CHillie afternoon

That's CHillie. She hangs out on the northeast corner of Germantown and Southampton in Chestnut Hill. She is truly a Renaissance bear. Not only is she a work of art...

but also a cool and funky map of Chestnut Hill and environs (or perhaps I should say imaginations). And a bench!

She is the creation of artist Rebecca McKillip Thornburgh, and you can read (and see) all about how she came to be on Rebecca's blog.

Sarah can't hurt this one

Window display, Robertson's Flowers, Chestnut Hill, Sunday afternoon.

Bear with me...

That's Gus, according to a plaque in the sidewalk, standing in front of the Melting Pot restaurant, near the intersection of Germantown and Southampton Avenues, in Chestnut Hill. I like to think of him as the ambassador of fondue.

Bear with me. This is the beginning of a theme...

Der himmel über Chesnut Hill

Intersection of Germantown Avenue and Bethlehem Pike, Sunday afternoon.

Yesterday (Saturday, November 15) felt freakishly like summer. The temperature soared into the seventies, and the humidity was as oppressive as any day in August. To top it off, the National Weather Service issued a tornado warning for the area into the evening. I stepped out onto my front porch toward the middle of the afternoon to see my neighbor across the street, in shirt sleeves, struggling to set up his Christmas display.

Throughout the night, wind and lashing rain marked the onset of a cold front. This afternoon the temperature was nearly thirty degrees cooler than yesterday, with enough left over wind to drive the cold right through you. The sky had that classic late autumn look, thick gray clouds piled under bright blue. I pulled down the ear flaps on my cap when I went out. The holiday decorations in store windows and lampposts on my trip to Chestnut Hill seemed entirely appropriate.

Dewee's Rock

Dewee's Rock, just off of Germantown Avenue where it crosses the Wissahickon.

In 1710 a group of local men, all with German or Dutch surnames, established the Whitemarsh Reformed Church in Chestnut Hill. It met in the two-story house of mill owner William Dewees, a structure (now demolished) that stood on Germantown Avenue opposite the present Chestnut Hill College grounds. The congregation broke apart, however, following Dewees's death in 1745.
-- David R. Contosta, Suburb in the City

A number of mills operated in this area. Below, probably the remains of an old mill race, built to better manage the flow of water that powered the mill's wheel.

Borders and intersections

That's the Borders Book Shop at the top of Chestnut Hill, at the intersection of Germantown Avenue and Bethlehem Pike. Borders has been there since the early to mid 1990s. Before that, a succession of two Gulf stations occupied this spot since 1947. Before the Gulf stations, the Maple Lawn Inn operated from this location, and before that, the Yeakel General Store. This takes us back to the 1870s. It is more than likely that some commercial establishment stood here for most, if not all, of Chestnut Hill's three hundred year history.

One could make the case that the history of Chestnut Hill is founded on that coming together of these two roads -- Germantown Avenue and Bethlehem Pike -- originally two Native American trails.

For three centuries these two routes have served Chestnut Hill. Even in the late twentieth century, they provide the only direct road-ways through the center of the community. During the early decades, these roads allowed Chestnut Hill function as a what might be called a "gateway village." Like Charlestown and Cambridge outside Boston, and similar fringe communities near Baltimore and New York, Chestnut Hill sat astride a main road (in this case, two of them) that ran into the city and allowed the village to serve as a commercial gateway to the metropolis beyond.
-- David R. Contosta, Suburb in the City, 1992.

Although incorporated by Philadelphia in 1854, Chestnut Hill has maintained its village like character. This is in part because of its proximity to the Wissahickon Valley, which forms its western boundary and isolates it from the rest of the city.

Chestnut Hill: spiritual; municipal

Chestnut Hill Baptist Church, intersection of Bethlehem Pike and Germantown Avenue, Sunday, 1:45 in the afternoon. The belltower and clock, dating to 1847, are later additions to this structure built in 1835.

Chestnut Hill Firehouse, West Highland Avenue, Sunday afternoon, around 2:00. According to an article in the Chestnut Hill Local, this structure, built in 1894, is Philadelphia's oldest firehouse.

Bunnies

Window display at Robertson's Flowers, Chestnut Hill, Sunday afternoon, March 2.

Portals

These are those things they pass Christmas trees through to cover them in plastic netting.

Sunday, around 1:30 in the afternoon, by the market off of Evergreen Avenue, near the top of Chestnut Hill.