Thirteen Virtues which you can read about here.
He was the only person to sign the Declaration of Independence, Treaty of Paris, peace with Britan and the U.S. Constitution. He also founded Philadelphia’s first fire brigade. At the time, there were no fire hydrants so volunteers owned buckets and would stand in a line to relay buckets of water drawn from a neighborhood well to fill the tank of the fire engine. Look how far we have come since then!
I’m especially fond of these virtues and can’t help but think we would be better off as a nation if more people (including myself) made even the teeniest effort to embrace them.
He became a vegetarian as a young man for reasons based on health, ethics and economy. This resounds with me as I’m pescatarian, trying to mostly eat vegetarian wiith only a few fish meals a week. He was a musician and composer too, doing his part to bring beauty to the world.
Franklin believed in doing what he could to improve the world around him. In fact, he began each day by reflecting on a single question: “What good shall I do this day?” At the end of the day, he would return to this question by asking himself: “What good have I done today?” He thought about how he spent his time, whether he had done any good deeds or found ways to leave the world in better shape than he found it.
What a better world we would have if we all went about looking for ways to to help.
Meanwhile, if you’re in Philadelphia, I suggest you find your way to Old City to visit this museum. Learn all about that here.
While you’re there, stop by his grave at the Christ Church Cemetery. You can go inside for a small fee during their open hours. This fee helps with the massive responsibility of maintaining and preserving the history that lies at rest here. If you’re like me and couldn’t get there during hours, you can view Franklin’s grave from the sidewalk outside. They say leaving a penny on his grave will bring you good luck.
All of this is within easy walking distance of the LIberty Bell and loads of other historic sites.
Seeing the Liberty Bell in person has long been a bucket list item so I was grateful that we had a good experience visiting last Saturday. I wanted to go because it is incredibly symbolic in US history and rightfully so. In case you don’t remember from school, the Liberty Bell was commissioned by the Pennsylvania Assembly in 1751 to mark the 50th anniversary of William Penn’s Charter of Privileges. This is the bell that rang on July 8, 1776 to summon Philadelphia citizens for the public reading of the Declaration of Independence.
The bell is easily recognizable for its iconic crack and attracts millions of people each year. Today, it is available for public viewing in a nice building across the cobblestone street from its original location – the bell tower in the former Pennsylvania State House which we now call Independence Hall.
No living person knows exactly when the crack began and none have heard it ring with its clapper. The US Park Service says the crack likely formed in the 1840s and that local metal workers attempted to repair the bell in 1846. The repair attempt actually made the situation worse and a second crack formed, silencing the bell forever.
These are the stories we are taught here in America.
Ironically, 1846 was the same year that a Pennsylvania representative named David Wilmot proposed legislation meant to bar the expansion of slavery into lands acquired after the Mexican American War. The legislation failed and worsened North-South tensions around the same time the symbol for national liberty was irreversibly damaged.
What we don’t consider is how the LIberty Bell is viewed by others. The NPS does a decent job of suggesting that it has meant different things to different groups of American people. A photo of Chief LIttle Bear with the Liberty Bell at the 1915 Panama-Pacific Exposition in San Francisco tells a much different story than the narrative of freedom and liberty for all. This member of the Blackfeet Tribe stares at the camera with piercing eyes that suggest he didn’t care much for the American notion that segregation or assimilation that suppressed his people’s cultural practices were the only options for coexisting.
An iron collar and chains used to literally hold slaves in bondage tells another story as well.
Social movements including Women’s Suffrage and Civil Rights embraced the Liberty Bell for protest and celebration, giving the bell increasingly profound meaning as groups that were not given freedoms by the founding fathers labored to claim what was rightfully theirs.
I found myself feeling some mixture of shame and pride for my country’s choices across the centuries and something akin to bittersweet as I began to drill down to the changing importance of this national symbol.
Americans and people of many other nationalities were there that morning – some looked bored, others excited. Many seemed to just want an Instagram photo while others wanted to linger. But nothing prepared me for the amount of people from other countries and the excitement they held for being so close to the Liberty Bell.
I overheard an elderly man who spoke good English with an Indian accent ask a question of a park ranger. He told the ranger that he had dreamed of seeing the Liberty Bell and could hardly believe he was there. I overheard a dad and young daughter speaking a language I did not recognize. He was pointing excitedly and she was smiling as he told her some story. I still wish I knew what they were saying.
It made me wish more American families showed such interest in our own nation’s history.
Our good experience was made possible by our being early risers and curious people who believe you can always sleep when you get home from a trip. We were in line right after they opened and it took just 2-3 minutes to get through security. From there, we took our time studying everything on display and waited for a couple of other parties to take their pictures before we got ours.
This was a stark contrast to the line we saw later in the day. It extended well down the sidewalk and the view through the window showed a line of people simply streaming past the bell. In other words, go early to avoid the crowds and have a much richer experience.
This was a good start to the day. From here, we went on to the Ben Franklin Museum, the Betsy Ross House, Christ Church and Independence Hall with numerous stops to look at other things along the way. It was a busy day and one I won’t soon forget.
