The bedraggled teenager had just arrived in Philadelphia, a young boom town in 1723 compared to old, established Boston, the city of his birth. He had little money, few clothes and no friends here. As he walked by a young woman standing in her father’s doorway, she thought he made “a most awkward, ridiculous appearance.”
The 17-year-old wandered the streets, eating a loaf of bread, until he saw a group of well-dressed people walking with purpose. He followed them into the main Quaker meeting house and sat down.
“Being very drowsy thro’ Labor & want of Rest the preceding Night, I fell fast asleep, and continu’d so till the Meeting broke up, when one was kind enough to rouse me,” he recalled several decades later in his autobiography. “This was therefore the first House I was in or slept in, in Philadelphia.”
Things turned out all right for Benjamin Franklin. The young woman, Deborah Read, became his wife, and his printing business prospered so mightily that he was rich enough to retire at age 42. He then devoted the rest of his life to philosophy, science, civic improvements and the cause of American independence.
Things haven’t turned out too badly for Philadelphia, either. True, it has suffered its share of blows. After a brief spell as the nation’s capital and largest city at the end of the 18th Century, it has steadily moved down the column of America’s biggest cities, now ranking fifth with a population of 1.5 million. Its glamor quotient dropped accordingly, famously becoming the butt of W.C. Fields’ crack about spending a week here one day.
But compared to the frayed and fusty city of the 1980s and early 1990s, today’s spiffed-up Philadelphia is enjoying a renaissance of sorts, thanks in part to such recent additions as the National Constitution Center and the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts. The city whose gaze once seemed permanently fixed on the past is in the midst of installing a wireless computer network that will knit its neighborhoods together into one big hotspot. And in stark contrast to decades past, it has developed a sophisticated and diverse restaurant scene that goes far beyond the traditional standbys of seafood and cheese steaks.
As much as the city seems to be embracing the 21st Century, however, Philadelphia’s chief claim on the national imagination still rests on its role as the nation’s nursery. Here was where Americans declared their independence on July 4, 1776, at the graceful colonial statehouse on Chestnut Street. And, meeting in the same hall 11 years later, here was where the delegates of the 13 original states figured out how the young country should govern itself, producing the U. S. Constitution during a long, hot summer of contentious negotiations.
And then, of course, there’s Franklin, the city’s most famous resident. Despite the fact that he had the temerity to be born in Boston and spent many years in England and France, the printer-patriot considered Philadelphia his home from the time of that first nap in the meeting house until his death 67 years later in 1790.
It is Franklin’s start in life, not his death, that will be celebrated here next year, when the city honors the 300th anniversary of his birth on Jan. 17, 1706. The metropolitan area’s historic sites, cultural attractions and restaurants are planning a wide variety of events, including special exhibits, programs, tours and menus. And hotels are hoping to attract visitors with package deals and special rates.
At the center of the celebrations is an exhibit at the National Constitution Center, “Benjamin Franklin: In Search of a Better World,” which includes copies of the Declaration of Independence and the U. S. Constitution signed by Franklin, more than 250 original artifacts and a variety of interactive displays, including a 25-foot ship in which museum-goers can re-create the ever-curious Franklin’s experiments in charting the Atlantic Ocean’s Gulf Stream.
Opened in 2003, the center stands at the northern end of Independence Mall, a swath of parkland where the Liberty Bell sits enshrined in a pavilion across the street from Independence Hall, where it once hung in the hall’s bell tower.
The National Constitution Center (see If You Go for details) pays tribute to the world’s oldest written charter of government still in effect. Visitors first watch a live presentation, “Freedom Rising,” in the center’s theater-in-the-round about how the Constitution was written and what it has meant to the development of American democracy. Interactive displays allow people to be sworn in as president, slip on the robes of a Supreme Court Justice, or explore the branches of government through detailed models and video animation.
But the most impressive part of the high-tech museum involves no flashing lights or moving parts. Assembled in a single room called Signers’ Hall are 42 life-sized metal statues of the delegates who were present at the signing of the Constitution on Sept. 17, 1787.
Signers’ Hall makes real the oft-stated truth that the Constitutional Convention brought together an extraordinary collection of talents, including George Washington, James Madison, Alexander Hamilton and, of course, Franklin, whose statue sits in a chair with the wooden-legged Gouverneur Morris leaning over him, as if to hear what the 81-year-old man is saying.
Staff interpreter Bill Lynskey easily fields the questions that these variously sized figures raise: How accurate are they? The statues are based on the best information available. Who was the tallest delegate? Morris, at 6-foot-3, with Washington, who was a half-inch shorter, in second place. Who was the shortest? Madison, at 5-foot-4.
Independence Hall (see If You Go for details), originally the Pennsylvania provincial Capitol building and now the centerpiece of colonial Philadelphia, stands as one of the supreme symbols of American liberty. But in a terrorism-conscious age that status has resulted in such tight security that access to the building where freedom was proclaimed is anything but free.
Visitors first have to clear airport-style security in a dingy bunker-like building before walking along a barricaded path to the Liberty Bell pavilion, where the famously cracked bell is positioned in front of a plate-glass window so that Independence Hall dramatically rises up behind it. After that, another set of barricades prevents visitors from crossing Chestnut Street to reach the hall. Park rangers must escort visitors across the street to make sure they don’t mingle with ordinary pedestrians.
But the prospects for a freer environment around the hall improved when the National Park Service, bowing to pressure from local businesses and other groups, recently announced that it will do away with most of the barricades. Instead, the service will set up separate screening facilities for the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall, allowing for greater freedom of movement in and around the Mall.
After touring the elegant, Georgian hall and seeing where the nation’s two most important founding documents were signed, don’t overlook Congress Hall, a recently renovated building next door. The U.S. Congress met here from 1790 to 1800 while permanent quarters were under construction in Washington, in the newly created District of Columbia.
The two-story hall–the House of Representatives met on the spacious ground floor, while the smaller Senate used an upstairs chamber–was the scene of George Washington’s second inauguration in 1793, the adoption of the Bill of Rights and, most important for the young nation, the inauguration of John Adams in 1797. That marked the first transition of power from one president to another.
“Independence Hall is where the U. S. Constitution was written, but this is where the Constitution was tested,” said National Park Ranger Mark Cosgrove.
Although there are plenty of historic destinations in Philadelphia, one of the pleasures of a visit to the city is to wander aimlessly through Old City and Society Hill, the neighborhoods closest to the Delaware River. These were the first areas to develop following the city’s founding by William Penn in 1682, and they still retain much of their colonial charm, with blocks of red brick rowhouses and narrow, cobblestone alleys. It’s no great feat of the imagination to think of Franklin walking from Christ Church, the Episcopal church where he worshipped, back to his house off Market Street.
Unfortunately, the house itself was demolished in 1812, but for the 1976 Bicentennial, architect Robert Venturi designed a steel “ghost” framework that suggests the dimensions of the original structure. Viewing portals set into the ground allow visitors to see remnants of the house’s foundations, and an adjacent museum tells the story of Franklin’s life and displays many of his practical-minded inventions, such as the Franklin stove, bifocal glasses and a library chair that converts into a stepladder. (Franklin Court, 316-322 Market St.; 215-965-2305; free admission)
Of course, there’s more to Philadelphia than Franklin. Touring the colonial side of the city is fascinating, yet it would be a shame to miss some of the other attractions in Center City, as the business district is called, or nearby neighborhoods. But don’t expect to escape Franklin just because you’re not staring at an 18th Century rowhouse.
To reach the Philadelphia Museum of Art, for instance, you travel along a wide boulevard called the Benjamin Franklin Parkway. This world-class, encyclopedic museum is hosting a traveling exhibition of lush green landscape paintings by the 17th Century Dutch painter Jacob van Ruisdael through Feb. 5. On the museum’s upper floor is one of the most famous images of Franklin, a bust by French artist Jean-Antoine Houdon, sculpted from life during Franklin’s stay in Paris as an American emissary during the Revolutionary War. (26th Street and Benjamin Franklin Parkway; 215-763-8100; www.philamuseum.org; $12 admission)
Music lovers should stop by the stunning Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts (300 S. Broad St.; 215-790-5800 or, for tickets, 215-893-1999; www.kimmelcenter.org), completed in 2001 at a cost of $265 million. Designed by Rafael Vinoly, the center’s large, glass-enclosed atrium holds two free-standing performance spaces: a large concert hall shaped like a cello and pan-eled in dark wood, and a smaller theater for chamber works and dance. The center is the home of the Philadelphia Orchestra, one of America’s “big five” symphony orchestras, which, to prove that Franklin is truly inescapable these days, recently premiered a four-movement work called “Ben” by the young American composer Daniel Kellogg.
One movement featured music for Franklin’s glass armonica, an instrument played by rubbing a moistened finger along the rim of a glass partially filled with water. The sound it produces is ethereal, even celestial, and that suggests a final stop for any Franklin-phile–Christ Church burial ground (Arch and 5th Streets; 215-922-1695; www.oldchristchurch.org; $2 admission). Franklin is one of five signers of the Declaration of Independence buried here. The long-closed burial ground reopened to visitors two years ago, but even after it closes for the day, Franklin’s corner plot is visible through an iron fence.
Pennies dot the slab marker, tossed there by visitors in tribute to Franklin’s aphorism, “A penny saved is a penny earned.” For such a prolific producer of words, the inscription on the marker is notably simple: his name, his wife’s name and the date 1790 (although Deborah Franklin died in 1774). That is in keeping with his instructions, but years before a much younger Franklin had composed a more elaborate epitaph that seems better suited to America’s original high-spirited Everyman:
“The Body of B. Franklin, Printer, like the cover of an old book, its contents torn out and [stripped] of its lettering and gilding, lies here, food for worms. But the work shall not be lost, for it will, as he believed, appear once more in a new and more elegant edition, corrected and improved by the Author.”
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soswanson@tribune.com
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IF YOU GO
FRANKLIN’S TRICENTENNIAL
The National Constitution Center’s exhibit “Benjamin Franklin: In Search of a Better World” will be on display until April 30. It will then travel to St. Louis, Houston, Denver, Atlanta and Paris. (525 Arch St.; 215-409-6600; www.constitutioncenter.org; adult admission $14 including exhibit, $9 otherwise)
The Franklin Institute, Philadelphia’s science museum, will hold its annual Franklin birthday celebration on Jan. 14, featuring cake, a giant birthday card and re-enactments of some of Franklin’s most famous experiments. The museum has a permanent exhibit, “Franklin: He’s Electric!,” that explores the famous tinkerer’s scientific legacy, and in January, it will debut a new live electricity show called “Sparks!” (222 N. 20th St.; 215-448-1200; www.fi.edu; adult admission $13.75)
The Rosenbach Museum and Library is displaying a selection of Poor Richard’s Almanacs produced by Franklin in pre-Revolutionary Philadelphia. The exhibit, “Benjamin Franklin’s Poor Richard: Anatomy of an Almanac,” runs until March 19. (2008-2010 Delancey Pl.; 215-732-1600; www.rosenbach.org; adult admission $8–free on Tuesdays )
For complete lists of events, go to www.benfranklin300.org and www.gophila.com/Go/Ben/.
LIFE, LIBERTY AND THE PURSUIT OF TICKETS
Although admission to Independence Hall is free, visitors need timed and dated tickets, which can be picked up on the day of your visit at the Independence Visitor Center (see Lodging) starting at 8:30 a.m. The first tour is at 9 a.m. Tickets go fast during the peak tourist season. Tickets also can be reserved up to a year in advance by calling the National Park Reservation Service at 800-967-2283 or visiting reservations.nps.gov; reserved tickets are $1.50 each. (6th and Chestnut Streets; 215-965-2305; www.nps.gov/inde)
LODGING
Check the Greater Philadelphia Tourism Marketing site (www.gophila.com), under the “Places to Stay” section, which includes a search engine. The site also lists the more than 30 hotels offering “Ben’s Birthday” packages from mid-December through the end of April. The packages include a room, tickets to the National Constitution Center exhibit, and discounts at restaurants, shops and attractions.
The Independence Visitor Center (6th and Market Streets on Independence Mall; 800-537-7676 or 215-965-7676; www.independencevisitorcenter.com) also has lodging information and staff to help make reservations.
DINING
The standby among traditional seafood restaurants is Old Original Bookbinders (125 Walnut St.; 215-925-7027; www.bookbinders.biz), which opened in 1865.
To get an idea of the sort of fare that Ben Franklin and his fellow Founders might have enjoyed, try City Tavern (138 2nd St.; 215-413-1443; www.citytavern.com), a rebuilt version of a restaurant that opened in 1773. John Adams called the original “the most genteel tavern in America.”
The indigenous artery-clogging culinary delight is the cheese steak, sliced steak served in a submarine bun with your choice of provolone or American cheese or Cheez Whiz (no kidding). Two favorites in South Philly, the traditionally Italian neighborhood south of Center City, are Pat’s King of Steaks (1237 E. Passyunk Ave.; 215-468-1546; www.patskingofsteaks.com) and Geno’s Steaks (1219 S. 9th St.; 215-389-0659; www.genosteaks.com).
Jim’s Steaks (400 South St.; 215-928-1911; www.jimssteaks.com) is closer to historic Philadelphia sites, as well as the funky clothing shops and other trendy stores on South Street.
There’s a lively restaurant row on 2nd Street between Market and Chestnut Streets and on Chestnut Street running west from 2nd Street in the Old City neighborhood. Among restaurants with a high buzz factor, Buddakan (325 Chestnut St.; 215-574-9440; www.buddakan.com) is currently one of the hottest spots in Philly. A 10-foot golden Buddha dominates the restaurant, which specializes in Asian fusion cuisine.
In the area around the University of Pennsylvania campus, the White Dog Cafe (3420 Sansom St.; 215-386-9224; www.whitedog.com) bills itself as the home of “food, fun and social activism.” The food is eclectic American made with locally grown, sustainably produced ingredients.
Finally, no self-respecting food-lover should miss the Reading Terminal Market (12th and Arch Streets; 215-922-2317; www.readingterminalmarket.com), a food market where you can buy produce, meat, baked goods, seafood–you name it–or sit down at one of several diner-style restaurants in a setting where food has been sold since 1892. Many Pennsylvania Dutch come in from nearby Lancaster County to sell their produce, baked goods and meat here.
INFORMATION
The best general tourism Web sites are the aforementioned www.independencevisitorcenter.com and www.gophila.com. To receive trip-planning information, call 877-334-2238.
–Stevenson Swanson
