Well It Says "Public Access" . . .

Once upon a Thursday in May, or maybe it was still April, I went gallivanting on a search for intriguing architecture from the Colonial era to the present in a quiet Philadelphia suburb. My journey, conducted entirely on foot, took me past an elementary school where recess, thankfully, is still held in the afternoon. While walking past, I couldn't help but notice that hidden in the shrubbery alongside the playground were a pair of stone gate markers. Not too unusual, since there were many estates in the area and a few still remain today, either as private residences or in some type of institutional use.

Though it was an interesting sight, it wasn't as exciting as following the trail that ran behind it.
It started as a paved path alongside the school, but then I found myself walking along it behind the playground, and further still behind private homes and office parks.

Finally at some point there was no longer any pavement, not even a trail of dirt kicked up from the traffic of others, just open and mowed green grass. However there were no obvious barriers to continue ahead either. Was I trespassing? I hoped not, lest the local police should locate me. Then I saw this sign:

At first I thought that maybe, just maybe, a certain publication housed in the nearby office park was behind this sign. After all, isn't "public access" a type of television station? But I could not see any production equipment nearby, and with neither guide nor TV (wink wink) I eventually came to the conclusion that by "public" they meant me and by "access" they meant walk on it. And that's what I kept doing. By the way, the entire time I walked on this path the only other people I saw were either elementary school students or landscapers, and they were always on the other side of a fence.

After a half hour, I began wondering where I'd end up - I had a map and I knew where I was intending to go, the site of a historic preserved mansion, but would I end up in the backyard of a McMansion instead? The path finally ended in a large open field, which turned out to be an estate-turned-dog-park-and-community-center.

And for bonus points, I found the target mansion! Certainly my journey came to a better conclusion than the path ending in a millionaire's backyard and having the cops take me back to school. On a closing note: words of wisdom from the dog-owning upper-middle-class.