Philadelphia City Hall is distinguished by the massive, thirty-seven-foot bronze statue of William Penn that crowns its central tower. Rising five hundred forty-eight feet above Penn Square, this Second Empire style structure served as the…
Benjamin Franklin Parkway Classics
Walk along Philadelphia's grand, French-inspired boulevard from City Hall to the Art Museum steps. You'll see famous plazas, historic fountains, and spectacular cultural institutions that highlight the city's civic ambitions.
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1. Philadelphia City Hall
2. JFK Plaza (Love Park)
JFK Plaza is identifiable by the large, colorful aluminum sculpture of the word LOVE, with its signature tilted letter O, perched prominently in the open space. Designed by architect Vincent Kling and city planner Edmund Bacon, the plaza…
3. Cathedral Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul
The Cathedral Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul features a massive, green-patinated copper dome and a formal Palladian facade anchored by four towering stone columns. As the mother church of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Philadelphia,…
4. Logan Square
Logan Square is defined by its central traffic circle, which anchors the Benjamin Franklin Parkway and centers on the Swann Memorial Fountain. As one of the five original public squares laid out by William Penn in sixteen eighty-two, it…
5. The Franklin Institute
The Franklin Institute is a science museum and memorial housed within a massive Classical Revival building that stretches along the Benjamin Franklin Parkway. Founded in eighteen twenty-four by Samuel Vaughan Merrick and William Hypolitus…
6. Barnes Foundation
The Barnes Foundation is recognizable by its exterior of fossilized Israeli limestone and a glowing, cantilevered light box that appears to float above the structure. Established in nineteen twenty-two by Albert Barnes, a chemist who made…
7. Rodin Museum
The Rodin Museum is distinguished by a formal French garden and a limestone building that houses the largest collection of works by Auguste Rodin outside of Paris. A bronze cast of "The Thinker" sits prominently in the entry courtyard,…
8. Philadelphia Museum of Art Steps
Seventy-two stone steps climb toward the east entrance of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, a grand neoclassical facade designed in the nineteen twenties to anchor the top of Fairmount hill. While the architects intended the wide staircase…