'Victorian' couple livens up Fox Chase mansion
Kids invited to Robert Ryerss 184th birthday on his NE Philly hilltop.
HIGH ON A FOX Chase hill, Carole Covert and her husband Bill McMenamin will wear their Victorian clothes, channel the 19th-century spirits of Robert and Maryann Ryerrs, and welcome folks to Robert's 184th birthday party.
The free, family-friendly, 2 p.m. celebration on March 8 at the Ryerss Mansion & Library on Central Avenue near Shelmire Street includes wandering among the 1859 estate's Asian antiques, its gallery of animal oil portraits and its collections of teapots, shoes, seashells, rocks and minerals.
Children can play games of "Pin the Tail on Old Gray"- targeting a portrait of the Ryerss' favorite horse, who lies buried in the pet cemetery on the grounds.
The Ryerss Mansion, a Northeast Philadelphia gem built in 1859 and open to the public since 1910 in 84-acre Burholme Park, also features a free community lending library for adults and children.
After the birthday party, Covert and McMenamin will look forward to returning in May as the Ryerss couple to judge a parade of dogs dressed as Victorians at the mansion's annual Petapalooza.
"We've had a female dog in a two-piece dress wearing a long blonde wig with flowers in her hair," Covert said, laughing.
"We've had a Spanish senorita with a mantilla," she said. "We've had a male dog in a top hat and tails like Fred Astaire."
And, in a very loose interpretation of "Victorian," they once judged a parading pooch wearing Victoria's Secret angel wings.
Petapalooza celebrates the Ryerss' love of animals, which inspired the family to create the Pennsylvania Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.
And Robert Ryerss' stepmother, Anne Waln-Ryerss, started the "Ryerss Infirmary for Dumb Animals" in Bustleton which eventually became the Ryerss Farm for Aged Equines, 127 years old and still going strong in Chester County.
"She was known for politely talking to people who were abusing their workhorses," Covert said, "and persuading them that the poor horses needed a rest and she had a farm for tired horses.
"She was a Quaker and she used gentle persuasion," Covert said. "A lot of those horses remained on her farm."
Besides the Victorian dog parade, said Martha Moffett, Ryerss Mansion site manager, "We'll have animal rescue groups here for Petapalooza, everything from dog and cat rescue to pig rescue and rat rescue."
She quickly said the rescued rats are pets, not street-tough denizens of city sewers.
Ryerss Mansion & Library is open 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Friday through Sunday.
"This is an eclectic, quirky place," Moffett said. "We still have visitors who say, 'I've lived nearby all my life and I've never been here.' We hope to change that."
