When I started working on the narrative aspect of the project I asked Mary Salvante, director of art programs at the Schuylkill Center, if she could provide me with some of the Center's publications. I was looking both for information and inspiration. In the 2004 Annual Report I discovered a short article commemorating the River House, a historic summer home built in 1865 to overlook the Schuylkill River. On September 18th, 2004, "a fire completely consumed the building leaving nothing but unstable fragments of its original stone walls."

I was determined to find the place where the River House had stood. During one of my excursions to the Center I hiked a trail that I had not previously explored. At the highest point on the trail I encountered a rectangular clearing with a set of stone steps leading down to a patch of grass bordered by some daffodils. As I descended the steps I glimpsed the Schuylkill River for the first time. This is the only place on the grounds of the Center where the forest opens to permit a view of the wide River that courses below.