Philadelphia - Day Tripper Guide
# 079-Independence Mall, Day Tripper Self-Guided Tour
Tap on map below and watch a 3-minute summary of the tour, narrated with an adaptation of Ben Franklin's autobiography. At the end of the video, scroll down for instructions and directions that will guide through this self-guided walking tour as you as you walk the tour. The copy of the autobiography, will also be available at each stop, which you can refer to throughout.
|
|
This 6-city block tour will cover, what at the time, the developed property, that make up Philadelphia. In 1723, more of a village than the largest city in North America which it would become in the next 50 years. The tour will identify 6 events, as Ben remembered them in his autobiography. Adapted from that autobiography, this narration will, tell in Ben's own words, what he thought at each stop along the way. In all of these stops, the narrator will read from Ben's autobiography and tell us about Ben's thoughts and experiences in his 1st day in Philadelphia. At each stop, you will find a map that will direct you to the location where the event accrued. |
|
Begin your self-guided tour at the Penns Landing Waterfront Parking lot. Map below, will show you the: Waterfront Parking" lot entrance off of S. Christopher Columbus Blvd. yellow circle #1 on the map
From the parking lot, make you way to the river viewing deck just a short walk toward the river. You are now just east of at the spot where the Market Street Wharf was located in 1723. The entire Peens Landing and I95 area, has been filed in to create the Penns Landing Park in the 70's. You are, as close as possible, to the spot where Ben 1st stepped foot in Philadelphia.
From the parking lot, make you way to the river viewing deck just a short walk toward the river. You are now just east of at the spot where the Market Street Wharf was located in 1723. The entire Peens Landing and I95 area, has been filed in to create the Penns Landing Park in the 70's. You are, as close as possible, to the spot where Ben 1st stepped foot in Philadelphia.
Follow Ben on his 1st look at the City of Philadelphia. At each stop you will find a sketch of Ben, visualizing what he experienced at that time in the story and a current street map to guide you to the location where that item accrued.
Stop #1 Ben arrives at the Market Street Warf
|
Stop #1 Ben arrives at the Market Street Warf
|
I’ll now share more details with you about my first day in Philadelphia so that you may fully appreciate the difference between where I have started and who I have now become. My good clothes were still coming around from New York by sea. Thus, I began my life in Philadelphia in my working clothes. I was filthy from my journey.
Every pocket on my person was stuffed with some shirt or stocking. Worst yet, I knew no one, nor where to look for lodging. The boat trip down the Delaware had exhausted me with all me rowing and the lack of sleep. And I was hungry, too. The only cash I had left consist of one Dutch dollar and a shilling in copper. I gave the copper to the boatman to pay for my passage. He refused it saying that I have rowed too much to be a paying passenger, but I insisted he take it. You know, a man is sometimes more generous when he's almost broke than when he has plenty of money, probably for fear of being thought poor.
Follow the map below, walking west (blue line) up Market Street to 2nd, turn south down 2nd to a Bakery, puffy rolls. Continuing west on Market, pass the Read house, where Ben saw Deborah, his future wife. Turning south on 4th to Walnut, turning east on Walnut where Ben made his way to the Market street wharf where he began.
|
|
I walked a good way up the street observing all the activity and I met a boy with some bread. I asked him where he got it, as I have made many a meal on bread and I followed his directions immediately to the baker on second street. Knowing only to ask for what we had in Boston, I asked for a biscuit, but they didn’t make such in Philadelphia. I then asked for another Boston bread, the three-penny loaf, but was again told they had no such thing. Having no clue as to the difference in money, the makes of bread, nor the best value for the money, I gave the baker three pennies’ worth of my money and asked for bread. In return, he gave me three puffy roles. I was surprised at the quantity but took them anyway. Having no room left in my pockets, I walked off with one roll under each arm while eating a third.
Thus, I went up Market Street as far as Fourth Street, passing by the home of the Read family where my future wife, Deborah, lived. She stood at thew door as I passed by, and her expression suggested to me that I must have looked pretty ridiculous-an assessment with which I could not disagree.
Heading south on Fourth, I looked down Chestnut Street as I passed and continued to Walnut Street, turning east, eating my roll all the way.
Ultimately, I came back around to the place on Market Street wharf where I first arrived and took a good drink from the river. My stomach now filled by one of the rolls, I gave the other two to a woman and her child who had come down the river in the boat with us and were waiting to go further.
Feeling refreshed, I walked back up the street and found a crowd of neatly dressed people all walking in the same direction. I followed them closely and ended up in the great Quaker meeting house near the market.
I sat down among them, waiting for something to happen but it stayed quiet. My lack of sleep caught up with me as I sat there and I fell fast asleep. Apparently, I slept through the entire gathering and one of the Quakers was kind enough to wake me up as everyone began to disperse. Thus, the Quakers were the first to extend me hospitality when I arrived in Philadelphia.
Ben walking west from the Market Street wharf , would have viewed this seen as he walked up Market street, the meeting house on the southwest corner and the Courthouse in the middle of Market
Oil Painting of Friends Meeting House and Old Courthouse by William Brenton
Hotels near Independence National Historical Park:
- Kimpton Hotel Monaco Philadelphia 433 Chestnut St,
- Renaissance Downtown 401 Chestnut Street
- Society Hill Hotel at Independence Park 301 Chestnut
- Best Western Plus 235 Chestnut Street
- Apple Hostels of Philadelphia 32 Bank Street
Restaurants near Independence National Historical Park :
Independence Beer Garden 100 S Independence Mall
Independence Beer Garden 100 S Independence Mall
- Red Owl Tavern 433 Chestnut Street
- Frieda 320 Walnut Street
- European Republic 213 Chestnut Street
- Amada 217-219 Chestnut Street
- Lucha Cartel 207 Chestnut Street