Wild Flower Preservation Department. 
Wister's Woods Park. 
Wister's Woods Park was taken by the city of Philadelphia 
in 1911 and contains about fifty acres. It is under the 
jurisdiction of the Fairmount Park Association. Between 
Wister Street and Fisher's Lane it is bisected by Beifield Avenue 
which continues till merged in the Roosevelt Boulevard. For 
a century these hills, known as Wister's Woods and Fisher's 
Woods, have been used by the youth of Germantown as a play- 
ground. Here picnics were held and flowers and nuts were 
gathered in their season. Between the hills lay a beautiful 
meadow where cattle grazed and through which rippled a little 
brook. The brook is sewered over and now runs beneath Beifield 
Avenue. Since Colonial days this property has been held by 
the same families who still live there adjacent to the Park. 
John Wister came to America from near Heidelberg, in 1727. 
His industry soon brought him wealth. In 1741 he bought an 
extensive property in Germantown of which these woods form 
its eastern boundary. Here he built his country house and 
planted his garden which is still noted for its colonial charm. 
He was among the first to have a town and country home both 
of which are still occupied by his descendants. 
Fisher's Woods, east of Beifield Avenue, was part of the 
property owned by James Logan who came to America, as 
Secretary to William Penn, on the ship Welcome in 1699. He 
held many honorable offices in the colony and was Penn's 
representative and trusted advisor during the latter 's enforced 
absences in England. His home, Stenton, was built in 1728 and 
is now open to the public as an example of a colonial home under 
the care of the Pennsylvania Society of Colonial Dames of 
America. James Logan's granddaughter Sarah, married 
Thomas Fisher and on the ground inherited from her illustrious 
grandfather, Wakefield was built in 1790. Fisher's Woods was 
part of this property. 
When the Garden Clubs began looking for a suitable site for 
a wild flower preserve many different localities were considered 
and visited. After considerable deliberation and with the 
approval and assistance of the Fairmount Park Association, 
Wister's Woods Park was selected. The lay of the land is 
wonderfully attractive and interesting. It provides northern 
and southern slopes, rocky ledges, wooded hills, open meadows 
and a bog, singularly adapted to every variety of plant. The 
Clubs were fortunate in securing the services of Mr. John C. 
Wister as landscape architect. He made three plans, gave a 
detailed report and took about fifty photographs to show not 
only the beauty of the park, but where planting was needed. 
Paths, as shown in the plan, will be as forest trails; trees and 
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