A few times a month, Cranaleith has the privilege of welcoming clients from CATCH, Inc., a behavioral health program in Philadelphia, who participate in days of guided reflection or eco-therapy in our garden. We are gifted by the presence of an enormously talented artist, Mary Kay Eichman, RSM, who enables our guests to respond to each day’s theme with sheer delight, freedom and spontaneity. The diverse and colorful possibilities of their imagination seem endless. Often, they break out into song, utterly present to the joy and beauty of their creative power. During the planting and growing season, these same guests...

Hidden City, October 27, 2016 By Sarah Kennedy  Editor’s Note: We travel to the Somerton neighborhood of Northeast Philadelphia where the Cranaleith Spiritual Center sits on a bucolic 10-acre property. The late-Victorian house at the center of the parcel, formerly known as Mill-Rae, was built in the late 19th century for women’s rights activist Rachel Foster Avery and was the defining commission that set in motion Nichols’ career as America’s first independent female practitioner of architecture. On Saturday, October 29, the Cranaleith Spiritual Retreat Center will host an event to celebrate its forthcoming placement on the National Register of Historic Places...

Northeast Times, October 11, 2016, By William Kenny  In a year when the United States may see the elec­tion of its first wo­man pres­id­ent, a North­east Phil­adelphia in­sti­tu­tion is cel­eb­rat­ing its role in achiev­ing the right to vote for the na­tion’s wo­men. Cranaleith Spir­itu­al Cen­ter in Somer­ton didn’t ex­ist in 1920 when the states rat­i­fied the 19th Amend­ment, but a Vic­tori­an farm­house on the spir­itu­al cen­ter’s 10-acre cam­pus stood back then and once served as a vi­tal meet­ing place for lead­ing suf­fra­gists in­clud­ing Susan B. An­thony and its own­er, Rachel Foster Avery, dur­ing a peri­od in Amer­ic­an his­tory when wo­men...