Penn's Quaker city of firsts still teaches the republic
Philadelphia—Philly—is Pennsylvania's largest city and the United States' sixth-most populous. William Penn founded it in 1682 for religious freedom; it served as provincial and early national capital. Seventeen four-year colleges and a stack of civic firsts still brand the place.
Lenape people, also called Delaware Indians, lived at the village of Shackamaxon before Europeans came. Dutch colonists built Fort Nassau across the river in 1623, Swedes arrived in 1638, and Peter Stuyvesant seized the Swedish colony in 1655, though its Swedish and Finnish settlers kept their own courts and militia. England captured New Netherland in 1664. In 1681 Charles II granted William Penn a charter to settle a royal debt, and Penn nonetheless bought land from the Lenape and signed a friendship treaty.
Penn wanted a spacious green town with houses separated by gardens and orchards on a grid, but settlers crowded the riverfront and carved up their lots. His Charter of 1701 made it a city, and by the 1750s it had overtaken Boston as British America's largest city and busiest port, second in the empire only to London. Delegates met here for the First Continental Congress in 1774, and the Second Continental Congress, sitting from 1775 to 1781, unanimously adopted the Declaration of Independence, largely drafted by Jefferson in lodgings on Market Street, at the building later named Independence Hall. After Washington's defeat at Brandywine in September 1777, the Liberty Bell was hidden so it could not be melted for munitions.
The city collected firsts: the nation's first library in 1731, hospital in 1751, medical school in 1765, central bank in 1781, stock exchange in 1790, zoo in 1874 and business school in 1881. Learned bodies such as the Academy of Natural Sciences of 1812 and the Franklin Institute of 1824 financed new industries and drew skilled immigrants. Today it holds 67 National Historic Landmarks.
About 1.57 million people lived in the city in 2025. It has 17 four-year colleges, 13 Fortune 500 headquarters and a regional economy of 557.6 billion dollars, more outdoor murals and sculptures than any other American city, and a deep influence on R&B, soul and rock.
Source: Philadelphia
