On September 27th, 2025, thousands of people visited, played, slept, kissed, smoked, danced, slept, hugged, laughed, and talked in Rittenhouse Square. Mothers with children, ten guys sharing a blunt, restaurant workers taking a smoke break, couples leaving restaurants to snag a kiss under the square’s lights, all sharing the same public space.
Written into William Penn’s plan for Philadelphia in 1683 and fully developed by architect Paul Philippe Cret in 1913, Rittenhouse Square is the city’s most popular square. While the other three city squares receive mostly neighborhood visitors or tourists, Rittenhouse is unique in its ability to attract people of all walks of life, every hour of the day.
The weekly farmer’s market is today. From the Amish selling flowers on the corner, to the women selling hand–made bead jewelry, to the fish slapping onto beds of ice, the park is particularly vibrant this Saturday.
And so, in the hopes of documenting the diverse populations that utilize the park, I’ve conducted a series of interviews with park goers from 12 p.m to 12 a.m. Here are three of their stories—more are to come.
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TERESA – 1:50 P.M.
Red–haired and mid–crochet, Teresa lets me interrupt her lunch break despite not being “in social mode when [she] comes out here.” She works at Anthropologie’s online order fulfillment department. On her breaks, though, she comes out to the park, at least when it’s nice out.
“I usually work on whatever project I’m working on at the time,” she says as she continues crocheting. “I’m making a costume for one of my best friends, who’s a pole dancer. She’s doing a performance for Halloween. So she’s doing like a river nymph thing. So I’m making a skirt, a shirt on top, and sleeves.”
Teresa’s worked at Anthropologie for about a year, but she’s been in Philly for quite a while, having gone to Drexel for undergrad. When asked about why she’s picked Rittenhouse as her outdoors pied–à–terre for the day, she says, “I like a good green space, that’s pretty much it. I like the fresh air and people watching. I love looking at the dogs that walk by. Just a really nice place to come and sit on my lunch break. And it’s like, right across the street. So it’s perfect.”
“It’s mostly proximity,” she adds. The beauty of the park is what first drew her in, but having worked in the area for such a long time, it’s become a thing of convenience. Even before she started working in the area, though, she and her friends would frequently visit Rittenhouse to picnic and hangout.
Of course, Rittenhouse Square isn’t the only park she spends time in—she lives by Clark Park in West Philadelphia. She only just moved there, and she’s been spending her time exploring the restaurant scene. Just last night, she says, she found a new Pakistani restaurant. “The owner was so nice, and it was like the best meal I’ve had. Really, it was so good,” she adds.
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SAMMY RIVERA – 2:36 P.M.
“I’m Sammy Rivera, and on Saturdays, I come out here to sell my artwork,” he says.
He’s been a photographer for about 15 years, having always specialized in street photography. For a time, he tried out freelance work, but quickly realized how much he hated it. “Street was the only kind of work, the only thing that my heart was really in,” Sammy explains. He shoots primarily in black and white, though lately he’s been experimenting with color.
Sammy shoots mostly in Philly, though several years ago he traveled around Western Europe, and he sometimes visits Puerto Rico since his family is from there. “Wherever I go, like the camera’s on me,” he says. “Usually I try not to go out looking for something specific. It’s more of a thing of just being open to the surroundings and what life will just throw at you naturally. You know, you kind of just got to be out there and let things come to you.”
Having always been fascinated by the inner workings of city life, Sammy primarily engages in what he calls the “classic New York street photography” style. When looking at the variety of prints he has carefully set up along the square’s stone fencing, his love for public transportation is clear. “That’s like an everyday thing,” he says, “What I’m trying to do, [it] doesn’t have to be extravagant—simple, just everyday, like universal experiences.”
Last November, Sammy ended his 14–year run working various jobs in the food service and retail industries. Since then, he’s been creating full–time. “So I guess you could say this is my work, my office here,” he says. He comes most Saturdays, and occasionally on Sundays, Tuesdays, and Fridays, trying to follow the park’s patterns of population change based on when markets run.
Sammy’s job isn’t solitary, though. Over time, he’s met a handful of other artists and become known by people in the neighborhood. “I mean, it’s never about the money, even though I’m doing it for a living. But yeah, that’s never been what it’s about. Even on days if I don’t sell anything, [it’s] just nice being outside and I’ve met so many awesome people out here,” he explains.
Despite their different mediums, he and his Rittenhouse art buddies frequently hang out. Several years ago, when one of them had his art confiscated by the police, people from across the arts scene and the local community came together to set up a bunch of blank canvases around the park, Sammy shares.
The issue of licensing is what keeps him away from Clark Park, the nearest green space to him. At the weekly farmer’s market, artists need to go through a paid licensing process to be allowed to sell, and Sammy just can’t be bothered to do so. In Rittenhouse, “no one gives a fuck, right? You don’t cause any problems, you know, no one cares.” And when they do, the community bands together to return the park’s climate to its status quo—a place where artists are welcome to express themselves in any way they see fit.
Sammy’s most popular print, the one he’s holding in his portrait, came from a moment of pure luck. He had been waiting for the L, “an integral part of [his] Philly experience,” when the train was delayed by 45 minutes around rush hour. One train pulls in, and Sammy let it leave after deciding to wait for the next one. As everyone pours into the next train, he thinks it might make for a good photo. As he goes to grab his camera out of his bag, “right as I pulled it up, the couple starts kissing, and I was like, oh fuck.”
Sammy’s work can be found on his Instagram: @sam.myrivera
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SOPHIA – 4:13 P.M.
My second red–head of the day, Sophia, is a people watcher, too. After taking several photos of her sitting on the inner stone walls of the square, taking her own photos of other people in the park, I feel comfortable enough to approach her. She’ll probably be into what I’m doing.
“I just think it’s the best spot for people watching,” she says, “I just find it really interesting. I don’t know. I usually come here with my friends or my girlfriend, but I’m alone today … I just feel like it’s a happy place.” Today, she says she feels a bit uninspired. I’m left surprised, as everyone I’ve seen has been fairly interesting so far. Maybe we look for different things.
Sophia is a junior at St. Joseph’s University in West Philly, so she splits her time between Rittenhouse and Clark Park. Where I find her is a spot I’ve sat on many times before, a spot I’ve built many of my own memories on. She claims the spot as her own. The park allows both of us to share the space, together and apart, strangers joined by a shared people–watching location.
She has a separate spot for when she’s with her girlfriend, preferring to sit on top of the fountain. When I approached her, she was just about to look for a new spot. “I don’t know the direction today,” she admits. Normally, she likes to look out for first dates, and we joke over a couple that we’ve noticed today. Sadly, her first date with her girlfriend wasn’t in Rittenhouse, but we agree to rewrite their story for kicks.
She’s a communications major with a focus on commercial photography, so the nice camera on her neck makes sense. In an ideal world, she says, she wants to apply her photography skills at a communications job. With the state of the job market, however, she’s worried as to if a career in the arts is even possible.
When she’s not in class or people watching in the park, she likes to blow her money at local coffee shops. Her go–to is Elixr, but she likes to try different ones every now and then. My co–interviewer at the time, Arts beat Beatrice Han, asks about her outfit. “This is, like, my standard uniform,” she says. She’s wearing capris–turned–jorts and a sleeveless Yuengling top, both from a flea market in her hometown of Lancaster. I jokingly ask if she knows any of the Amish selling flowers at the market today.
Since she’s such an avid people watcher, I ask how she thinks others view her. “I don’t know,” she says, “I always wonder how people view me, because I’m always staring at people. So, yeah, I’m always like, I hope they don’t think I’m creepy.”
She spent a lot of this past summer trying to learn about the city, riding SEPTA everywhere she went. She’s become “that friend that knows how to get everywhere,” she says. She’d be happy to stay in Philly after graduation, “but I also have never left Pennsylvania, so part of me kind of wants to go somewhere else.” She’ll figure it out when her friends do, she explains.
In the meantime, she’ll keep on staring at people. In a place teeming with all sorts of people, at all hours of the day, she’s got plenty to work with.
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In between these interviews, I watched the people of the park.
Around 2 P.M., I saw an older trans woman pour her heart out to her friends. The only line I caught from her was “You loved me, and Max loved me” as she cried into her friend’s arms.
There was a random speaker playing by a trashcan at the northwest corner of the park. I never figured out whose speaker it was, but I remember it playing “Everybody Wants to Rule the World” by Tears for Fears.
A homeless man in hospital garbs sat on a bench across from a few young women, trying incessantly to engage in conversation with them.
Sylvia, Effie, and Alan are next.