The Museum of the American Revolution.
U.S. Constitution Center Signers’ Hall, with bronze statues of the 39 signers and 3 dissenters.
Center directly across Chestnut Street from Independence Hall, the home of flag sewer Betsy Ross, and the reconstructed City Tavern where politicians once debated and businessmen struck deals. The President’s House Site is an open-air outline and base of Washington’s and John Adams’ home while serving as first and second Commander in Chief. Today, plaques pay homage to the enslaved workers who lived there during Washington’s presidency. In Franklin Court, steel beams serve as an outline of what was Benjamin Franklin’s three-story home. A museum highlights his life, inventions, and accomplishments as the foremost diplomat and statesman during colonial times, the American Revolution and during the early years of our nation. Georgian-style Christ Church is where Washington, Franklin, and other founding fathers attended services with plaques marking their pews. Just a few blocks away, the church’s cemetery is the final resting place of five signers of the Declaration of Independence, including Franklin, whose grave is at the corner of Arch and 5th streets, where passersby toss coins onto it. In a twist of sorts, Philadelphia’s U.S. Mint directly across Arch Street has the capacity to pound out up to 32 million coins a day. To see an authentic example of colonial Philadelphia, I stop at Elfreth’s Alley, the nation’s oldest residential street, where modern-day Philadelphians still reside in the more than 200-300 year-old brick rowhouses. “Within the bounds of modern living, I try to respect the history of the house,” says Brenda Frank, a resident of one of the homes since 1990. “I feel a responsibility to keep it as original as possible.
The Second Bank of the United States.
the country’s first Secretary of the Treasury. Just a block away stands the Greek temple-like Second Bank of the United States, now a gallery with portraits of our early presidents and other colonial-era people painted by the likes of Gilbert Stuart, Thomas Sully, and Charles Willson Peale, among others. Nearby Carpenters’ Hall with its rounded white tower and cupola was completed by the nation’s oldest trade guild in 1773. Just a year later, however, it was the meeting place of the First Continental Congress, where representatives of 12 of the 13 original colonies banded together and agreed to boycott British imports. It’s where patriot Patrick Henry was quoted saying, “The distinctions between Virginians, Pennsylvanians, New Yorkers, and New Englanders are no more. I am not a Virginian, but an American.” Independence Hall runs daily tours highlighting its historic chambers where both the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution were debated and signed. In the nearby Constitution Center, I walk amid the bronze statues of the document’s 39 signers and 3 dissenters, including George Washington standing tall behind a desk, Alexander Hamilton with a walking cane and a finger-pointing Benjamin Franklin seated at a table surrounded by fellow delegates. Other historic sites include the Liberty Bell
PHILADELPHIA REVISITED
COAST TO COAST MAGAZINE SPRING 2024 | 11
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