ACC Virtual Tour of Philadelphia

Stephen: Thank you everyone for logging in. My name is Stephen McKersie. I'm a corporate partner at Gowling WLG and I'm based in Toronto, Canada. If you don't yet know our firm, Gowling is a full service international law firm with over 1,400 professionals practicing out of 19 offices around the world, all of which are outside of the United States. We're very pleased to be a gold sponsor for the ACC's annual meeting, again this year, and as a sign of the times we've embraced a wellness theme for our sponsorship. We've hosted two other sessions this week. One on managing overwhelm and the other focused on nutrition tips and advice, both in the context of adjusting to challenges posed by COVID-19. These sessions will be available on demand and shared with the attendees, after the conference, if you missed the live presentations. We also have a raffle under way for a Peloton bike. Again, promoting health and wellness, so if you haven't already dropped by our virtual booth to register I'd encourage you to do that tomorrow and just say hi to our professionals who are in our booth, from home. Now it's unfortunate that we're not able to do this particular session in person, for obvious reasons, but we are excited to offer you a virtual tour of Old City Philadelphia led by Rich DiGiacomo, who is a tour guide with City Running Tours in Philadelphia. Rich, thank you very much for joining us and for leading this tour. I'm going to turn it over to you now to explain what's ahead of us over the next hour or so.

Rich: Thanks for having me. As you said, sorry we couldn't have you here in person. We would have loved to be running in the City with you right now. I was able to get out for a run and video tape what would be typically be a part of our tours in Old City Philadelphia and some of the most historical sights in our country. I hope you enjoy the video. I have some other introductions and a closing at the end. Hopefully this will motivate you to get out there and explore. Please enjoy and I'll be around at the end of the video if you have any questions.

Rich: Hello. Welcome to City Running Tours, Philadelphia. My name's Rich and I'll be your tour guide today, bringing you to the most historical areas in Philadelphia, the birth place of our country. I've been a tour guide with City Running Tours for almost 10 years now. Born and raised in Philadelphia. I've been running in the City for most of my entire life. Come join me.

Coming up to South Street here. Originally the Southern border of Philadelphia before it expanded South and Northward into the sixth largest city in the country today. It was originally called Cedar Avenue. Our very innovative and creative founders of our City in the mid-1800's decided, "Oh. We keep calling this the Southern Boulevard because it's the Southern border of the City. Why not rename it South Street?" We'll see a few other creative tidbits in the coming miles. Over the next few miles we're going to be inching our way into Old historical Philadelphia. We call it Old City here in the City. Everything is old here and also we take a lot of credit for, not just the oldest things, but some of the first things in the country. One of our founding fathers, Benjamin Franklin, he accounts for most of that. You'll find later on we really love Ben Franklin here. This is called Head House Square with a nice marketplace in the back, and it's an original structure from mid-1700's, and one of the very first fire houses in America, where Benjamin Franklin created the modern day fire companies. As you can see a horse drawn carriage would have gone into the head house. Today it's used for an open air market. There's a yoga class going on there today. Everything is popular outdoors now with the pandemic. It's beautiful to have two to three hundred year old standing structures, original, from colonial times. Perfect example of colonial architecture and innovation.

Can any gentlemen relate? Oh, wow, this beautiful colonial building was the original Man Full of Trouble Tavern. This building was just a half mile or so from the true downtown, the original City, back in the 1700's. But it was far enough way that it was a quite little tavern and stood the test of time. It's the original structure. As you'll see later there are certain historical buildings that unfortunately did not survive the test of time. This is apparently owned and operated by University of Pennsylvania archeologists and they're studying brewing history. They found brewing artifacts over the years and as we'll see in just a couple of minutes it's right off of a street called Dock Street, which there's a brewery in the City called Dock Street Brewery, which brews excellent ales of historical value in the City. This was its original location. They have a beer called Man Full of Trouble Porter, in honour of colonial brewing. You'll see a big brewing history in the City as I highlight multiple points along the tour. Here's Dock Street. Watch out for the cobblestones. Primary way of paving streets, colonial times, lots of bumps. Dock Street used to be a creek, filled in, over the centuries. But as you can tell it was a primary access point for boats. Coming up, having a beer, going back out to the Delaware River. Just beyond the historical area of the City we have two war memorials in Philadelphia. This is the Vietnam Memorial and across the way, in a minute, you'll see the Korean War Memorial, which both honour over a thousand men and women who died, or who were missing in action, of the two wars from the immediate Philadelphia Metro area. Ceremonies happen here during all the major holidays every year.

Here we are at the Korean War Memorial. As you can see, some depictions of the war, information about the soldiers and their location in the Delaware Valley. Philadelphia, Delaware County, Chester County, Montgomery County, their branch of service. We thank them and all our military veterans. We open up and back down Dock Street.

Well, I did mention Philadelphia's brewing history. This building holds a lot of history. This is City Tavern. Now, as you an see, Established 1773, unfortunately unlike Man Full of Trouble Tavern just down the street, this is not the original building. It was unfortunately burned down but they replicated it exactly as is in the early 1900's. As close as they could get it. It is known that this is the location of favourite bar/pub of the Founding Fathers. You can see that in history books and some texts that just over that way was Old City, where our City government was located, back then. Pre-revolution where the British Government was stationed. Pennsylvania general assembly would not have wanted to convene and talk about a revolution out in public court areas. They came for a pint of beer and said, "Let's start a revolution." How appropriate. Speaking of the rich brewing history in the City, not just in my opinion but in theirs as well, one of the most prominent breweries on the East Coast is Yards Brewery. They partnered up with City Tavern to brew a handful of beers called 'Ales of the Revolution' in the style of the Founding Fathers favourite beer, and named them after Ben Franklin, Thomas Jefferson and George Washington. They originally sold exclusively at this restaurant and now it's on sale for the general public, the Ales of the Revolution. This restaurant, I come here as often as I can, it is excellent food. Run by Emmy winning chef, Walter Staib, and everybody is dressed in colonial garb. It just brings you back 250 years. Excellent food, excellent beer, excellent atmosphere. The dining place of our Founding Fathers.

Right across the street from City Tavern is this nice pictorial of the City. If you've never been to Philadelphia, maybe you've seen it on a map, we are a grid City. It was innovative at the time when the City was founded in 1682, by William Penn, whose father was the namesake for Pennsylvania and the City Philadelphia, City of Brotherly Love. This is just a nice marble layout of the original street grid of the City. You can even see some of the original street names. I mentioned Cedar Avenue is now South Street. I'll highlight some other streets down the line. We have a nice park system in Philadelphia called the Fairmount Park System. The City of neighbourhoods and every person in this City doesn't have to go more than a half mile to get a public green space to exercise in, or picnic in, or for kids to play in a playground. It's a great place to be, overall. I'm biased. I've lived here my whole life. But I welcome you to join us, sometime.

So here we are. Philadelphia's Irish Memorial. Now, Philly isn't perfect and history isn't perfect. My wife, 100% Irish, would always get upset if I get this wrong on the tour. So here we go. Let's explore Philly's Irish Memorial. Philadelphia and Ireland have a deep history. This memorial is an excellent depiction of life in the old country and life of an immigrant. In the mid-1800's there was something called the Great Famine. Millions of Irish immigrants immigrated to America. Obviously, to this day, 150 years later, we're still talking about immigration from all over the world. Philadelphia has since, back then and still today, welcomed them with open arms and ever since Philadelphia has in fact the second biggest Irish population in America. Can anybody guess the first? I'll give you a hint. Their basketball team has an Irish symbol. That's it. The Boston Celtics. We'll give them that. As I mentioned, my wife and her family included, has an excellent Irish tradition here in the City and influenced the culture over the years. Along with many, many other immigrant groups to this day. Sláinte!

Welcome to the Merchants Exchange Building. What was once the precursor to America's original version of Wall Street was a trading post and, as you all could imagine, right along the banks of the former Dock Creek. Think 1700's. New railroad. Primary source of everything. Life was the river. Merchants would bring their goods, and their stockpile and their money, in from the banks of the Delaware River, from the Atlantic Ocean into Philadelphia. Once the hub of commerce in America.

What a fitting segue into the building in the distance, which is being renovated, which is America's First National Bank. The first Federal bank of the United States. Anybody see a Citizen's Bank commercial lately? Their former slogan? Alexander Hamilton, the father of modern banking. He did a lot more than what was highlighted in that play, and that is true. He was America's first Secretary of Treasury, influencing American banking system. Very heavily. Come take a walk with me in the path of the Founding Fathers. All original. We're behind the First National Bank walking into some of the most revered areas of the building of our democracy here.

Welcome to Carpenters Hall. This building holds a special place to me as not only was this instrumental in the founding of the United States of America, holding the first continental congress and the shaping of our Constitution, but it was also the founding place of my alma mater. The University of the Sciences. It was the nations first college of pharmacy. 200 hundred years ago. There's hope to have a reenactment of the signing of the Charter here, next year, and the University of the Science was one of the nations and worlds premiere health care institution, as I am an alumni of the physical therapy department.

Look who I bumped into?

Unknown: Good day, whoever you are.

Rich: Good day, sir.

Unknown: Have a good day. Enjoy your afternoon.

Rich: Thank you very much.

So unfortunately the gate is closed today, for some reason, but this is the entrance to Benjamin Franklin's home. Just beyond that tree. How appropriate that it's right across the street from every important building and founding of our country, from the Bank to Carpenters Hall. We are right down the street from the Liberty Bell. Our Founding Fathers found it important to be in and around the active creation of our country. They were proud of their City.

As you'll see later in the tour, Philadelphia has a connection to a few different tunes of unknown soldiers. The most famous in America is Arlington National Cemetery. This is an internal flame lit for two of the unknown soldiers from the Revolutionary War. This entire park, Washington Square Park, is indeed a burial ground of American Revolutionary soldiers. A big controversy, actually, which is back in those days it was common for mass burials. So there is indeed British soldiers buried here as well. It's quite unknown if the unknown solider is an American or a British soldier's body. Nonetheless we honour the fallen and the unknown here in Philadelphia also with flags of the original 13 colonies.

Perfect timing. It's 11:00am here in Philadelphia. Just imagine being in this open area in 1776 to hear the reading of the Declaration of Independence. That is Independence Hall where the signing took place and the founding of our country. No, it is not the original Liberty Bell. It's way too cracked to ring like that. The Liberty Bell is housed in a pavilion just off its original site. Philadelphia was the capital of the United States of America, for the first decade or so, thereafter Independence Hall became Pennsylvania State Capital and eventually Philadelphia City Capital Building, where its government took place. You can see the wings of the building originally housed the US House of Representatives and Senate. As are now apparently held in the US Capital Building. It's Washington. Stands proudly watch.

Let's continue down. Independence Mall. It got its nickname a little while back dubbed 'America's most historic square mile'. Continuing in the theme of America's most historic square mile, we are know walking through the threshold of the home of George Washington, and yes, unfortunately the original structure did not survive, however, archeologists excavated the site. Found remnants of the home. He did, as Ben Franklin did, live right down the street from Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell. Now no matter where you are from around the world, does anybody recognize this little space here and its unique shape? George Washington, remember was the first President of the United States, and the capital was Philadelphia. Not Washington D.C., yet. What was constructed for the second President, and every President since, for them to do business. Yes, the Oval Office. An original part of George Washington's home which is where he did his business in his first term as our countries first President. HIs home is actually also a very nice tribute to, and historical perspective, on slavery in America as it was fact that George Washington owned slaves. We have to embrace all parts of our history, even the bad. So this along with other sites in the City is a nice way to honour and remember the enslaved and how it shaped our country since. There is still more work to be done. Who has heard of a penny saved is a penny earned? Here he is. The man met the legend. The burial site of Benjamin Franklin and his wife and children. Here in Christ Church Burial Ground. We'll see that church up close in a minute. It was the primary church of worship for many of the Founding Fathers. How appropriate. The man of many words including a penny saved is a penny earned is right across from one of the three major US mints in the country. Anybody ever pay attention to a United States coin and notice the letters 'D' or 'P' on it. Pick up an American quarter if you have one. P means it was minted in Philadelphia. D means it was minted in Denver. Philadelphia is the largest mint and the supplier of the majority of US monetary paper and coin currency. Massive structure. Right across from me, 1700's burial ground.

Philadelphia's finest. Engine 8 Ladder 2. There's Ben Franklin in his finest. As we mentioned he founded America's modern fire company. There's a bust in his depiction. Ironically enough this bust is made of melted down pennies and keys. I don't know if Franklin would be happy. A penny saved is a penny earned.

Anyway. Ready for Halloween? Live from the Betsy Ross house. There's America's original flag. 13 stars. The original 13 colonies. Lot of controversy surrounding Betsy Ross. Aside from the fact of whether she was the actual creator of America's first flag, she was also a Quaker, which is a religious group from England. Looking for religious freedom. She was divorced and remarried twice which was against their religion. She is buried outside her home although that's a bit of controversy as well. She was buried outside the City originally. Her body was exhumed and brought here soon thereafter. Controversy exists of whether that was her actual remains. There's questions as to this was actually her home or not. Whether or not they knocked down a home in this area here and kept the wrong home. Public records maybe weren't very accurate back then. It's a shame that she was thrown into this controversy. But we honour her nonetheless and America's first flag.

Here we are at Christ Church. As I mentioned earlier, this was the congregation of the Founding Fathers. Many of them, including George Washington and Ben Franklin, worshipped at. Originally the Church of England then it became another denomination, of course, after the Revolution. We broke away from England. This is the original structure from the 1690's and it is the oldest church in Philadelphia. Ironically enough it wasn't until the 1750's that the church steeple was built. But what is really cool is that the steeple, from 1750 to the 1850's, was the tallest structure in all of North America. Can anybody remember from the Irish memorial, mid-1800's, the Great Famine. Many other immigrants from around the world flooded into Philadelphia. Making it one of North America's largest cities at the time. This was before Ellis Island. This was before the Statute of Liberty and immigrants would have heard the church steeples and saw all the steeples for miles downstream. From the Delaware River as immigrants coming in from the Atlantic Ocean. Sort of the precursor to the Statue of Liberty for immigration in America. Still an operating congregation to this day.

Welcome to Elfreth's Alley. Dubbed 'America's longest continually lived on residential street'. Homes, original in construction and continue to occupy since the early 1700's. That's a 1752 and that symbol in particular has great meaning. As you'll see many plaques along the building but that plaque in particular is America's first fire insurance company, founded by none other than, anybody want to take a guess? Ben Franklin. Now, that a shrewd business practice isn't reserved for the 20^th century, as it was often commonplace that the local fire company, which was unregulated, wouldn't put out your fire unless you had fire insurance. Or a fire company would own a fire insurance company and fire companies would compete for the job and your house would continue to burn until one of the companies ceded to the other. Yup. That's shrewd practices for you. Nothing new. ... courtyards, flanked most of the homes, very quaint, very dense urban population back then and still is today. It's a very beautiful neighbourhood to live in, in the City, right down the street from colonial America. All throughout the City, even in my neighbourhood, I live a couple miles South of the downtown area, built the homes in that red brick style. Consistent with the era and the times of Philadelphia. You'll still see 1700's brick. 20^th century brick.

Let's keep exploring. We are just going off the beaten path a little bit here now. Away from Old City. Excuse the loud noise as I'm under the highway, however, you'll see the river in the distance and numbers. November 03, 8 meters. 1999, 9 meters. Going East towards the Delaware River the majority of this is all land fill over the years. As for most industrial cities of the time. They just built and built. So this is a nice artistic depiction of how no man made land will hold back a river. There are historical states of the Delaware River. Many people may remember the land fill that was Southern Manhattan where the World Trade Centers are. It's all land fill. Super storm Hurricane Sandy flooded downtown Manhattan. You can see the elevation. Nothing holds back Mother Nature. Let's go explore the Delaware River more.

Welcome to beautiful Race Street Pier. Nestled under the Ben Franklin Bridge. The Bridge was built in 1926. It was slated to be the largest suspension bridge in the world at the time. 1920's saw a boom in bridge building. It was quickly surpassed but it is one of our primary connections here in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to New Jersey and is a prime example of many pier riverfront areas that were reclaimed from industrial use during the height of the Industrial Revolution. Philadelphia had a strong involvement in that. Right across this little harbour is another example, Cherry Street Pier. An old warehouse converted into an open air art gallery and beer garden. You'll often see photoshoots, or as we see know, probably wedding shoots. Outdoor yoga classes on the pier. It's a great place to watch our yearly fireworks. They're set off from a barge in the middle of the river. They're a unique vantage point that people can see from up and down the river. There is our other major bridge in the City, the Walt Whitman, in the distance. Everybody is staying safe. See our skyline. It is a beautiful day to sail a boat on the Delaware River in Philadelphia.

Speaking of sailboats, we have that little beauty docked right here in Philadelphia. Talking about that boat. I'll talk about that one in a minute. That boat right there is the Moshulu and the Moshulu is 4 wooden masted sailboat, built about 120 years ago, and is one of the largest 4 masted boats built and it's still afloat today. It has sailed all over the globe and now sits as, in my opinion, one of the best seafood restaurants in Philadelphia. Right there on the boat. Up on the deck, inside the bows, a beautiful highlight to a beautiful Delaware River front. Let's explore some more.

Further South along the Delaware River here, right next to the Moshulu, these are two beautiful vessels in the United States Navy. I think this is one of my favourite images of all the river fronts. So now while we're standing directly in front of the USS Olympia, this is the United States Navel's oldest battleship that is still afloat. This was built in the 1890's. Serving the Spanish American War and World War I. It has the honour and distinction of carrying back the body of an unknown soldier from World War I in Europe, to be buried in Arlington National Cemetery, where we have tombs honouring unknown soldiers from all the major wars. The juxtaposition of being right across the river from the large cannon battleship, right there, it's the USS New Jersey. That battleship was one of the United States Navy's largest battleships ever built for World War II. An Iowa-class battleship. Just an amazing feat. Right here, both as museums, along the Delaware River. America's largest naval battleship. America's oldest naval battleship. Pretty cool stuff. Even better, and a nice personal touch here is, the USS New Jersey was built right here in Philadelphia at our US Naval Base in South Philadelphia. My grandfather was a welder during World War II. He was just old enough that he wasn't able to serve in the military but he was a darn good welder, as were many men and women, in the Philadelphia area who helped build ships during the war. Two beautiful pieces of history here.

Well, everybody that concludes our tour of Philadelphia. Wait a minute. Am I running circles? Oh boy. I'm going to be a manful of trouble if I don't get home before lunch. Don't tell my wife. Have a great day everybody from the City of Brotherly Love.

Rich: Hello. Welcome back to the end of our tour. We were at the beautiful Philadelphia Naval Yard. Things are starting to change colours already here. We've got some beautiful ... artwork that I'm going to highlight in a little bit. As I mentioned earlier in the tour, you saw this USS New Jersey, which was one of the US Naval battleship built here during World War II. I have to say this is where my grandfather worked during the war. It's mostly public open space now. Beautiful place to come and run and walk. There's some aspects of military life still here on the base. It's no longer official naval base. So, in here, I just want to mention mindfulness. There is some talk of that and the idea behind mindfulness is that it's unique to each individual person, however, the concept is that you are clear mind, you're one with yourself. Just a peaceful state. For traditional sense it's typically heard of being meditation or yoga. For some people like myself, and many people that I know, just going out for a run. Or a walk. Consider doing that for yourself as a break from work. You can have mindfulness in any form and fashion. Love to suggest a run or a walk. So, after ending our tour, if you're at home watching this virtually, we couldn't have you here in Philadelphia but I'd like to lead you through a simple stretching routine that could compliment your own walk or run. Maybe if you're in front of your computer now you can get up and do with this me. We're just going to keep things to 10 second stretches and I'm just going to cover different areas of the body. Thinking you might have just run or walk or you're sitting in front of your computer, I want everybody to stand up and just stretch over your head and count to 10. So, elongating your body. Opening up your shoulders. Touch your toes for 10 seconds, stretching the hamstrings. If you're able to follow along please do so. Open up your legs and stretch each hamstring individually for 10 seconds by touching your toes. Go at your own pace. Go as far as you can. Don't push it if things are achy. You can do this before and/or after a run, a walk or a workout. Or in the middle of a work day and you need a break from your computer, everything is virtual these days, we should be up out of our seats at least once an hour. Stand up tall and stretch our quads on each side. This is a nice backdrop to stretch. If you need to hold onto something for balance please do so. Depending on where you're at you can always grab a seat for some stretches. But first we'll kneel down and, called a one stretch, some people call it a runner's stretch, lean forward keeping your back straight, stretching the hip flexor, 10 seconds on each side. You can take a seat for a butterfly stretch. Or if you can't take a seat or not comfortable sitting on the floor where you're at, you can squat down and push your knees separate for a butterfly stretch. Same effect for the inner thigh. Take it kneeling. Child's Pose. Keeping down for a nice back stretch. Then stand back up. Take it up one more time. Taking the last bit of sunshine for the day and that's a very simple well rounded stretching session. Talking about mindfulness. Anything that you can incorporate into your day. Whether it's before or after exercise or before or after or during your work day, sitting down for a long time. I hope you enjoyed it. I think we're going to be having a brief Q&A session soon. If there's anything else that you have questions or concerns about that the tour, about Philadelphia or about mindfulness and stretching, please don't hesitate to ask. It is indeed a beautiful fall afternoon here in Philadelphia. Look what I found here. We are not too far from the Philadelphia International Airport but we are still in the Philadelphia Naval Yard and this is just a unique piece of art. There are actually six different art installations that are currently in the Navy Yard in different areas. Here's just a little screenshot. You can pause if you want. But basically, code named M.I.M.O.S.A. Learn more about Mystery Island and the Marvelous Occurrence of Spontaneous Art at the Navy Yard. This is an excellent prime example of outdoor public art in Philadelphia. As I highlighted on some parts of the tour today some outdoor public art pieces. It is a known fact that Philadelphia is home to the largest collection of outdoor artwork in the country. We take pride in the arts and highlight it as much as we can in forms of statutes, public art, private art, museums, outdoor sculptures and just nature in its beautiful art form. So I hope you enjoyed it and please consider the next time you're in Philadelphia checking out some of our beautiful art.