ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, September 22, 1996 TAG: 9609240005
SECTION: TRAVEL PAGE: 6 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: PHILADELPHIA
SOURCE: RANDY KRAFT THE ALLENTOWN MORNING CALL
Just got back from a weekend on the Left Bank.
Impressed?
Well, it wasn't the famed Left Bank of the Seine in the City of Light. This is the ``Left Bank'' of the Schuylkill River in the City of Brotherly Love. Or, to paraphrase an old ``Three Dog Night'' hit, I've never been to Paris, but I've been to Philadelphia.
Philadelphia's Left Bank is not, as you might expect, a single neighborhood of trendy restaurants, boutiques and art galleries.
Rather, it is a marketing concept by a new organization called ArtsWest, which is promoting West Philadelphia ``as a great place to live, work and visit.'' The nonprofit group consists of civic leaders and representatives from West Philadelphia businesses and cultural institutions.
I discovered a couple of scattered treasures on a recent tour for travel writers, but did not come away with any sense of West Philadelphia as a cohesive community that might stand alone as a travel destination.
The marketing effort is ``a good idea because it's hard to get people across the Schuylkill River in Philadelphia,'' said R.C. Staab, vice president of the Philadelphia Convention & Visitors Bureau. He said people may know the University of Pennsylvania and Drexel University are in West Philadelphia, but they don't know what else is there.
Despite the fact that ArtsWest calls West Philadelphia the Left Bank, technically the left bank of a river is on your left as you face downstream. So Philadelphia's left bank actually is the side of the Schuylkill where the city center and famous attractions - such as the Liberty Bell, Independence Hall, Penn's Landing and Franklin Institute - are located.
West Philadelphia does include the Philadelphia Zoo, the city's second-most-popular attraction, and the excellent but often overlooked University of Pennsylvania Museum of Anthropology and Archaeology.
Other attractions shown on the tour varied widely in their potential public appeal.
Two of my favorites were the farthest apart, the Japanese House and Garden in Fairmount Park and Historic Bartram's Garden.
I wish I could have spent much more time wandering the grounds of Bartram's Garden, inside the archaeology museum, and at the zoo.
One place we did not get to visit that sounded interesting was Paul Robeson Historical and Cultural Center. Robeson was an internationally recognized political activist for black Americans, as well as an actor and athlete. He lived in the house for the last 10 years of his life, until his death in 1976.
One of the most fun things we did wasn't even on the itinerary - a stop at a ``whispering bench'' that is part of the huge Pennsylvania Civil War Memorial in West Fairmount Park. A person sitting at one end of the long, curved, concrete bench can clearly hear another person whispering at the other end.
West Philadelphia is the home to national treasures that are unknown, said Frances Aulston, president of ArtsWest, and is ``a gold mine of cultural institutions that are doing good work.''
Aulston hopes ArtsWest ultimately will improve West Philadelphia's economic and social health.
Asked whether Philadelphia doesn't have a reputation as a high crime area, ArtsWest director Lenora Berson said: ``Newspapers only wrote stories about West Philadelphia mayhem. You get the impression from the papers that you'll walk out in the street and four people are going to shoot you. It's not high crime. ... West Philadelphia has a vibrant community life and intellectual life.''
ArtsWest officials deny their organization was formed to bolster business since the closing of the Philadelphia Civic Center in their part of town. Staab said the fate of the city-owned civic center, which has been replaced by the Pennsylvania Convention Center in the city center, has not yet been determined.
Here's a look at some of the places we visited:
nThe tranquil, exotic Japanese House is a great place to be introduced to Japanese culture.
Visitors have to remove their shoes to go inside, where floors are covered with tatami mats. The house has no Western furniture because many Japanese do everything - eating, sleeping and sitting - on the floor.
Built in Japan in 1953, the house itself is a work of art. Unusually large by Japanese standards, it was styled after 17th century houses of Japanese princes.
The archaeology museum's more than 30 galleries contain exhibits from around the world, include mummies and ruins from ancient Egypt - even a 12-ton sphinx - gold jewelry from the Royal Tombs of Ur, and much more.
Bartram's Garden claims the distinction of being ``America's oldest living botanical garden.''
The 44-acre wooded property overlooks the Schuylkill Expressway. Flanked by a low-income housing project, you'd never expect to find something like it in Philadelphia.
``We have the only undisturbed portion of the Schuylkill River within seven miles,'' said Martha Wolfe, executive director.
This was the home of John Bartram (1699-1777), who was appointed ``Royal Botanist'' for North America by King George III. A naturalist, botanist and explorer, he collected every plant he could find. His descendants published the nation's first plant catalog in 1783.
LENGTH: Long : 105 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: RANDY CRAFT/Allentown Morning Call. 1. The University ofby CNBPennsylvania's Museum of Anthropology and Archaeology contains more
than 30 galleries. 2. The Japanese House and Garden introduces West
Philadelphia visitors to Japanese culture. color.