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Tour boats return to Schuylkill

The Hidden River is going to become a lot easier to see starting on Mother's Day, when boat tours take to the water.

The Patriot, a replica of a 1920s boat, will begin tours on the Schuylkill in May. Cruises will include Bartram’s Garden. (Clem Murray / Staff Photographer)
The Patriot, a replica of a 1920s boat, will begin tours on the Schuylkill in May. Cruises will include Bartram’s Garden. (Clem Murray / Staff Photographer)Read more

Philadelphia's Hidden River is going to become a lot easier to see starting on Mother's Day, when boat tours return to the Schuylkill.

The cruises, run by a company new to the river, Patriot Harbor Lines, begin May 12 and will leave from 24th and Walnut Streets for three-hour cruises that include a two-hour stop at Bartram's Garden, the historic jewel in Southwest Philadelphia. Tickets are $30, which includes the $10 admission to visit the home of famed naturalist John Bartram.

On May 16, Patriot will add a second cruise, "Secrets of the Schuylkill," a one-hour evening tour focused on the bridges over the river, the architecture of prominent buildings such as the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and construction of the boardwalk that will extend the riverside trail from Locust Street to south of South Street. Cost is $22.

Eventually, Patriot plans to add nighttime trips, dubbed "Different Night, Different Lights," aimed at giving passengers a special view of the illuminated city buildings.

Joseph Syrnick, executive director of the Schuylkill Development Corp., which oversees the recreational area and which is joining with Patriot in the Schuylkill cruises, said he hoped to make riverboat trips as popular as they are in Chicago, where seeing the city from the water is a favorite tourist activity.

He's starting small and hoping the trips will also increase visits to Bartram's Garden, which offers a window into the America of George Washington.

"Bartram's is a wonderful place to take mom," Syrnick said.

Riverboat tours ran on the Schuylkill - whose name means "hidden river" in Dutch - from 2006 to 2011, but stopped last year when the vendor that had been running them decided not to continue.

After a fatal accident on the Delaware River in July 2010, the company running the duck boats considered switching to the less heavily trafficked Schuylkill, but the city eventually decided the tranquil recreational path there made it a poor home for the ducks and their noisy kazoos.

The Schuylkill Development Corp., which oversees the recreational area there, eventually decided to seek a new vendor for the traditional tours.

Passengers will board the Schuylkill Perch, a replica of a 1920s mini-commuter yacht. It can hold as many as 35 people.

"It's a classic, stately yacht-type boat," Patriot marketing director Art Bell said.

Patriot also will offer tours leaving from the Independence Seaport Museum on the Delaware River later this year but has not determined a schedule, Bell said.

For more information: www.phillybyboat.com.