Guides · Philadelphia
Philadelphia
158 places · 20 areas · a free route, then $4.99 for the whole city · offline map 23.9 MB
The free route
Free in the app, permanently, before you pay anything. 8 stops, 1 day, about 3 km, planned by the app's own engine.
Day 1 · ~3 km
1
LOVE Park
Robert Indiana's sculpture, a rebuilt plaza, and a generation of skateboarders who were thrown out of it
Take LOVE Park for Robert Indiana's LOVE sign, the most photographed four letters in the city.
2
Philadelphia City Hall
The world’s tallest load-bearing masonry building, and for decades nothing rose higher than Penn’s hat
Take City Hall, the enormous Second Empire pile at the centre of the city, and ride up to the tower beneath William Penn.
3
Masonic Temple
Seven lodge halls, each in a different revival style, behind a Norman facade
Take a tour of the Masonic Temple on Broad Street, seven lodge halls each built in a different style.
4
Reading Terminal Market
Under the old train shed since 1893, with Amish farmers in from Lancaster County
Give Reading Terminal Market a long wander, one of the country's great public markets, under the old train shed.
5
Chinatown
A neighbourhood the expressway cut through, that has since fought off a stadium, a prison and an arena
Walk Chinatown around Race and 10th, a dense quarter of restaurants, groceries and community that dates to the 1870s.
6
Liberty Bell Center
A cracked state bell that abolitionists renamed and gave its meaning to
Read the exhibition on the way in instead of walking past it to the bell. The crack is the least interesting thing here; the reason the object matters is that abolitionists in the 1830s picked an obscure cracked state bell, named it the Liberty Bell, and made it mean the thing the country had not yet done.
7
Independence Hall
The room where the Declaration and the Constitution were argued into existence
In the Assembly Room, find the sun carved on the back of the presiding chair — Franklin said he had spent the convention wondering whether it was rising or setting, and decided at the end that it was rising. Both the Declaration and the Constitution were argued out in that room, eleven years apart; through the summer of 1787 the delegates kept the windows shut so nobody outside could hear.
8
Washington Square
A burial ground first and a park second, with the trenches still under the grass
Walk to the Tomb of the Unknown Revolutionary War Soldier, then look back across the grass: the mass trenches ran the width of the square along Seventh and Walnut, and bodies still come up when the ground is opened. In the north-east corner, look for a plaque rather than a tree — the first official Moon Tree grew there from an Apollo 14 seed, died, and its replacement died too.
More of the top sights
A few of the 158 places in the full guide. Each one has its own written guide in the app: what to do, what to notice, the history, and why it hits.
Eastern State Penitentiary
Built to make men repent in solitude; the solitary system drove them mad and the world copied it anyway
Philadelphia Museum of Art
A Greek temple in golden Kasota stone, with an arms and armour hall and a Duchamp
Boathouse Row
About fifteen Victorian boathouses outlined in light, and the rowing clubs that still use them every morning
Philadelphia's Magic Gardens
Half a block of mosaic built out of tile, bottles and bicycle wheels over thirty years
Rittenhouse Square
The one square that became what Penn intended, and the diagonal paths are the reason
The 9th Street Italian Market
Awnings and fire barrels over a century-old open-air market, Italian, Mexican and Vietnamese now
Penn Museum
A colossal sphinx, and collections dug up in an era whose ethics the museum now must answer for
South Street
The street the crosstown expressway would have destroyed, saved by the people who lived on it
Barnes Foundation
Barnes hung the pictures himself and his will said never move them; a court moved them here anyway
Areas
Independence National Historical Park · Old City · Society Hill & Head House Square · The Delaware Riverfront · Washington Square West & the Gayborhood · Chinatown, Franklin Square & Market East · City Hall & Penn Square · Broad Street & the Avenue of the Arts · Rittenhouse Square · Logan Square & the Parkway · Fairmount & Eastern State · Boathouse Row & East Fairmount Park · West Fairmount Park · Spring Garden & North Broad · Northern Liberties & Fishtown · South Street & Bella Vista · Queen Village & Southwark · The Italian Market & East Passyunk · University City · Germantown
Illustrations are drawn for the app. Place descriptions are written by hand and checked against a primary source; facts draw on Wikidata (CC0) and Wikipedia (CC BY-SA). Maps © OpenStreetMap contributors.