bergdoll photos on Flickr

The luxurious Bergdoll Mansion - built by a German-American beer baron in 1886. Home to America's most famous draft dodger of World War I. by Ron Avery

13 6

One of the beer baron's sons built luxury cars from 1908-1913.

But son, Grover Cleveland Bergdoll refused to serve in World War 1 when drafted. He escaped to Germany, fought off several bounty-hunters and returned to the U.S. in 1939.

The mansion, now expensive apartments, is located at 22nd and Green streets, Philadelphia.

PHL1-068-32A by David Swift (Thank you for 99 million views)

38 1

Bergdoll Mansion,Built for Beer Baron Louis Bergdoll.1886 Architect James Windrim.Beaux Arts/Italianate Style.Phila Pa-35mm Olympus Stylus Epic,Ilford XP2

Bergdoll Mansion, Spring Garden, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States by Billy Wilson

26

"The Bergdoll Mansion is a historic house located in the Spring Garden neighborhood of Philadelphia. It was designed by architect James H. Windrim and built in 1886. It is in a Beaux Arts / Italianate-style.

It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1976.

The building was constructed as the home of the Louis Bergdoll family owners of the City Park Brewery. Grover Cleveland Bergdoll, scion of the well known brewing family, was a playboy, aviator, and World War I draft dodger.

The 14,000 square foot mansion has eight bedrooms, nine bathrooms, two kitchens, mahogany woodwork, multiple fireplaces, frescoes and mosaics. It was listed for sale in 2012 with an asking price of $6.9 million.

Spring Garden is a neighborhood in central Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA, bordering Center City on the north. Spring Garden is a neighborhood that combines diverse residential neighborhoods and significant cultural attractions. The residential areas on the north side of the neighborhood (North of Spring Garden Street) are composed mostly of brick and brownstone three-story townhouses built during the mid-to-late 19th century. The houses include townhouses in the Italianate style, Second Empire, Queen Anne, and Venetian Gothic. Many streets (including Green Street and Spring Garden Street) include "terraced" set ups, which include a small gardened plot, often raised, in front of the house. The residential areas to the south are dominated by taller, multi-family buildings built during the 20th century. The museum area, also to the south of Spring Garden Street, includes the Rodin Museum, the Central Library of Philadelphia, and the Barnes Museum. Before consolidation of Philadelphia, Spring Garden was a district of Philadelphia County.

Before the neighborhood was incorporated into the city of Philadelphia in 1854, the city of Spring Garden peaked at ninth on the list of the largest cities in the United States during the 1850 Census.

Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City, and the 68th-largest city in the world. Since 1854, the city has been coextensive with Philadelphia County, the most populous county in Pennsylvania and the urban core of the Delaware Valley, the nation's seventh-largest and world's 68th-largest metropolitan region, with 6.245 million residents as of 2020. The city's population as of the 2020 census was 1,603,797, and over 56 million people live within 250 mi (400 km) of Philadelphia.

Philadelphia was founded in 1682 by William Penn, an English Quaker. The city served as capital of the Pennsylvania Colony during the British colonial era and went on to play a historic and vital role as the central meeting place for the nation's founding fathers whose plans and actions in Philadelphia ultimately inspired the American Revolution and the nation's independence. Philadelphia hosted the First Continental Congress in 1774 following the Boston Tea Party, preserved the Liberty Bell, and hosted the Second Continental Congress during which the founders signed the Declaration of Independence, which historian Joseph Ellis has described as "the most potent and consequential words in American history". Once the Revolutionary War commenced, both the Battle of Germantown and the Siege of Fort Mifflin were fought within Philadelphia's city limits. The U.S. Constitution was later ratified in Philadelphia at the Philadelphia Convention of 1787. Philadelphia remained the nation's largest city until 1790, when it was surpassed by New York City, and served as the nation's first capital from May 10, 1775, until December 12, 1776, and on four subsequent occasions during and following the American Revolution, including from 1790 to 1800 while the new national capital of Washington, D.C. was under construction.

During the 19th and 20th centuries, Philadelphia emerged as a major national industrial center and railroad hub. The city’s blossoming industrial sector attracted European immigrants, predominantly from Germany and Ireland, the two largest reported ancestry groups in the city as of 2015. In the 20th century, immigrant waves from Italy and elsewhere in Southern Europe arrived. Following the end of the Civil War in 1865, Philadelphia became a leading destination for African Americans in the Great Migration. In the 20th century, Puerto Rican Americans moved to the city in large numbers. Between 1890 and 1950, Philadelphia's population doubled to 2.07 million. Philadelphia has since attracted immigrants from East and South Asia, Eastern Europe, and Latin America.

With 18 four-year universities and colleges, Philadelphia is one of the nation's leading centers for higher education and academic research. As of 2021, the Philadelphia metropolitan area was the nation's ninth-largest metropolitan economy with a gross metropolitan product (GMP) of US$479 billion. Philadelphia is the largest center of economic activity in Pennsylvania and the broader multi-state Delaware Valley region; the city is home to five Fortune 500 corporate headquarters as of 2022. The Philadelphia skyline, which includes several globally renowned commercial skyscrapers, is expanding, primarily with new residential high-rise condominiums. The city and the Delaware Valley are a biotechnology and venture capital hub; and the Philadelphia Stock Exchange, owned by NASDAQ, is the nation's oldest stock exchange and a global leader in options trading. 30th Street Station, the city's primary rail station, is the third-busiest Amtrak hub in the nation, and the city's multimodal transport and logistics infrastructure, including Philadelphia International Airport, the PhilaPort seaport, freight rail infrastructure, roadway traffic capacity, and warehouse storage space, are all expanding.

Philadelphia is a national cultural hub, hosting more outdoor sculptures and murals than any other American city. Fairmount Park, when combined with adjacent Wissahickon Valley Park in the same watershed, is 2,052 acres (830 ha), representing one of the nation's largest contiguous urban parks and the 45th largest urban park in the world. The city is known for its arts, culture, cuisine, and colonial and Revolution-era history; in 2016, it attracted 42 million domestic tourists who spent $6.8 billion, representing $11 billion in total economic impact to the city and surrounding Pennsylvania counties.

With five professional sports teams and a hugely loyal fan base, the city is often ranked as the nation's best city for professional sports fans. The city has a culturally and philanthropically active LGBTQ+ community. Philadelphia also has played an immensely influential historic and ongoing role in the development and evolution of American music, especially R&B, soul, and rock.

Philadelphia is a city of many firsts, including the nation's first library (1731), hospital (1751), medical school (1765), national capital (1774), university (by some accounts) (1779), stock exchange (1790), zoo (1874), and business school (1881). Philadelphia contains 67 National Historic Landmarks, including Independence Hall. From the city's 17th century founding through the present, Philadelphia has been the birthplace or home to an extensive number of prominent and influential Americans. In 2021, Time magazine named Philadelphia one of the world's greatest 100 places." - info from Wikipedia.

The fall of 2022 I did my 3rd major cycling tour. I began my adventure in Montreal, Canada and finished in Savannah, GA. This tour took me through the oldest parts of Quebec and the 13 original US states. During this adventure I cycled 7,126 km over the course of 2.5 months and took more than 68,000 photos. As with my previous tours, a major focus was to photograph historic architecture.

Now on Instagram.

Become a patron to my photography on Patreon or donate.

Bergdoll Mansion, Spring Garden, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States by Billy Wilson

14