Drawing Dock Creek
If you live in or were recently visiting Philly, you may have noticed a winding trail of white-washed lines travelling through Independence Park, bounded by Walnut St. on the south, Chestnut St. on the north, Fifth St. on the west, and Third St. on the east. The white lines cut across cobblestone sidwalks, through lightposts, benches, and parkland demarking the once vibrant flowing Dock Creek, long ago buried beneath the city in which it helped sprout into the metropolis it is today.
Dock Creek, in a sense, gave birth to Philadelphia. American Indians once traversed this pristine stream and William Penn later landed in a nearby cove where Front St. is located today. The first European settlers built their homes on the banks of the creek, which provided a gateway to the city. By the time Philly playboy Ben Franklin entered the picture in 1723, the once translucent creek had become an open sewer, much like most waterways, swamps, and marshes in developing cities. Tanneries, beermakers, slaughterhouses, and raw sewage were dumped into the creek making it one of the first of many polluted waterways in America. It soon became a public nuisance and after failed attempts by a young Franklin to clean it up, the once freely roaming Dock Creek was encased in brick and buried becoming a subsurface waterway. It has remained that way to this date.
In an evolving sculpture project conceived by artist Winifred Lutz, the spring-fed tidal stream breaks free of the grid imposed upon it hundreds of years ago. Lutz’s project brings the tidal stream back to life again with white-wash and lime flowing over grass, concrete, cobblestone, marking its course from the juncture of Dock and Third Streets where it splits into two branches. Permission has been granted by park authorities to allow the lawn between the white lines to grow into a river of tall grasses containing clover, dandelions, and wild strawberries. In September 2008, Lutz will “animate” the grass swale with nearly nine miles of vibrant blue elastic stretched from end to end, recreating in a sense, the waterway that once served this city.
The installation runs from now through September 27th and Lutz is currently looking for volunteers to complete the blue elastic waterway. More information on the project, including photographs can be found here and by calling the American Philosophical Society at 215.440.3427.
Check out more of Philly’s hidden streams at Philly H20: The History of Philadelphia’s Watersheds and Sewers.
