So….you can’t come to Philadelphia and not do a little history, right?  Randy agreed. I spent most of a week in the city with my mom about 20 years ago and we did it all. As a result, I could do this abbreviated version without regret.

Our Philadelphia History Tour began at the Archer Street Quaker Meeting House.  It was built in 1804 on grounds granted by William Penn.  The Quakers welcomed all faiths in Penn’s Philadelphia.  The meeting house has been used continuously as a place of worship.

This statue of Ben Franklin was made using 1.8 million pennies donated by kids at 500 local schools. It also included brass from nameplates of Philadelphia firefighters dating from 1736.

One thousand keys are visible at the surface, symbolic of Franklin’s experience with static electricity from lightning and a key.

Adjacent to the statue is one of 4000 murals in Philadelphia, much of them centered in the historic area.  This one is about Ben Franklin and his co-founding of the Union Fire Company in 1736.  It was also known as the “Bucket Brigade” and was the first formally organized all volunteer firefighters group.

We did a quick stop outside of Betsy Ross’ house.  She is credited with sewing the first version of the Stars and Stripes for George Washington.  There is no official documentation of her doing so as it would have been a treasonous event.

Generations of family lore, with similar details from different branches of the family, brought the story forward about the time of the nation’s centennial celebration.

Regardless of whether the original flag story was true, she was a woman business owner (upholstery and flags) in colonial America and provided gun powder and bullets to the revolutionary soldiers.  She was exceptional if only for these documented activities.

Elfreth’s Alley is the nations oldest, continuously occupied, English speaking street.  (The oldest continuously occupied street is in Saint Augustine, Florida.)

Six houses were at risk when the I-90 interstate was expanding.  Efforts were made to give the alley historical status protection and that was achieved.

Twenty-nine of the 31 houses are owned by individuals. Two houses are owned by the local association as a museum.

This house is currently for sale for $1.25 million.  Our tour guide thought that it was overpriced as the last house on the alley sold for about half that (before Covid).

We moved on to Christ Church.  Mom and I had been able to tour the church but this time we were there on a Sunday morning and services were being held inside.  The church was established in 1695.  This is its third structure and dates to 1744.

We heard the same church bells that fifteen signers of the Declaration of Independence (who were members) would have heard.

The 197 foot church tower was the tallest building George Washington ever saw.  It was the tallest structure in North America for 56 years. 

This United States Post Office established under “B Free Franklin.”  He was instrumental in forming what later became the United States Postal Service.  This is the only post office not required to display a flag.  It has operated since colonial times, but not continuously. 

This is Carpenter’s Hall where colonist leaders and the First Continental Congress met to say we don’t want taxation without representation.

This statue is called The Signer in tribute to those who put their names on the documents.

This is Independence Hall where the Second Continental Congress worked through the Declaration of Independence and the Articles of Confederation, the first constitution. 

Philadelphia was the first capital of the nation.  This building was Congress Hall with Upper and Lower chambers.  John Adams was sworn in here in the first peaceful transfer of power.  Good for them, and so many others, who have transferred power peaceably.

Of course this is the Liberty Bell with feet.  It was actually my best shot at getting the Liberty Bell without people around it! I’m not photo savvy enough to remove them and it really isn’t realistic to get a photo of the Liberty Bell without people around.

Our next activity was a Philadelphia Food Tour.  We met on a corner by the Masonic Lodge and enjoyed some views.

We saw these guys!

Ben Franklin, the craftsman, was across the street.

The architecture in downtown Philadelphia was great!

Our food tour guide brought us cheese steak sandwiches and told us about this large building. It is Philadelphia City Hall, the largest government building in our country.

It is the second largest masonry building. City Hall has the tallest statue (William Penn) of any building in the world at 37 feet tall, and weighing in at 27 tons. 

This was William Penn’s plan for his city of brotherly love. Philadelphia was to be laid out in a grid.  The white blocks are open space, parks, or places of service to the community.

A transit center is under city hall plaza.  The water is lit to show the color of the subway train going underneath at the time.  Nothing was moving beneath us at that moment in time.

Philadelphia has a lot of street art as one percent of a project’s contract has to be used to provide art.  This looks like a clothesline clip or two lovers embracing.

Our guide showed us interesting architecture including this Art Deco building.

Our guide showed us several murals done by the Mural Arts Program.  As we had learned before, the city found that painting over graffiti just gave the artists a clean surface to paint again.  The goal was to provide a good outlet for the artists to the betterment of the city.  They started by inviting graffiti artists to participate but it took awhile to build trust.  It eventually became a successful partnership and now includes elementary and secondary students and an array of artists, both street and more traditional. Our guide had been a participant as a student and instructor.

We didn’t eat at Mac Mart on our tour but how did we not visit a restaurant specializing in Mac & Cheese?

We did get to choose cookies at Insomnia Cookies – a franchise begun in Philadelphia by college students trying to stay awake to study.

We had chicken and donuts at Federal Donuts.  On vacation, you enjoy the unusual!

In Baltimore we had been introduced to sites related to B&O Railroad.  In Philadelphia it was the Reading Railroad.

This was what the terminal looked like in old days.

This is it now. 

We walked through here on our way to Reading Terminal Market, active since 1894.

This pig is a donation collector.  You put spare change and bills in his mouth and it falls and collects at the other end.

We had a couple food items in the market.

We concluded with ice cream from Bassets, operating since 1861.

The next morning we had an uneventful trip to the airport (no flat tire) and uneventful flight home. It was a good and interesting trip.

We added four states to our map: Maryland, West Virginia, Delaware and New Jersey.  We have six to go! Where will we go next year? Connecticut seems to be the only one that could be easily paired with a Mariners or Diamondbacks road trip to New York City. I’ll start planning when the 2025 schedule comes out!

We were in Philly in May 2024.