Well this is another gem taken from the vault of memories not yet written on. After going over updating many older posts in my blog, and what a thrill it has been!! I found out not written on this City yet, This is my old stumping grounds while living in New Jersey, we used to go there every week selling to grocery stores with my Dad ; memories forever, Of course, no picture taken in those days so this post will in my black and white series ,no pictures, Therefore, let me tell you another of my nostalgic posts this time on this is Philadelphia !!! Hope you enjoy the post as I.
I lived in Perth Amboy, Middlesex County, Central New Jersey (see posts) ,but stuck up between Philadelphia and New York City was awesome,,I first end up in the City when I got lost on my first driver’s licence day out coming back home end up in Philly !! Then, later my Dad Elio had a misc sundry lines of products selling to grocery stores all over including Philly, We drove a lot around Broad and Market Streets in town, and the flash memories has remained even if goes back to 1975-76. I like to tell you more of Philadelphia for the memories of always and another gem kept in my blog, which after all is my life’s history as told,
The City of Philadelphia , aka Philly, is located in the state of Pennsylvania (PA) , located between New York (94 miles) and Washington D.C.(142 miles), and 73 miles from my old home as above, The name of the city, chosen by William Penn, means “fraternal friendship” in Greek, because it was to be an island of religious tolerance. Founded in 1682, it was, until 1790, the most populous city in North America. Between 1774 and 1800, the United States Congress met in several places, most often in Philadelphia, making it the country’s provisional capital, until Washington became the final capital. The city center has followed an orthogonal plan since its foundation; It forms a quadrilateral delimited in the east by the delaware river to the north by Vine Street, to the west by Schuylkill and in the South by South Street. The center of this quadrilateral is occupied by the City/town hall. This building is located in the axis of two streets, Broad Street and Market Street, which cut themselves at right angles like a cardo and a Roman Decumanus.
From the 18C, Philadelphia has many historic monuments and cultural places. Most concentrates east of the Center City within the National Historical Park Independence, Some date back to the colonial era and are built of red bricks in the Georgian or federal style (Congress Hall, Independence Hall, Old City Hall, Carpenters’ Hall, Library Hall, Christ Church, St. George’s United Methodist Church); Others have been erected during or after the American revolution and adopt a neo-classical style (First Bank of the United States, Second Bank of the United States, Merchants ’Exchange). Independence Hall (1732-1753) is one of the few American buildings classified on the UNESCO World Heritage List. The historic park also offers many museums: National Constitution Center, Museum of the American Philosophical Society, Liberty Bell Center, New Hall Military Museum… Several 18C houses are dispersed in the neighborhood: Todd’s House (1775), Betsy Ross House ( 1740), Powell House (1765-1766) and especially the famous Elfreth’s Alley (1720-debut of the 19C) The City/town hall, whose construction began in 1871, adopted a second Empire style, inspired by the Louvre (Paris), with attic rooftops. The Masonic temple rises opposite the City/town hall: it houses the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania, one of the oldest in the country. Several cultural institutions are grouped around the Logan Square: the St Peter and St Paul Cathedral (1864), the Franklin Institute, the Academy of Natural Sciences and the Free Library. We can also note the Benjamin Franklin Parkway inspired by the Champs-Élysées in Paris and which connects the Logan Square to the Philadelphia Museum of Art. The Academy of Music was drawn by the French architect Napoleon Le Brun (1857). Finally, the Tadeusz Kościuszko National Memorial (1775–1776) and the Gloria Dei Church (the oldest church in the city). The principal, Fairmount Park, is located along the Schuylkill River and the Wissahickon Creek, northwest of Center City, and extends over 17 km2, or five times the area of the Central Park in New York and twice Bois de Boulogne in Paris. The University of Pennsylvania is one of the oldest and most prestigious in the United States: created by Benjamin Franklin in the 18C, it is part of the famous Ivy League, an informal association bringing together the eight most famous universities in the country Temple University was opened in 1884 , third largest university in the city is that of Drexel, followed by those of Saint-Joseph, and La Salle.
A bit long history I like tell us that before the arrival of Europeans, around 20,000 Amerindians Lenapes, belonging to the Algonquine Nation lived in the Delaware Valley and the village of Shackamaxon was located on the current site of the Kensington district, north of the city center. In 1681, the King of England Charles II granted a charter to William Penn in exchange for the cancellation of a debt that the government owed to his father. By this document, the colony of Pennsylvania was officially founded. William Penn was an English quaker: he belonged to this dissident religious group, persecuted in England, which rejected the ecclesiastical hierarchy and advocated equality, tolerance, non-violence. Pennsylvania
quickly became a refuge for all those who were oppressed for their faith. William Penn thus left for America in 1682 and founded the city of Philadelphia. he bought the land from the Amerindians to establish peaceful relations with them. He would have signed a treaty of friendship with chief Tamanpend in Shackamaxon in 1682.
At the end of the 18C, Philadelphia was the real center of revolutionary lights, especially under the leadership of Benjamin Franklin . This scientist, born in Boston, lived in Philadelphia from 1723 and was one of the founders of the Library Company of Philadelphia (1731), the University of Pennsylvania (1740) and the American Philosophy Society (1743) . In 1752, he invented the lightning rod. In 1728, John Bartram created a botanical garden, the first of this kind in North America. It was also in the 18C that Philadelphia became the main publishing center of the thirteen colonies: the first newspaper, The American Weekly Mercury, appeared in 1719. The Pennsylvania Gazette (1723) played a big role during the American Revolution. In 1739 the first treaty against slavery was published and the city became one of the country’s anti-slavery centers. In the 1760s it opened a school of anatomy, a medical school in 1765 and, the following year, a permanent theater. It was in 1790 that the Law School of the University of Pennsylvania was inaugurated, the oldest law school in the United States . Several artists of the city founded in 1794 the Columbianum, which then constituted the first company for the promotion of Fine Arts, also, a hospital and a firefighter company in the 1730s; Several banks were founded in the 1780s. The Pennsylvania State House (current Independence Hall), where the colonial assembly sat, was completed in 1753.
In the 1770s, Philadelphia became one of the main homes of the American Revolution. The
sons of Liberty , an organization of American patriots, were very active in the city Philadelphia was chosen because of its central position in the thirteen colonies to welcome the first continental congress, which met from September 5 to October 26, 1774 at Carpenter Hall. The second continental congress held between 1775 and 1781, the date of the ratification of the articles of the Confederation. During the war of independence, this assembly organized the continental army, emitted paper currency and took care of the country’s international relations. The delegates signed the declaration of independence on July 4, 1776. A constitutional convention met in Philadelphia in 1781 in order to write a constitution. This text, organizing the institutions of the new country, was signed at Independence Hall in September 1787. It was in the Congress Hall that the Declaration of Rights was drawn up in 1790, the first ten amendments to the American Constitution. In 1876, Philadelphia welcomed the first universal exhibition organized on American soil (the Centennial International Exhibition. It commemorated the centenary of the Declaration of Independence and held in the Fairmount Park, near the Schuylkill River. Among the innovations that were shown to the public, we can cite the phone of Alexander Graham Bell, the Remington typewriter, the Ketchup Heinz, the rootte (or Root Beer), or the PLC watchmaking and the watch chain (Waltham Watch Company). In 1903, Mother Jones organizes one of the first demonstrations against child labor in the
United States in Philadelphia, thousands of immigrants from Germany, Italy, Italy, Italy, Italy, Italy From Ireland and Eastern Europe came to work in the city industries at the turn of the 20C and gathered in distinct districts. During the Great War or WWI, the arrival of African-Americans fleeing the racial segregation of the South modified the structure of the population. With the development of rail transport and then the metro in 1907, and the automobile, the middle classes began to leave the city center to reside in the suburbs.
The City of Philadelphia on transports : https://www.phila.gov/services/cars-parking-transportation/
The City of Philadelphia on its heritage : https://www.phila.gov/departments/philadelphia-historical-commission/philadelphia-historic-districts/
The Philadelphia tourist office : https://www.visitphilly.com/
The USA tourist office on Philadelphia : https://www.visittheusa.co.uk/experience/rich-history-and-exceptional-art-experiences-await-philadelphia-pennsylvania
There you go folks , a nostalgic spot in my world map has a post and I feel good about it. Philadelphia was part of my early life in the USA, memories forever. Good timing they won the Super Bowl LIX !! Again, hope you enjoy the post on this is Philadelphia as I!
And remember, happy travels, good health, and many cheers to all !!!
Paris1972-Versailles2003 