Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, also known as the "City of Brotherly Love," is one of the nation's largest and most historic cities, as well as a major economic center. Founded by Quaker leader William Penn in 1682, the city is located in the southeastern corner of Pennsylvania, at the junction of the Schuylkill and Delaware Rivers.

From the very beginning, the "Quaker City" has played a crucial role in United States history. The largest and most sophisticated city in colonial America, Philadelphia served as the capital of the United States during and after the Revolution. The city has produced many noted statesmen, scholars, athletes, and entertainers, though one of its most notable citizens, Benjamin Franklin, was actually from Boston.

Tourists can visit many landmarks from the Revolutionary War era, such as Independence Hall, the site of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. The city is also home to many art museums, sports stadiums, public parks, and entertainment venues.

Landscape

Philadelphia, with an area of 134 square miles, covers the southeastern corner of Pennsylvania. The city has the same borders as Philadelphia County. There are 630 municipal parks, covering more than ten thousand acres. The Schuylkill and Delaware Rivers meet and flow through Philadelphia, creating an excellent natural freshwater harbor. The city lies generally close to sea level and the city's the highest point is only 440 feet above the sea.

People

According to a 2022 US Census Bureau estimate, Philadelphia has a population of 1,567,258 inhabitants. An estimated 40.1 percent of the 2022 population was Black and 33.5 percent was White, with sizable Hispanic/Latino (15.7 percent) and Asian American (7.6 percent) populations.

Although the city was founded as a haven for Quakers and other persecuted religious groups, Quakers make up only a small proportion of Philadelphia's population. Most inhabitants are Roman Catholic or belong to other Protestant denominations. There is also a sizeable Jewish minority.

Philadelphia has produced famous figures for hundreds of years. Revolutionary War–era figures include flagmaker Betsy Ross. Benjamin Franklin, though a native of Boston, spent most of his life in Philadelphia and is one of the city's best-known inhabitants. Another famous Philadelphian is Grace Kelly, the actress who later became the princess of Monaco.

Famous African Americans from Philadelphia include contralto Marian Anderson and basketball player Wilt Chamberlain.

Economy

The Greater Philadelphia region is one of the nation's economic powerhouses and is especially important to the East Coast. Major industries include health care, higher education, information technology, pharmaceutical manufacturing, financial services, business services, insurance, chemical and aerospace manufacturing, and travel and tourism. The federal government is a major economic presence; employers include the Internal Revenue Service, the Federal Reserve System, and the US Mint. The city and state governments are also top employers.

Until the closure of the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard in 1995, the US Navy had maintained a significant presence in Philadelphia since the late eighteenth century. The Port of Philadelphia is one of the largest freshwater facilities in the world and sees a great deal of traffic from all parts of the globe.

The E. I. Du Pont de Nemours & Company, commonly known as DuPont, headquartered in neighboring Delaware, is one of the region's top employers. The company merged with Dow in 2017 to become DowDuPont.

The city has a well-developed media market, with a number of radio and television stations headquartered there. There are also several daily newspapers, of which the Philadelphia Inquirer is one of the most prestigious.

Philadelphia has been a major educational center since colonial times. The University of Pennsylvania, which dates back to 1751, was the first American university not established to train clergy. It also boasts the nation's first medical and law schools. Temple University, which includes a world-famous hospital, employs 17,000. Thomas Jefferson University is another top regional employer with 20,000 employees. Other colleges and universities include Drexel University, La Salle College, Saint Joseph's University, the University of the Arts, and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.

Landmarks

Philadelphia's long history as a cultural center is reflected in a wide variety of landmarks. Many landmarks relate to the city's rich Revolutionary War history. These include the Betsy Ross House, Independence Hall, and the Liberty Bell. It was at Independence Hall that the Continental Congress signed the Declaration of Independence. Historic military sites include Camp William Penn and Olde Fort Mifflin. The latter was begun by the British in 1772; the site was completed four years later by a group of patriots led by Benjamin Franklin.

Sports facilities include Veterans Stadium, which opened in 1971. For many years, it served as home to the Philadelphia Phillies baseball team and Philadelphia Eagles football team. This has been replaced by a newer facility that serves all of the city's professional teams; in addition to the Phillies and Eagles, the site is home to the Philadelphia 76ers basketball team and Philadelphia Flyers hockey team.

The city has a long tradition of municipal parks, dating back to colonial times. The Zoological Gardens were founded in the mid-nineteenth century.

Philadelphia boasts many important museums, including the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Other major attractions include the Philadelphia Zoological Gardens, a major zoo. There are numerous academic and artistic societies that date back more than two hundred years. These include the American Philosophical Society (1743), the Academy of Natural Sciences (1812), and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (1805). The Franklin Institute, named in honor of Benjamin Franklin, is another important organization. The Atwater Kent Museum of Philadelphia (AKMP), established in 1938, is the city's official historical museum. It holds tens of thousands of objects related to the history of Philadelphia.

History

William Penn, a wealthy English Quaker, founded Pennsylvania in 1681 as a refuge for Quakers and others seeking religious freedom. King Charles II of England gave Penn a royal charter to settle a debt owed to Penn's father, Admiral Sir William Penn. Philadelphia, the new colony's capital, was laid out in 1682 and chartered in 1701. Penn himself visited Pennsylvania from 1682 to 1684, establishing good relations with the local tribes and setting up the colony's system of government. Philadelphia prospered under his liberal policies, and by the mid-1700s had become the leading city of the American colonies.

Philadelphia's prosperity and sophistication, as well as its central location between the northern and southern colonies, made it the natural site for the colonists to meet about their complaints against the British. With the support of leading citizens such as Benjamin Franklin, the First and Second Continental Congresses met in Philadelphia from 1774 to 1776 to discuss American independence. The delegates met in what had been the old Pennsylvania State House, now known as Independence Hall.

The city served as the United States capital during the Revolution and Confederation period (1777–88). Philadelphia hosted the Constitutional Convention of 1787, and served as US capital under the new Constitution from 1790 to 1800. Even after the capital moved to the new city of Washington, DC, in 1800, Philadelphia remained an important banking center, home to the First Bank and Second Bank of the United States.

During the nineteenth century, Philadelphia continued to lead the nation in commercial and cultural developments. Experimental railroad tracks were being laid by 1809, and the city soon became a center of locomotive construction. The nation's first savings and loan association, the Oxford Provident of Frankford, was founded in Philadelphia in 1831. During the American Civil War, Philadelphia provided the Union cause with huge quantities of war material. In 1876, the city hosted a Centennial celebration to honor the one-hundredth anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. The city's industrial strength was fueled by a steady stream of European immigrants, who created tightly knit ethnic neighborhoods.

Philadelphia has undergone urban renewal over the last several decades, after years of decline. This has been particularly noticeable in the downtown district, known as Center City.

Bibliography

Boudreau, George.Independence: A Guide to Revolutionary Philadelphia. Yardley: Westholme, 2011. Print.

City Stats: General Demographic and Economic Data. Philadelphia: Philadelphia City Planning Commission, Jan. 2005. PDF file.

Conn, Steven. Metropolitan Philadelphia: Living with the Presence of the Past. Philadelphia: U of Pennsylvania P, 2011. Digital file.

"Drexel-Led Consortium Releases Research Strategy for Building Philadelphia Regions Climate Resilience." Drexel News, 24 Mar. 2023, drexel.edu/news/archive/2023/May/climate-resilience-research-agenda-for-greater-philadelphia. Accessed 22 Feb. 2024.

Newman, Richard, and James Mueller. Antislavery and Abolition in Philadelphia. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State UP, 2011. Print.

"Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania." QuickFacts, 1 July 2023, www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/philadelphiacitypennsylvania/PST045222. Accessed 22 Feb. 2024.