Rittenhouse's less tony time

Despite its current associations with high living, for much of Rittenhouse Square's 300-plus-year history one was more likely to run into cattle or coal heavers than a member of the leisure class.

Originally called Southwest Square, the park was one of the five such allotments planned by William Penn for his "greene country towne." Unlike its four counterparts, it's the only square to not double as a burial ground.

"Rittenhouse Square escaped this form of public service, probably because it was then the furthest removed from the center of population and the houses of worship," reads a pamphlet sent to residents in 1913. "But, for the same reason, it was a dumping ground for various kinds of filth for the best part of a century."

With the city's earliest commercial corridor running parallel to the Delaware, the neighborhood represented Philadelphia's western frontier in the 18th century. Livestock grazed in the square's vacant fields, much to the jealousy of today's farm-to-table eateries in the area.

While not suitable for farming, the area's soil contained clay deposits, enticing bricklayers and other laborers into establishing nearby kilns and pottery factories in the 1820s, and becoming some of the area's first residents. The square was renamed in 1825 after David Rittenhouse, the famed astronomer and director of the U.S. Mint.

From the surrender at Appomattox in 1865 to the 1910s, the neighborhood enjoyed its first real-estate renaissance, with Wanamakers, Lippincotts, and other Perennial Philadelphians moving into what soon became the city's poshest residential neighborhood.

However, improvements did not trickle down from the housing boom. Residents in the 1910s questioned whether "Rittenhouse Square has been in a relatively more unkempt and unattractive condition than it is at the present." This dissatisfaction spurred the founding of the Rittenhouse Square Improvement Association, and the hiring of French-born architect Paul Philippe Cret, whose resumé included the Benjamin Franklin Bridge and Parkway and the Rodin Museum.

Cret's plan - inspired by Paris' Parc Monceau - called for a redesigning of the square's entrances and central plaza. He imagined pedestrians, drawn in from the square's four corners, traipsing down tree-lined walks among babbling fountains, flower beds, and statuary, and relaxing on one of the many benches. As per the association's call to "embellish the center of the square by appropriate treatment," Cret planned a reflecting pool.

Implementing Cret's design was not a walk in the park. It required bolstering the square's water supply, the introduction and maintenance of new flora, and, above all, raising money to realize the architect's vision. The association partnered with the Garden Club of Philadelphia in May 1914 for a spring flower market to support charities and fund the square's development.

Through the work of the Friends of Rittenhouse Square, this spirit of stewardship - like the annual flower market - continues to this day.