Independence & Liberty: Founding Fathers, Cobblestones, and Revolution
A walking trail through the birthplace of the United States—from the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall to Benjamin Franklin's printing press
Philadelphia · 7 stops · 9 min audio · Generated
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1. Independence Hall: The Cradle of American Democracy
520 Chestnut St, Philadelphia, PA 19106
Photo: Seth Miller
Stand here on the brick plaza facing the stately Georgian facade of Independence Hall and gaze up at its white wooden bell tower. You are standing before the crucible of modern democracy. Inside the Assembly Room of this building, then the Pennsylvania State House, delegates from thirteen rebel colonies gathered in the stifling heat of July seventeen seventy-six to break away from the British Empire.
Look at the high arched windows: in June and July of seventeen seventy-six, delegates kept the windows shut tight to prevent British loyalist spies outside on Chestnut Street from eavesdropping on their treasonous debates, enduring suffocating summer heat and clouds of horseflies while hammering out Thomas Jefferson's text.
Eleven years later, in seventeen eighty-seven, the same hall witnessed the contentious Constitutional Convention. In the center stood George Washington's high-backed mahogany chair, carved with a half-sun motif on its crest. When the Constitution was finally signed, Benjamin Franklin remarked that he had wondered all summer whether that sun was rising or setting, but now knew it was a rising sun.
Walk north across the grassy mall to the glass pavilion housing the Liberty Bell.
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2. The Liberty Bell: A Symbol of Abolition and Freedom
526 Market St, Philadelphia, PA 19106
Step inside the glass pavilion and gaze directly at the dark bronze curve and famous jagged hairline crack of the Liberty Bell. Cast in London in seventeen fifty-two for the Pennsylvania State House, this two-thousand-pound bell was commissioned to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of William Penn's Charter of Privileges.
Cast along its crown is the prophetic biblical inscription from Leviticus: Proclaim Liberty Throughout All the Land Unto All the Inhabitants Thereof. Ironically, when the bell first arrived in Philadelphia, it cracked on its very first test ring, requiring two local foundrymen, John Pass and John Stow, to melt it down twice and recast it with extra copper.
The bell became a worldwide icon not during the Revolution, but in the eighteen thirties, when abolitionists battling to end chattel slavery adopted the inscription as their rallying cry and gave it the permanent name the Liberty Bell. The final irreparable crack widened on Washington's Birthday in eighteen forty-six, silencing its clapper forever.
Step outside toward the historic brick halls flanking Chestnut Street.
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3. Congress Hall: Where Two Presidents Took the Oath
Chestnut St & S 6th St, Philadelphia, PA 19106
Stand on the corner of Sixth and Chestnut Streets facing Congress Hall, a handsome two-story red-brick building with dark green shutters. When Philadelphia served as the temporary capital of the young republic from seventeen ninety to eighteen hundred, this very building was the legislative heartbeat of America.
Inside on the second floor sat the United States Senate, where twenty-six senators gathered in a plush carpeted chamber beneath a frescoed plaster ceiling displaying an American eagle. On the ground floor met the House of Representatives, filled with intense oratorical clashes between Alexander Hamilton's Federalists and Thomas Jefferson's Democratic-Republicans.
Here in seventeen ninety-three, George Washington took his second oath of office, delivering the shortest inaugural address in presidential history at just one hundred and thirty-five words. Four years later, John Adams was inaugurated here in the first peaceful, democratic transfer of executive power between two different presidents in modern history.
Walk east along Chestnut Street toward the hidden brick courtyard of Franklin Court.
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4. Franklin Court: Benjamin Franklin's Genius and Ghost Structure
316 Market St, Philadelphia, PA 19106
Walk under the brick archway into the cobblestone courtyard of Franklin Court and look up at the soaring white steel framework tracing the outline of a three-story colonial house against the sky. Because no reliable drawings survived of Benjamin Franklin's original seventeen sixty-five mansion, renowned modernist architect Robert Venturi erected this famous ghost structure in nineteen seventy-six.
Beneath your feet in the courtyard, Franklin lived his final years surrounded by his beloved inventions: his lightning rods, bifocal glasses, flexible urinary catheters, and the armonica, a musical instrument played with wet glass bowls. He designed his library to hold four thousand volumes, then the largest private collection in North America.
In the adjacent print shop, colonial presses clacked out Poor Richard's Almanack and the Pennsylvania Gazette. Franklin always insisted on introducing himself primarily not as a diplomat or statesman, but simply: Benjamin Franklin, Printer.
Exit out to Arch Street and walk toward Christ Church Burial Ground.
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5. Christ Church Burial Ground: The Graves of Giants
5th St & Arch St, Philadelphia, PA 19106
Peer through the iron fence opening at the corner of Fifth and Arch Streets onto the weathered flat marble ledger stone of Benjamin Franklin and his wife Deborah. Notice how the stone is covered with glistening copper pennies tossed by visitors over the railings.
Tossing a penny onto Franklin's grave pays homage to his famous maxim published in Poor Richard's Almanack: A penny saved is two pence clear, later popularised as a penny saved is a penny earned. Tens of thousands of pennies are collected each year from this very slab and donated to historic preservation.
This peaceful acre of sacred ground, established by Christ Church in seventeen nineteen, contains the mortal remains of over four thousand souls. Resting alongside Franklin are four other heroic signers of the Declaration of Independence: Benjamin Rush, Francis Hopkinson, Joseph Hewes, and George Ross.
Turn east along Arch Street toward the historic home of Betsy Ross.
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6. Betsy Ross House: Seamstress of the Stars and Stripes
239 Arch St, Philadelphia, PA 19106
Stand before the narrow two-and-a-half-story red-brick house at two thirty-nine Arch Street, with its wooden pent eaves and twelve-paned sash windows. This modest colonial dwelling was the upholstery shop and home of Elizabeth Griscom Ross, known across the globe as Betsy Ross.
According to family accounts, in late spring of seventeen seventy-six, George Washington, Robert Morris, and George Ross visited her upholstery parlor with a rough sketch of a national flag featuring six-pointed stars. Betsy demonstrated how to fold a piece of paper and, with a single snip of her shears, create a neat, symmetrical five-pointed star, convincing Washington on the spot.
Betsy was a fiercely independent artisan and Quaker who was read out of the Society of Friends for marrying John Ross, an Anglican. She lost three husbands over the course of the Revolution, yet continued sewing naval banners and bed hangings to support her seven daughters.
Walk around the corner toward the timeless cobblestones of Elfreth's Alley.
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7. Elfreth's Alley: America's Oldest Inhabited Street
126 Elfreth's Alley, Philadelphia, PA 19106
Step onto the smooth river cobblestones of Elfreth's Alley and look down the narrow corridor flanked by thirty-two charming brick townhouses with colorful wooden shutters and wrought-iron boot scrapers. You are standing on the oldest continuously inhabited residential street in America.
Laid out in seventeen zero two by blacksmiths and shipwrights seeking direct access to the Delaware River wharves, this narrow alley has housed working-class artisans for over three centuries: silversmiths, seamstresses, glassblowers, and coopers who built the foundations of Philadelphia's mercantile might.
Notice the tiny fire marks mounted above the doorways: cast-iron plaques from insurance companies indicating that the home's owner had paid for private firefighting protection. During colonial alarms, rival volunteer bucket brigades would check the mark before deciding whether to pump water.
Stroll to the end of the cobblestones where the breeze blows in from the Delaware River. You have traced the very steps where American independence was conceived and forged.
