Five unexpected things to do in Philadelphia
Philadelphia is one of the most historic cities in the United States. It's home to numerous American firsts, including the first library, the first hospital, and the first stock exchange. The city has 67 National Historic Landmarks, which is rather impressive.
It's also the birthplace of an almost endless list of academics, athletes, musicians, actors, and more. Philadelphia is even the hometown of Benjamin Franklin. It doesn't get much bigger than that. But with all that history there comes more than a few oddities that are more than worth exploring.
Charles Addams Fine Arts Hall
The Addams Family remains one of the most recognized and long-running properties around. It has been translated into comics, movies, TV series, and animation. Creator Charles Addams actually studied architecture at the University of Pennsylvania in the 1930s. The building named after him contains numerous flourishes that callback to his most famous work.
Edgar Allan Poe National Historic Site
Normally, National Historic Sites aren't really strange in any way. In this case, it's more about who the site is dedicated to than anything else. Famed writer Edgar Allan Poe's Philadelphia home is a monument to one of the most unique writers of all time. He may have only lived there for a year, but during that time he wrote arguably his most brilliant work, "The Tell-Tale Heart."
Maillardet's Automaton
Created by Swiss-born watchmaker and mechanician Henri Maillardet in the 1700s, this automaton went on a surprising journey. It bounced through various collections and may have even been owned by P.T. Barnum at one point. When it arrived at the Franklin Institute in 1928, no one knew what it was until they reassembled it and the automaton wrote out the name of its creator.
The Rocky Statue
Sylvester Stallone wrote and starred in the 1976 film Rocky, which told the story of a Philadelphia boxer. In the movie, Rocky runs the steps of the Philadelphia Art Museum and poses at the top. For the third film, a statue commemorating Rocky was raised on the site. Now, a replica statue of Philadelphia's favorite fictional son stands there, which is kind of odd when you really think about it.
Penn Museum's Collection of Ancient Tweezers
There are a lot of museums in the world, some of which are incredibly specific. This one might take the cake. With a pair of tweezers, of course. The University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology has a massive collection of Egyptian artifacts and more. Their collection of tweezers is equally impressive, some dating all the way back to 1900 BC.