A Sunday morning stroll through Philadelphia’s historic district found little damage from the overnight passage of Hurricane Irene — mostly small branches off trees. One exception was damage to the tall ship Gazela moored at Penn’s Landing. A ship’s volunteer who happened to be biking past noticed a hefty section had been torn from the port bow.

Patrick Flynn, superintendent of ships for the Philadelphia Ship Preservation Guild, begins repairs to the “buffalo rail,” the chock through which ropes secure the Gazela to the pier, after it broke from the bow during Hurricane Irene. At right is Gabriel Meyer, who discovered the damage while passing the ship on his bike.

Quite a few residents of Society Hill Towers taped windows in an effort to limit damage in case the hurricane blew out the glass. This unit seemed more fanciful than cautionary, taping the message: B-E-P-O-S-I-T-I-V-E

A dog named Charlie paused amid a pool of gingko fruit that had blown out of a tree on the edge of at Washington Square.

A line of fallen branches collected by city workers in Washington Square was typical of the limited damage Irene left behind in city parks.

An extreme rarity brought by the hurricane was the wrapping of city parking kiosks, which have only been in place two or three years. You got the impression that someone warned the parking authority that the problematic machines that dispense parking receipts would not withstand a big storm. The city declared parking would be free during the storm period.

The Philadelphia Belle, moored at Penn’s Landing, was out of service Sunday — but it had nothing to do with the hurricane. The owners stopped running it earlier in the summer due to poor business.

A bronze plaque of Samuel Adams — not the beer, but the signer of the Declaration of Independence — was littered with residue from the storm along the “signers walk of fame” on Chestnut Street near Independence Hall.

Independence Hall appeared unfazed by the storm.