Johannes Kelpius then north of
Philadelphia In 1694,
Johannes Kelpius arrived in Philadelphia with a group of like-minded German
Pietists to live in the valley of the Wissahickon Creek. They formed a monastic community and became known as the Hermits or Mystics of the Wissahickon. Kelpius was a musician, writer, and
occultist. He frequently meditated (some believe in a cave—the
Cave of Kelpius ) along the banks of the Wissahickon and awaited the end of the world, which was expected in 1694. No sign or revelation accompanied that year, but the faithful continued to live in
celibacy by the stream, searching the stars and hoping for the end. Kelpius described the type of meditation he used in his
Method of Prayer. (See Further Reading below on this book.) Kelpius died in 1708 and the group disbanded some time thereafter. Some members likely gave up on celibacy and married. A few joined the somewhat like-minded religious colony of
Ephrata Cloister under
Conrad Beissel in
Ephrata,
Lancaster County, even though no previous connection existed between the two communities. At least two from the original group, Johann Seelig and Konrad Matthaei, continued as hermits along the Wissahickon into the 1740s. Other religious groups were also associated with the Wissahickon: On Christmas Day in 1723 the first congregation of the
Church of the Brethren in America – often called
Dunkard Brethren – baptized several new members in the stream. Around 1747, an individual with connections to both the Dunkards and the Ephrata Cloister built a stone house on land previously owned by Dunkards. The structure, used for church retreats, still stands today, and is known as
The Monastery, a remaining witness to the Wissahickon's days as an isolated religious refuge.
Development The same steep slopes and gorge that provided an attractive isolation to religious adherents in the 17th and early 18th centuries provided an efficient source of energy for the development of water mills in later years. One miller had by 1690 already constructed a dam, sawmill, gristmill, and house by the narrow shelf of land at the confluence of the Wissahickon with the Schuylkill River, but the rugged terrain of the valley forestalled further development alongside the stream itself. By 1730, however, eight mills had been constructed, and by 1793, twenty-four, along with many dams. Most of America was still wilderness, but the Wissahickon Valley was a developing industrial center. There were more than fifty
watermills by 1850, though the thickly forested region about the stream still retained the character of a wilderness. Access roads were being constructed into the steep valley, but there was still no road that followed the stream itself. The nature of the rugged terrain can be comprehended in an event that had occurred during the
Revolutionary War Battle of Germantown, which was fought not too far from the stream. The American General
John Armstrong, compelled by the rough terrain to abandon a cannon in the valley, expressed his contempt for the "horrendous hills of the Wissahickon." Later legends tell of American spies taking advantage of the terrain to retrieve information from an informant named
Mom Rinker, who allegedly perched atop a rock overlooking the valley to drop balls of yarn which contained messages about British troop movements during the occupation of Philadelphia. This is likely a legend, for other stories speak of a witch named
Mom Rinkle who had little to do with the Revolution. There is a
Mom Rinker's Rock in the park today. Not until 1826 were the cliffs near the creek's mouth blasted away to provide access to the cluster of mills at
Rittenhousetown, approximately up the creek on
Paper Mill Run (also known as Monoshone Creek), a small tributary of the Wissahickon. Here
William Rittenhouse (grandfather of the astronomer
David Rittenhouse) had in the early 18th century built the
first paper mill in America. Gradually this road and other mill access roads were connected, and in 1856 a private
toll road, the Wissahickon Turnpike, linked the entire valley. Long gone were the religious mystics; here instead the mills of Wissahickon Creek made paper, cloth, gunpowder, sawed lumber, milled wheat and corn, and pressed oil from flax. A sizable population worked at the mills and lived in the valley in small villages like Rittenhousetown and Pumpkinville. The nation was becoming an industrial nation, and the Wissahickon was leading the way.
Benjamin Franklin already had noted in his will the high elevation and quality of Wissahickon water, proposing that in some future day the stream be dammed to supply a safe and pure water source for Philadelphia's water supply, and even allocating funds for this purpose. This did not happen, but the quest for pure water affected the Wissahickon's subsequent history. Seeking to prevent the stream's industrial discharges from affecting the purity of the water of the Schuylkill River, the
Fairmount Park Commission took title of much of the land along the Wissahickon in 1869-1870, and continued to expand its holdings in subsequent decades. The mills were razed; the last active mill was demolished in 1884. Several decades later the Schuylkill River itself became seriously polluted by sources in the coal fields far upstream beyond Philadelphia's control, but the waters of the Wissahickon had been restored and the beauty of the Wissahickon Valley had been preserved. Most of America became more industrialized, but the Wissahickon valley quietly returned to its original wilderness character. The reason the Wissahickon Valley retained its wilderness character, even after its clean waters were no longer essential to the water supply of the city of Philadelphia, was the advent of
Romanticism and the changing attitudes which this thought engendered about nature. Before the 19th century, nature had seemed a capricious and ambivalent force, at times a dream, but at times a nightmare. Nature, according to orthodox Christian thought, had fallen with man; though the Renaissance brought about both a new view of mankind and nature, this new attitude took time to grow, but it eventually resulted in a literary and artistic movement known as Romanticism. Romantics valued heroism and chivalry in people, and regarded the wild, free, and untamed nature as the "natural" model of true
beauty. Philadelphians finally came to value their Wissahickon valley for its wild character. Even when the mills were still operating, there were remote stretches of wild bluffs and overarching trees; now the old mills had become romantic and picturesque, with mossy stone walls suggesting medieval ruins. In 1924, area residents formed the non-profit group "Friends of the Wissahickon", which still works to maintain the park's unique landscape to this day. Remarks on the Wissahickon in literature by such as Fanny Kemble, Edgar Allan Poe, George Lippard, and others are noted below. However much the stream and its valley were appreciated, it still divided parts of the city. To help overcome this, in 1906 the
Walnut Lane Bridge was built over the stream, which was the world's largest concrete arch bridge at the time. The bridge joined the Roxborough and Germantown neighborhoods of Philadelphia, formerly separated by the Wissahickon gorge. The bridge is but long, with a width of , but its center arch spans an impressive , the crown of the arch is above the water, and the sidewalks of the bridge above the Wissahickon.
Wissahickon Day In the past, there was an annual parade of horses, riders, and carriage annually in May for Wissahickon Day, a festive Gala popular among Philadelphia's Equestrians and social elites.
Wissahickon Memorial Bridge , architect. The
Wissahickon Memorial Bridge, also known as Henry Avenue Bridge, is a stone and concrete bridge that carries Henry Avenue over Wissahickon Creek, joining Roxborough and the East Falls-Germantown neighborhoods in Philadelphia. It was completed in 1932 and is long, wide, and above water. It was originally designed to carry a planned extension of a subway into Roxborough, but the subway never reached the bridge. The bridge has been known as a
suicide bridge since its opening. Beginning in 1941 for an unknown duration of time a policeman patrolled the span, questioning all pedestrians walking the bridge.
Fairmount Park Once the stream enters the city of Philadelphia, the creek valley and its deeply wooded gorge form part of the Fairmount Park system in Philadelphia, a jewel of a park and of nature set in the middle of an urban landscape. The park here is a ruggedly beautiful valley for the naturalists, artists, fishermen, bicyclists, equestrians, and hikers who are drawn to the wooded, steep banks of the stream. Precipitous wooded inclines that rise more than above the water create a feeling of remoteness and mountain vastness. There are two main and many smaller bridle paths crossing the park's along the Wissahickon Creek.
Thomas Mill Covered Bridge, the only covered bridge in a major US city, spans the creek in the park. The Wissahickon Valley is one of fewer than 600
National Natural Landmarks in America. Recently, interest in reintroducing brook trout to the Wissahickon Valley portion of Fairmount park has been growing. ==In popular culture==