How's this for the Grand Army of the Republic
I HAVE SEEN THIS VIEW a thousand times, but never so spectacularly as Tuesday night when I stood in line around City Hall to meet the new mayor. The man on the horse is Gen. George B. McClellan, the two-time commander of the Army of the Potomac during the Civil War. He is famous for having done so little with the finest looking army ever assembled on American soil. Boy, could those Union soldiers parade.
McClellan's equestrian statue stands on the north side of City Hall, and his posture is perfect as a military commander surveying the grandeur of his prize. Like a Conquistador he sits astride his steed atop a rise overlooking the jewel that is the Masonic Temple, which was Philadelphia's first post-war statement about the spectacular city it saw itself being in the future. The Masonic Temple was the Liberty Place, the Comcast Tower, of the late 1860's.
Even before the Masonic Temple had been completed in 1873, ground was broken on the 30-year project that would be the construction of Philadelphia City Hall. Looking back from the year 2008, it was not unlike building some publicly-funded Great Pyramid across the street from a privately-funded Taj Mahal. Talk about an embarrassment of riches.
The Masonic Temple -- officially the Grand Lodge of the Free and Accepted Masons of Pennsylvania -- is actually more spectacular inside than its exterior. There are daily tours free of charge. Your New Year's resolution is to take that tour and marvel and wonder: "Who were these guys?"
