Fragments of Franklin Court

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 construction and eventually dying here in seventeen seventy-four before he could return for good. When Franklin finally arrived back in Philadelphia, he moved into these rooms with his grandchildren, and the courtyard became his private workshop and experimental laboratory.