Historical Markers in
Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania

16"/50 Caliber Mark 7 Gun Barrel Number 293 1900 Rittenhouse Square Apartments 1914-1918 Tribute Trees 2012 Delancey Place 21st Ward Korean and Vietnam War Memorial 21st Ward World War Memorial A Backyard in the Capital City A Day of Reciprocity A Fashionable Promenade A Grand Cultural Boulevard A Home For Art A Home for Art A National Cemetery System A Street Scene in the Capital City A Working-Class House in the Capital City A.M.E. Book Concern Abraham Lincoln Academy of Natural Sciences Address by President Lincoln Aero Memorial Aero Memorial Pillar African American Baseball in Philadelphia African Zoar Methodist Episcopal Church AIDS Library of Philadelphia Albert M. Greenfield Alexander Milne Calder Alfred J. Reach All Wars Memorial to Colored Soldiers and Sailors American Bandstand American Friends Service Committee American Pharmaceutical Association American Philosophical Society American Philosophical Society Hall An Gorta Mór - Ireland's Great Hunger Andrew Hamilton Anne Brancato Wood Anthony J. Drexel Arch Street Friends Arch Street Meeting House Archeology Archeology Methods and Interpretation Arrival and Reception Artillery Artillery Corps Washington Grays Auditor’s Office Site Awarding a Peace Medal Baker Bowl National League Park Baldwin Locomotive Works Barbara Gittings Barry Baruch S. Blumberg Battle of Germantown Monument Battle of Germantown Battle of Germantown Benj. H. Hodgson Benjamin Banneker Institute Benjamin Franklin Benjamin Franklin Benjamin Rush Benjamin Rush Medicinal Plant Garden Benjamin Rush, M.D. Benjamin Smith Barton Berean Institute Bethel Burying Ground Betsy Ross Betsy Ross House Bicentennial Dawn Bicentennial Moon Tree Blackwell House Bladen's Court Booth Maternity Center Brigadier General Smedley D. Butler Broad Street Station Buckley Park Burholme Memorial for Peace Burholme World War I Memorial Busleton Field Byberry Hall C. Delores Tucker Capt. Charles Massey House Capt. Henry J. Biddle Carpenters' Hall Carpenters' Hall Casemates or Bombproofs Casimir Pulaski Caspar Wistar Catherine Hanson Center Square Central Library Charles Allen Smith Charles Mason Charles Thomson Chef Hercules Chestnut Hill and Mount Airy World War II Memorial Chestnut Hill and Mount Airy World War Memorial Christ Church Christ Church Christ Church Christ Church Burial Ground Christian Street Hospital Christian Street YMCA Christopher Saur Christopher Sower Chronology of Benjamin Franklin Church of the Advocate Citadel - 1796 Citizens and Southern Bank Civil War Soldiers And Sailors Memorial Civilian Public Service Cliveden Colonial Herb Garden Commercial Digital Computer Birthplace Commodore David Porter Commodore Isaac Hull Commodore John Barry Commodore John Barry (1745 - 1803) Commodore John Barry, U. S. N. Commodore Uriah Phillips Levy Confederate Burials in the National Cemetery Confederate Soldiers and Sailors Monument Congregation of the Dead Connie Mack Contagion and Liberty Courage of the Scottish Immigrants Cruiser Olympia - Submarine Becuna Crystal Bird Fauset Cyrus Bustill David Bustill Bowser David Rittenhouse David Salisbury Franks Death Carts Declaration Chamber Declaration House Declaration of Independence Declaration of Independence Signators Delplaine House Dewey's Sit-in Don Juan Bautista Bernabeu Doretta A. McMunn Dr. A.S.W. Rosenbach Dr. Constantine Hering Dr. Mary Davis Ridgway Dutch Settlements on the Delaware Eastern State Penitentiary Ebenezer Don Carlos Bassett Ebenezer Maxwell Mansion Eddie Gottlieb Eddie Lang Edgar Allen Poe National Historic Site Edith "Edie" Windsor Edmund N. Bacon Edward Drinker Cope Elfreth's Alley Elisha Kent Kane Elizabeth Taylor Greenfield Elliott Building Engine Company No. 11 ENIAC Exiles for Conscience Sake Expert Fishers of Fort Mifflin Fairman’s Mansion Fairmount Dam Fairmount Water Works Fairmount Water Works Father Divine Fawcitt House Site Federal Street Burial Ground Female Medical College of Pennsylvania First African Baptist Church First African Baptist Church Cemetery First African Presbyterian Church First Bank of the United States First Continental Congress First Mennonite Church in America First Protest against Slavery First Republican National Convention First Unitarian Church of Philadelphia First United States Mint Forbidden Drive Fort Mifflin Fort Mifflin (Mud Fort) on Mud Island Frances E.W. Harper Francis Hopkinson Francis Hopkinson (Philadelphia Home) Francisco de Miranda Frank Furness Frank Gasparro Frank N. Piasecki Franklin Court Franklin Privy Pit Franklin's Neighborhood Fraunces Tavern Frederick Douglass Memorial Hospital Freedom is a Light Freedom Now Rally Freedom Theatre Friends Meeting Friends Select School From Marsh to Solid Ground From Reservoir to Art Museum Gay Rights Demonstrations General George McClellan / Major General John Fulton Reynolds General Hugh Mercer General Stephen Moylan General Tadeusz Kosciuszko George Gordon Meade George Ross German Tricentennial Anniversary Germantown Meetinghouse Gertrude E. H. Bustill Mossell Giannini Family Gilbert Stuart House Giovanni's Room Girl Scout Cookies Glomar Explorer Gloria Dei Church Government Of The People Green Building at Friends Center Green Spaces, Fresh Air Greenbelt Knoll Grumblethorpe Hannah Callowhill Penn Haym Salomon Hector Tyndale Henry George Henry L. Phillips Henry O. Tanner Herman Herzog Hershey’s First Candy Store Historic Burial Grounds Historic Dock Creek Historic Site in Journalism Historic Site in Journalism Historical Society of Pennsylvania History Lost & Found History of Scotland History Where You Least Expect It Holy Trinity Honor the Immortal Dead Hospital & Mess Hall Hotel Brotherhood USA House of Industry House Where Lived in 1791 Alexander Hamilton In Memory of the Many American Soldiers In The Battle of Germantown In This Building Indelible Independence Hall Independence Hall Independence Square Institute For Colored Youth Insurance Company of North America Interred in this church yard are the mortal remains of General Thomas Proctor Ireland's Past - A Prelude to Disaster Israel Goldstein Jack and Jill of America Foundation Jacob Broom Jacob C. White Jr. James Forten James Forten, 1776 - 1842 / Ki-onTwog-Ky or Cornplanter, 1732/40 - 1836 James Madison 4th President lived here James Wilson Jefferson Street Ballparks Jessie Redmon Fauset Joe Venuti John Bartram John C. Asbury John Christian Bullitt John E. Fryer, M.D. John F. Kennedy John J. McDermott John N. Neumann John Nepomuk Maelzel John Page Nicholson John Vallance - Engraver John W. Coltrane John Wanamaker Joseph and Amy Cassey Joseph Bonaparte Joseph Hewes Joseph Huston Julian Francis Abele June 5th Memorial Kahal Kodosh Mikveh Israel Kelpius Community Keys To Community Knowlton Kopernik Landing of the German Colonists Laura Wheeler Waring Laurel Hill Cemetery Laurel Hill Cemetery Laurel Hill Cemetery: A Garden For The Dead Library of the American Philosophical Society Lieutenant Joseph Bonnell Life Under Slavery Linked in Memory Logan Square, Logan Circle Lombard Street Riot London Coffee House Lorenzo L. Langstroth Louis I. Kahn Louisa May Alcott Lower Venice Island Paper Mills Lutheran Publication Society Major William Jackson - 40th Signer of the U.S. Constitution Making The City Beautiful Manayunk Canal Locks 69 & 70 Manayunk Stoops: Heart and Home Manuel Torres Marc Blitzstein Marian Anderson Marian Anderson House Mario Lanza Market Square Mason-Dixon Survey Masonic Temple Philadelphia Mathew Carey Mathew Carey, Publisher Matthew Clarkson Matthias William Baldwin Maxfield Parrish McClellan House Mechanics' Union of Trade Associations Memorial to the Soldiers and Patriots of the Revolution Merchants' Exchange Cupola Restoration Mercy Hospital Meriwether Lewis Meta V.W. Fuller Mexican-American War Monument Mikveh Israel Mikveh Israel Cemetery Monument to Scottish Immigrants Mother Bethel Mother Bethel A.M.E. Church Mother Jones Mother’s Day Mount Moriah Temple Baptist Church Mount Vernon to Philadelphia Mower General Hospital Moyamensing Prison Muddy Island in the Marsh Muhammad's Temple of Islam #12 National Funeral For President Washington Native Plants of Fort Mifflin New Century Guild New Hall NFL Films Nicholas Biddle Nicola Monachesi Notable Liberty Medal Ceremonies Notable Visitors to the Liberty Bell Old Custom House Old Philadelphia Congregations Old Pine Street Old St. George's Old St. Joseph's Old St. Joseph's Roman Catholic Church Old St. Mary Cemetery Old St. Mary's Old St. Mary’s Roman Catholic Church Old Swedes' Church Oldest Photograph Oney Escapes! Opportunities Industrialization Centers Ora Washington Original Cobblestone Owen Wister Park Information Parkway Museums District Passage and Emigration Paths & Pavilions Paul Philippe Cret Paul Robeson Peale’s Mastodon, 2017 Pearl Bailey Penn Treaty Park Penn Treaty Park: A Place of Peace Pennepack Baptist Church Pennsylvania Abolition Society Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts Pennsylvania Bible Society Pennsylvania Hall Pennsylvania Hospital Pennypack Creek Bridge Penn's Plan Philadelphia Philadelphia & Columbia Railroad Philadelphia Bank Building Philadelphia Beirut Bombing Memorial Philadelphia Chinatown Philadelphia City Hall Philadelphia College of Pharmacy and Science Philadelphia College of Textiles and Science Philadelphia Conference Philadelphia Electric Company Philadelphia Exchange Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society Philadelphia Fire Department Memorial Philadelphia Flower Show Philadelphia General Hospital Philadelphia Knights of Pythias Philadelphia National Cemetery Philadelphia Sketch Club Philadelphia Society for the Preservation of Landmarks Philadelphia Tribune Philadelphia Vietnam Veterans Memorial Philip Syng, Jr. Philosophical Hall Philosophiæ et Scientiæ Domus Pierce Butler Police Department Philadelphia Pope John Paul II Powder Magazine Powel House Power And Politics Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. Preserving America's Treasures President Abraham Lincoln Prince Hall Grand Lodge Printz's (Old Swedes) Mill Promoting the Abolition of Slavery PSFS Building Public Sector Collective Bargaining Purple Heart Memorial Quaker Meeting House Site Quaker School Site Quakers at Friends Center Quartermaster’s Store Queen Village / The New Market and Head House Ralph Modjeski Reading Terminal and Market Rear Admiral George W. Melville Rear Admiral John Adolphus Bernard Dahlgren Reformed Church of Germantown Refuge in the country Religious Liberty Resting Place of Seven Signers of the Declaration of Independence Rev. Dr. Leon Howard Sullivan Rev. Isaac Leeser Revolutionary Soldiers Buried Here Revolutionary War Witness Tree Reynolds-Morris House Ricketts' Circus Rittenhouse Rittenhouse Homestead Rittenhouse Square Rittenhouse Town Rittenhousetown Historic District Robert Aitken (1734-1802) Robert Bogle Robert Cornelius Robert Mara Adger Robert Morris Robert Morris (1734 - 1806) Robert Patterson Robert Purvis Robert Smith Rodin Museum Rohm and Haas [Headquarters] Rose Garden Roy Campanella Ruth Plumly Thompson Sadie T.M. Alexander Samuel Hopkins Samuel S. Fleisher Art Memorial Sarah Josepha Hale Schuylkill Arsenal Schuylkill Navy of Philadelphia Second Bank of the United States Secretary of the Navy’s Office Site Secretary of the Treasury’s Office Site Sevill Schofield's Economy Mills Shibe Park / Connie Mack Stadium Shot Tower Siegmund Lubin Siegmund Lubin Sister Cities Park Sixth, Eleventh and Twelfth Wards World War I Memorial Smith Memorial Playground & Playhouse Society Hill / The New Market and Head House Soldiers Monument at Germantown Soldiers of the War of 1812 Soldiers’ Barracks Sorrow and Joy South 9th Street Curb Market St. Andrew's Society of Philadelphia St. Augustine's Roman Catholic Church St. Charles Seminary St. Clement's Episcopal Church St. George's Church St. John Neumann St. Mary Magdalen de Pazzi Parish St. Peter Claver Catholic Church St. Peter's Church St. Thomas' African Episcopal Church Standard Theatre Starvation Stephen Decatur Stephen Girard (1750 -1831) Stephen Smith Strawberry Mansion Strengthening Ties with the United States Suppressing the Opposition Surgeons’ Hall Site Swann Memorial Fountain Swedish Settlements on the Delaware Tamanend Ten Box Shelter Terminal Commerce Building Thaddeus Kosciuszko The American Side of the Street The Arsenal of Independence The Ayer Building The Barrymores The Bourse The Capital City The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia The City Plan of Philadelphia The City Tavern The College of Physicians of Philadelphia Building The Concord School House The Delaware Regiment The Dirty Business of Slavery The Dixie Hummingbirds The Dunbar Theatre The Executive Branch The First Bible in English The Gates of Hell The German Society of Pennsylvania The Germantown White House The Graduate Apartments The Graff House The Grand Battery The Great Elm The Great Treaty The Great World War Memorial The Heart of the Parkway The History of Franklin Court The Home of John Penn The Home of Juan de Miralles The House & the People Who Worked & Lived In It The House of Samuel Powel The Irish in America The Irish Memorial / Leacht Cuimhneacháin na nGael The Jacob Rittenhouse Home at RittenhouseTown The Jewish Hospital The Johnson House The Keeper of the House The Kelly Family The Last Resting Place of Benjamin Franklin The Legendary Blue Horizon The Lessons of The Great Hunger The Liberation of Jane Johnson The Mounted Amazon Attacked by a Panther / The Lion Fighter The MOVE Bombing The Names of the People Who Lived on This Block The opener of the Way The Original Eight Bells in this Church The Penn Relays The Penn Society Obelisk The Pennsylvania Slave Trade The Philadelpha Pyramid Club The Philadelphia Contributionship The Philadelphia Korean War Memorial at Penn's Landing The Philadelphia Naval Shipyard The Philadelphia Zoo The Poes in Philadelphia The Potato Blight - Its Origin The President's House - Washington and Adams The President's House Site 1790-1800 The Public School of Germantown The Salvation Army The Shipyard During World War II The Siege of Fort Mifflin The Signer The Solitude The Solitude The SPHAs Basketball Team The Spruce Street Houses The Thinker The Tulpehocken Station Historic District The Welsh Society The Woodlands The Woodlands-Historic Mansion, Cemetery and Landscape Thomas A. Edison High School and the Vietnam War Thomas Bond House Thomas E. Cahill Thomas Eakins Thomas Fitzsimons Thomas Holme (1624-1695) Thomas McKean Thomas Smith Thomas Sully Residence Thomas Ustick Walter (1804-1887) Three Disks, One Lacking Tindley Temple Todd House Tom Foglietta Tomas Garrigue Masaryk Tommy Loughran Torpedo Casemate Tribal Chieftains Tun Tavern U.S.C.T. Burials in the National Cemetery U.S.S. United States Union Fire Company, Union League of Philadelphia Union Local 274, American Federation of Musicians Universal Negro Improvement Association Upsala US Sanitary Commission Great Central Fair Valley Green Inn Venice Island Veterans Memorial Veterans Stadium VFW Post 389 Veterans Memorial Violet Oakley W.C. Fields (1880 - 1946) W.E.B. Du Bois Walnut Lane Bridge Walnut Lane Bridge Walnut Street Prison Walnut Street Theatre Walter Golaski Washington Avenue Immigration Station Washington Crossing the Delaware Washington Monument Washington Square Washington's Death and a Renewed Hope for Freedom Welcome to Manayunk Welcome to the Betsy Ross House Welcome to the Liberty Bell. Welcome to Washington Square West Sallyport West Wing - Independence Hall What Makes Wetlands? Whitaker Mill Cedar Grove William Allen William Henry Drayton William Lewis William McKinley William Penn William Penn William Penn’s Prayer for Philadelphia William Still William Whipper Wills Eye Hospital Wilt Chamberlain (1936-1999) Wissahickon Boys Club Wissahickon Inn Wissahickon Valley Wood Street Riverbank Steps World War I World War II World Wars Memorial Wyck Wyoming Branch of the Free Library "An Act respecting fugitives from Justice" "Associators" "Burn this treaty to Hell!" "Freedom might be too great a temptation" "I will fear no Evil" "Pat's King of Steaks" "The Italian Market" "We shall come to a civil war" "…is hereby empowered to sieze such Fugitives" "…it was intended to be an expression of the American mind…" “A Man Full of Trouble” Tavern “Common Sense” “Evangeline” “The Place You Tread is Holy Ground-”
The Pennsylvania State University, commonly known as Penn State, was established in 1855 and is one of the largest universities in the United States.
Philadelphia County, located in the southeastern part of Pennsylvania, has a rich and diverse history that spans more than three centuries. Its history can be traced back to the late 17th century when William Penn founded the city of Philadelphia in 1682 as the capital of the Pennsylvania Colony. The area, originally inhabited by indigenous Lenape people, quickly grew into a major center for trade, commerce, and governance.

During the 18th century, Philadelphia became a hotbed of political activity and played a significant role in the American Revolution. It was in Philadelphia that the Second Continental Congress met and adopted the Declaration of Independence in 1776. The city also served as the temporary capital of the United States from 1790 to 1800, while Washington, D.C., was under construction.

In the 19th century, Philadelphia County experienced significant industrial growth, becoming a major center for manufacturing and transportation. The county’s location along the Delaware River made it an ideal hub for the shipping and textile industries. Immigrants from various countries, including Ireland, Italy, and Germany, flocked to Philadelphia in search of employment opportunities, leading to a demographic shift and cultural diversity within the county.

In the 20th century, Philadelphia County faced its fair share of challenges and underwent periods of economic decline. However, the city and county have since revitalized and reinvented themselves as a dynamic and thriving metropolis. Today, Philadelphia County is known for its rich history, vibrant arts and culture scene, iconic landmarks such as Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell, and its role as a major center for education and healthcare.

This timeline provides a concise overview of the key events in the history of Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania.

  • 1624 - Dutch explorer Cornelius Jacobsen Mey claims the area for the Dutch Republic
  • 1682 - William Penn founds the city of Philadelphia as the capital of the Pennsylvania colony
  • 1701 - Philadelphia becomes a separate county, known as Philadelphia County
  • 1774-1778 - Philadelphia serves as the temporary capital of the United States during the Revolutionary War
  • 1787 - Pennsylvania State House (now Independence Hall) hosts the Constitutional Convention
  • 1800-1830 - Philadelphia experiences rapid industrial growth and becomes a major manufacturing center
  • 1844 - Consolidation Act merges Philadelphia City and Philadelphia County into a single governmental entity
  • 1861-1865 - Philadelphia supports the Union during the American Civil War
  • 1876 - Philadelphia hosts the Centennial Exposition to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence
  • 1901 - Philadelphia's population exceeds one million, becoming the third-largest city in the United States
  • 1952 - Independence National Historical Park is established, encompassing many key historic sites in Philadelphia
  • 1976 - Philadelphia celebrates the United States' Bicentennial with various events and festivities