Historic Philadelphia

The ingenious workmen had recreated the
inscription, but replaced Thomas Lester’s
name with their own.
The new bell looked beautiful. It sounded
terrible. Pass and Stow were “so teased with the
witticisms of the town” that they moved fast to
make a new mold, break up the bell and melt it
down, and recast it again. By November, the bell
was in the tower and in use. Isaac Norris said
that “though some are of the opinion it will do,
I own I do not like it.” It hung there and clanged
sourly for routine reasons, waiting to validate its
inscription one day and proclaim liberty.
On October 19, 1752, in his Gazette,
Franklin mentioned for the first time that, earlier
in the year, he had proved that lightning was
electricity by flying a kite in a thunderstorm.
Franklin had been proposing a school of
higher learning since 1749. His native
Massachusetts had one, founded in 1636 and
named after a Puritan minister, John Harvard.
Virginia, Connecticut, New Jersey and New
York already had colleges. Franklin raised
money, and in 1753 took over a building on
Fourth Street at Arch that had been erected
for the evangelism of George Whitefield, the
best known and, reportedly, loudest preacher
of his day. The first class was graduated in
1757. It would be called the Academy of
Philadelphia, later the College, and ultimately
the University of Pennsylvania.
Thomas Bond was a Maryland Quaker who
came to Philadelphia in the 1730s and, in
1738, went abroad to study medicine at the
Hotel-Dieu in Paris, a major example of that
relatively new European phenomenon, a
hospital. Back in Philadelphia in 1750, Dr.
Bond began asking potential contributors to
help finance a hospital. He got Ben Franklin’s
endorsement, funds began to roll in, and,
within a year, the Pennsylvania Hospital was
functioning in a house on the south side of
Market Street west of Seventh, keeping
possible contagion well away from the
populated part of the city. Wanting a
✧
Above: William Bradford’s London Coffee-
House at the southwest corner of Front and
Market was the business meeting place of the
city. Like Lloyd’s Coffee House in London,
Bradford’s posted lists of ships’ cargoes, and
merchants who would accept a fee to share
the risk of insuring a cargo would write their
names under it. Underwriting became so
popular that by 1758, the insurance office at
the coffeehouse had two clerks on duty daily
from noon to 1 p.m. and 6 to 8 p.m.
COURTESY OF THE AUTHOR.
Left: Pennsylvania Hospital’s cornerstone was
laid for the east wing on May 28, 1755,
witnessed by a big crowd including school
children excused from class for the occasion.
The stone can still be seen, with an
inscription composed by Ben Franklin that
begins: “In the year of Christ MDCCLV,
George the Second Happily Reigning (For he
sought the happiness of his people)
Philadelphia flourishing (for its inhabitants
were publick spirited) This building by the
Bounty of the Government And of Many
private persons was piously founded For the
relief of the Sick and Miserable. May the God
of Mercies Bless the Undertaking.” The
center and west wing were finished in 1804.
Modern medical services have expanded into
newer buildings through the decades in the
blocks around the original hospital.
COURTESY OF THE AUTHOR.
CHAPTER II
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