| Eakins Oval | |
|---|---|
 Washington Monument at Eakins Oval | |
 | |
| Location | |
| Fairmount Park,Philadelphia,Pennsylvania, U.S. | |
| Coordinates | 39°57′49″N75°10′43″W / 39.96361°N 75.17861°W /39.96361; -75.17861 |
| Roads at junction | Benjamin Franklin Parkway Spring Garden Street Kelly Drive Martin Luther King Jr. Drive 24th Street |
| Construction | |
| Lanes | 3-5 |
| Maintained by | City of Philadelphia |
Eakins Oval is atraffic circle inPhiladelphia. It forms the northwest end of theBenjamin Franklin Parkway just in front of thePhiladelphia Museum of Art, with a central array of fountains and monuments, and a network of pedestrian walkways.
This loop of road usually carries a large volume of traffic, as it connects the core of the city withFairmount Park,Kelly Drive (formerly East River Drive), and Martin Luther King, Jr. Drive (formerly West River Drive). During parades and other major municipal events such as the Thanksgiving Day Parade, and large concerts such asLive 8 Philadelphia and theBudweiser Made in America Festival, the roadways are shut down to automobile traffic and the oval becomes center stage for the gathering. Eakins Oval was the site of the stage for the2017 NFL draft.
The oval was part of urban plannerJacques Gréber's design for the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, which he proposed in 1917.[1]
The oval is named forThomas Eakins, a Philadelphian, world-famous realist painter, and fine arts educator.
The southeastern part of the oval serves as aparking lot; it was originally part of the Parkway until traffic modifications isolated it in the 1960s.
Just inside the northwest edge of Eakins Oval, in front of the Philadelphia Museum of Art stairs, stands theWashington Monument fountain. It was commissioned and designed by sculptorRudolf Siemering. The sculpture was dedicated in 1897 at the Green Street entrance toFairmount Park.
It was moved in 1926 to its present location after construction of theBenjamin Franklin Parkway was completed.[2] In 1997, work to restore the statue began under the direction of Margo Berg of the Philadelphia Art Commission. Over the years, the sculpture had come loose from its base, and the fountain had ceased to function properly. The restoration was completed in June of the same year, 100 years after it was dedicated.
The bronze and granite sculpture features a uniformedGeorge Washington mounted on a horse. Washington and his horse are poised on top of the fountain, facing southeast down the Benjamin Franklin Parkway towardsPhiladelphia City Hall. The face of the sculpture was made from an impression of the former president made while he was still alive. The lowest level of the monument features Native Americans and animals that are native to the United States.[3]
The Washington Monument fountain is flanked by two smaller fountains, honoringEli Kirk Price andJohn Ericsson.[4]
Beneath Eakins Oval and the surrounding area run two tunnels, originally for rail traffic, and constructed in the 1920s at the same time as the Oval, theBenjamin Franklin Parkway, and thePhiladelphia Art Museum. The lower tunnel, built for theBaltimore and Ohio Railroad, is owned by successorCSX and carries freight trains on a single track. The upper tunnel carriedstreetcars on the Spring Garden Street line (Route 43) ofPhiladelphia Rapid Transit (PRT) and successorPhiladelphia Transportation Company (PTC) until 1956. This double-track tunnel was then completely rebuilt in 1960 to carry two lanes of one-way (westbound only) traffic on Spring Garden from Pennsylvania Avenue to the Spring Garden Street Bridge over theSchuylkill River; currently only one lane is in use. This tunnel crosses above the CSX tunnel in the middle. Today's Route 43 buses, operated bySEPTA, circle the Oval and do not use the tunnel.
By October 1926, the monument had been completely reassembled in the newly created Eakins Oval
