Historic Philadelphia

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Right: Settlers in Kensington, a new town
just above the city, got a free cemetery lot
with their purchase of a building lot in 1730
from entrepreneur Anthony Palmer. Their
descendants still use the cemetery.
COURTESY OF THE AUTHOR.
Below: Architect William Strickland did this
painting of Christ Church in 1811. A group
of Anglicans had erected a small brick
church building on Second Street just above
Market in 1696. Between 1727 and 1735,
the rear of the existing edifice was added,
and the interior and new front were finished
in 1744, planned by Dr. John Kearsley. The
209-foot steeple was erected in 1754, and
was the city’s tallest structure until 1891.
Many of the Founding Fathers attended
services there. Today, the church is shared by
Sunday worshippers and weekday tourists.
COURTESY OF THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF
PENNSYLVANIA. ORIGINAL PAINTING BY WILLIAM
STRICKLAND (ACCESSION #1891.22).
HISTORIC PHILADELPHIA
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town’s first dentist. And William Fishbourne,
who served as mayor from 1719 to 1722,
wrote a history of Philadelphia in 1739. The
city was fifty-seven years old.
POLITICS
& PLAY- ACTORS
Andrew Hamilton died in 1741, and the
State House still wasn’t finished. Plastering
needed to be done, and the Assembly decided
to add a tower on the south side, for possible
accommodation of a bell. The Library
Company moved into the upper floor of the
west wing in 1740, but the Supreme Court
chamber wasn’t ready until 1743. The
Assembly room was fully completed in 1745,
the upstairs offices in 1747.
Urban problems continued burgeoning in
1741. There were complaints, according to
Common Council records, that “…many
Disorderly persons Meet every Evening about
the Court house of this City, & great numbers of
Negroes & others Set there with Milk Pails &
other things late at Night, & many Disorders are
there committed….” A curfew was established, a
half hour after sunset. In 1742 a Pest House was
established on Province Island below the city, as
an isolation hospital for contagious diseases and
a place to check the health of incoming
immigrants. Ben Franklin founded the
American Philosophical Society in 1743, the
same year his daughter Sarah was born.
The 1742 election, in October, found two
factions in fierce contention. Members of the