Mercer Museum

In 1916, Mercer built another six-story concrete castle, which is now the Mercer Museum (84 South Pine St., 215/345-0210, www.mercermuseum.org [1], Mon.–Sat. 10 a.m.–5 p.m., Tues. until 9 p.m., Sun. noon–5 p.m., $8 adult, $7 senior, $4 child). The impressive structure is filled with themed rooms containing Mercer’s collection of tools, folk art, and articles from early America.

Mercer collected more than 40,000 items in all, fearing that the advance of industrialization would wipe out original tools. He made it his mission to preserve evidence of America’s early productivity when everything was made by hand.