History in Philadelphia
America's Birthplace - Discover history and historic attractions in Philadelphia
The Roots of Independence
Philadelphia and its four surrounding counties may be the best living textbook available for understanding the history of our nation. Why do we think so? The roots of American democracy are found in Philadelphia: The Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were not drafted here by accident. Instead, they stand as the most recognized symbols of the American Enlightenment, which had its roots in Philadelphia 100 years before 1776.
William Penn founded Philadelphia in 1682 and his legacy is evident throughout the region. Philadelphia’s historic city plan is one of his most enduring contributions. Walking around the streets and squares is a visual and educational treat, with architectural landmarks from every period and historical markers that tell the stories of significant people, places and events.
In Bucks County, Pennsbury Manor recreates the life and times of Pennsylvania’s founder. His commitment to religious tolerance, democratic government, and peaceful relations with Native Americans was remarkable for its time and still inspires us today.
When the aristocratic Penn decided in 1682 to apply his Quaker ideals of racial harmony and religious tolerance to his namesake colony, he set into motion forces that would produce the America we recognize today. By opening the floodgates of immigration, regardless of creed, Pennsylvania became, in effect, America’s first multicultural society. Penn’s great Holy Experiment generated numerous mini-experiments, still visible in the stone farmhouses of Welsh Quaker and German Mennonite families scattered across the fertile countryside in Bucks County and beyond.
By connecting this patchwork of agricultural communities to the global economy of the 18th century, Philadelphia quickly became the busiest port in all the colonies. And Penn’s “city of brotherly love” would become the model for their new nation. With such a thriving economy, radically diverse populations and central location, it should come as no surprise that the contrasting colonies united in Philadelphia to plot a revolution.
The American Revolution
The fight for freedom took hold here at Carpenters Hall in 1774, site of the First Continental Congress. In July 1776, independence rang out with the signing of the Declaration of Independence (at what is now Independence Hall).
The same unique factors that attracted trade, immigrants and ideas to Philadelphia also lured the subsequent invading armies; thus, crucial battles of the Revolutionary War were waged here. Washington Crossing Historic Park tells the story of George Washington’s crossing of the Delaware River on Christmas Day, 1776, and his dramatic victory over the British.
The British counterattack and their occupation of Philadelphia is the subject of several historic sites which you can still trace. Sir William Howe pressed toward the rebel capital in the fall of 1777. The first major clash and General Washington’s greatest defeat came on September 11, 1777 at the Battle of Brandywine along the Brandywine River, 20 miles south of the city.
Then in October, the two armies engaged in brutal house-to-house fighting with George Washington’s failed surprise attack in Germantown (Cliveden), just outside Philadelphia (in 1777; today Germantown is inside Philadelphia). Meanwhile, rebels harried the British fleet from Fort Mifflin on the Delaware in one of the heaviest artillery bombardments of the era.
Only the defense of Fort Mifflin and Washington’s retreat to Valley Forge in December, 1777, saved the American army. Their perseverance during that bitter winter, a strategic alliance with France, and Washington’s courageous leadership finally led to triumph at Yorktown in 1781.
The 19th Century
Of course, history did not end in 1776, and there is much to discover beyond the American Revolution. In 1787, our nation’s founders came to Philadelphia for the Constitutional Convention. Once the Constitution was written, Philadelphia served as the capital city of the new nation from 1790 to 1800.
In the 19th century, Philadelphia continued to be the nation’s center of culture, attracting writers like Edgar Allan Poe. Throughout the region are reminders of the ongoing commitment to fulfill the principles and ideals of the American Revolution. It was also home to the nation’s largest free African American population by 1790, and this vibrant community built many of the earliest black cultural institutions, including the first A.M.E. church, and a network of Underground Railroad stations extending out into the countryside.
The Johnson House in Germantown tells the powerful story of the opposition to slavery and the stirring efforts of African-Americans, Quakers, and other conductors on the “underground railroad.” The monumental Eastern State Penitentiary, founded by the Pennsylvania Prison Society in 1829, was a bold and innovative departure in criminal justice which emphasized solitary confinement, repentance and rehabilitation of prisoners. In Chester County, the historic college campuses of Lincoln University and Cheyney State University are significant landmarks of the education of African-Americans.
After the Civil War, a great iron rail network radiated from Philadelphia — the undisputed center of America’s industrial revolution. You can still trace the course of America’s urban expansion by starting at the Reading Railroad Terminal (a monument to this country’s first billion-dollar industry), sampling the delicious diversity of a market which owes its very existence to the trains that knitted together the hinterland with urban consumers. Then follow those same rails in the opposite direction, along the old lines which spurred wealthy industrialists like Baldwin and Lippincott to build palatial suburban mansions.
At places like Hopewell Furnace in Chester County and Rittenhouse Town in Philadelphia’s Fairmount Park, the manufacture of iron, paper and other basic products provided a framework for the economic independence of fledgling nation. An elaborate system of canals and railroads connected Philadelphia to raw materials and resources from Pennsylvania’s rich farms and mines. The Delaware Canal from Easton to Bristol, completed in 1832, was a great engineering feat that featured 23 lift locks and nine aqueducts.
Perhaps the region’s greatest monument to both art and engineering is Philadelphia’s Fairmount Waterworks. The five-acre site acquired for this complex in 1812 became the nucleus of the 8,900 acres that now comprise Fairmount Park, one of the largest city parks in the world and home to the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Philadelphia Zoo, and eight country estates. For over a century, the Waterworks housed the machinery that provided a continuous supply of potable water to a growing city. The functional purpose of this site is in harmony with its magnificent location along the Schuylkill River, and a restored Water Works opened as The Fairmount Water Works Interpretive Center.
The list of historic attractions in Philadelphia and The Countryside spans the centuries and covers every theme in American history. A visitor to the region is sure to come away with an understanding of the value and meaning of this history and with a greater appreciation of the purpose and promise of a great nation. In short, if you want to understand how America evolved into the nation that it is, take a look at Philadelphia!