Revolutionary War Historic Core

Congress Hall sits at the corner of Chestnut and Sixth Streets, marked by its distinctive red brick facade and a modest wooden cupola. This building served as the meeting place for the United States Congress from seventeen ninety to…

The red brick facade of Independence Hall features a wooden steeple that reaches high above Chestnut Street. This is where the Pennsylvania State House served as the meeting place for the Second Continental Congress. Inside the Assembly…

The glass pavilion housing the Liberty Bell features a massive, floor-to-ceiling window that frames the spire of Independence Hall in the background. The bell arrived in Philadelphia in seventeen fifty-two, arriving cracked after its very…

The two-story brick building with the white-painted trim and the cupola sitting atop its roof is Carpenters' Hall. Completed in seventeen seventy-four, it began as the guild house for the city's master carpenters. When the First…

The steel frames rising above the red brick paving outline the footprint of the home Benjamin Franklin built but never fully lived in. Franklin spent years abroad in London and Paris while this house sat vacant, his wife Deborah managing…

The white wooden steeple of Christ Church rises two hundred feet above Second Street, topped by a bright, gilded weathercock. This building replaced a smaller brick structure in seventeen twenty-seven, serving the prominent families of…

The Betsy Ross House is a small, brick structure on Arch Street with shutters painted a distinctive shade of colonial blue. It served as an upholstery shop in the seventeen seventies. While local legend claims Betsy Ross sewed the first…

Elfreth's Alley consists of thirty-two houses squeezed onto a narrow lane, their colorful shutters and brick facades dating back to the early eighteenth century. Artisans, blacksmiths, and mariners once lived in these cramped quarters,…