On the Map: The Marvelous Morris House Hotel (Philadelphia)
By Mark McNease
On the Map is a travelogue of places, restaurants and landscapes for your travel considerations. Sometimes near, sometimes far, always interesting.
As the most restrictive aspects of this pandemic-burdened year begin to lessen, my husband Frank and I are hitting the road again. For now we’ll be taking local-ish trips we can enjoy with just a few hours’ drive in the car. We have a cruise booked for December that was postponed twice because of Covid and the inability of cruise ships to dock in U.S. ports (combined with our own significant concerns), and I’m looking forward to an extensive trip report when we finally board two weeks before Christmas. Cruising is my favorite form of extended vacation, so stay tuned for a late December travelogue.
This time we took a two night trip to Philadelphia. For a number of years now we’ve treated each other to surprise getaways. One of us takes the other on a trip, and the person being surprised does not know where we’re going. A few months ago I’d seen a recommendation for an outdoor classical concert “under the stars” in Philly, and thought it would be a perfect way to start getting out there again.
As fortune had it, the concerts were being held in the garden area of the Morris House Hotel, so I booked us there for two nights. What a find! It will now be our go-to hotel when we visit Philadelphia, a city we love, and that is just an hour away. As transplanted New Yorkers living permanently in rural New Jersey, Philly has become more our city that Manhattan. It’s closer, and if we ever decide to live in a city again, that’s where we’ll go. Until then, we can look forward to fun, easy, no-stress getaways close to home.
The Morris House Hotel is centrally located in Center City, right in the heart of things. Its designation as a historical site means this beautiful, 18th century structure can’t be torn down. It sits like a jewel from another era amid hospital and office buildings, and there’s a quiet defiance to it: I’m old, I’m elegant, I’m not going away.
We stayed in one of their luxury rooms (#201), which was perfect for us. I’d love a suite, but we were more than comfortable in this room and will ask for it the next time we go – and we will go again!
The hotel offers standard rooms, luxury rooms, mini suites, large extended suites, and a wedding suite.
There is a continental breakfast available from 6:00 a.m. – 10:00 am, which you can enjoy on their large outdoor patio or inside. A parking garage is located directly across the street, and the hotel validates with a 15 percent discount.
There was nothing we did not like about this hotel, from the historic architecture and furniture, to the lovely staff. This is the place for us!
Where we ate:
Bud & Marilyn’s
P.J. Clarke’s
Reading Terminal Market
Candlelight Concerts is a series of concerts presented by Fever, a company offering a dizzying array of things to do at see in Philadelphia. The venues for these concerts change – we saw a string quartet perform Beethoven in the garden area of the Morris House Hotel. In June, they’re presenting an evening of jazz (“Aretha Franklin, Nina Simone and the Divas of Soul” at the Loews Hotel). I highly recommend this series and these presenters. Check out their offerings and get there if you can.
“Built in 1787, The Morris House takes its name from the generations of the Morris Family who occupied it for more than one hundred and twenty years. Today the Morris House remains one of the finest lasting examples of Colonial residential architecture in Philadelphia.
Though construction did not begin until after the struggle for American Independence the design of the Morris House is Colonial in style and pre-Revolutionary in character.
Thanks to a dedicated preservation effort, the building remains true to its original architectural design, making it one of the most handsome historic brick residences in Philadelphia.
The elegance and distinction of the façade are unexcelled in early American city architecture.
The year 1790 opened Philadelphia’s most brilliant decade as the first capital of the United States. In those days, residents of the Morris House could wave from their windows to Thomas Jefferson returning from an evening stroll to his home on High Street (now Market), only three blocks away.
George Washington would drive by in his cream-colored French coach, determined to set a precedent of dignity in the new office as President of the United States. As these great men influenced the social and political landscapes of the time, so too did the Morris family.”