Philadelphia in the Life of America, Part 2

Continuing in the vein I began last week, I am thinking again this week about Philadelphia, this time as an idea.

Next year, there will be a lot of eyes on Philadelphia. It was there, after all, that the Declaration of Independence was signed back in 1776, so 2026 will be the 250th anniversary year of that historic event.

By 1776, Philadelphia had been around for nearly a century, and, of course, it is one of America’s leading cities today. Over those three centuries and more, from its founding in 1682 until today, Philadelphia has played an important role — several roles, in fact — in the life of America.

An Inspiring Idea

Philadelphia began as an idea, one that inspired countless people over the years and can still inspire us today.

The city was founded, of course, in Pennsylvania, a colony very different from other British colonies in America. It belonged to an Englishman named William Penn, thanks to a grant from King Charles II, who had owed Penn’s father, an admiral in the Royal Navy, £16,000. As a result, Penn had a great deal of autonomy in Pennsylvania — named not after him, by the way, but after his father. As the Latin word sylva means “woods,” the word Pennsylvania literally means “Penn’s woods.”

Penn spent most of his life in the British Isles, not Pennsylvania, but his ideals helped to shape his colony in America, as well as the city of Philadelphia, or the "City of Brotherly Love." (In Greek, philos means "loving," and adelphos means "brother.") 

Although he was raised Anglican, he joined the Society of Friends, a religious sect often known as the “Quakers,” when he was 22 and suffered persecution as a result. “Penn was not only expelled from Oxford University but also imprisoned several times in the Tower of London,” author Richard Munson explains. “Later, he decided to form a Quaker settlement in North America that would guarantee jury trials, just imprisonments, and fair elections.”

That’s not all. Consider his treatment of the indigenous people who occupied some of the land he had acquired:

"Before setting up his government, Penn addressed a letter to the local Lenni Lenape Indians, acknowledging their right to the land and assuring them of his respect and his intention to always deal fairly with them." (Annenberg Learner)

Although Penn was a devout Quaker, he also favored religious tolerance. Compare him with the Puritans, another breakaway sect. When they left England in the early 1600s, they were seeking freedom from persecution by the officially Anglican homeland. Once they were established in Massachusetts, however, they began persecuting people who strayed from their faith. Apparently, they believed in religious freedom only as it pertained to them.

Penn was different. Presaging the founders of the United States, he favored freedom for a variety of faiths. Indeed, as Munson puts it, William Penn “wanted the colony to be a ‘holy experiment,’ the ‘seed of a nation,’ and an asylum for Friends and other persecuted believers, including French Protestants, Mennonites, Amish, and Lutherans from Catholic German states.”

A Model City

Penn could be practical, as well. With help from surveyor Thomas Holme, he designed Philadelphia to be a safe and functional city. He expressed his hope that it would be a “greene Country Towne which will never be burnt, and always be wholesome.”

As the Philadelphia Citizens Planning Institute explains, “Penn witnessed the great fire in London and wanted to create a new community that would not suffer the same fate.” Penn wrote that each lot had “room enough for a house, garden, and small orchard, to the great content and satisfaction of all here concerned.” The resulting spaces between houses would help contain fires if any should be ignited, but Penn took another precaution: no buildings were to be made of wood. Rather, brick and stone were the favored materials. (Take that, Big Bad Wolf.)

The American Society of Civil Engineers explains:

“The City Plan of Philadelphia is a seminal creation in American city planning in that it was the first American City Plan to provide open public squares for the free enjoyment of the community and a gridiron street pattern featuring streets of varying widths: wide main streets and narrower side streets. In addition this plan was the first city plan in the United States to provide for long-term urban growth. These features inspired the planners of many cities to adopt the Philadelphia Plan as a model.”

Writing for The Guardian, Emily Mann observes, “Like the nationwide dream it foreshadowed, the grid’s promise was at once mythical and foundational: a utopian urban ideal that not only guided the construction of Philadelphia, but resonates in cities and towns across America – and arguably the world – shaping millions of lives, identities and minds.”

That’s a powerful idea.

Living Up to an Ideal

How are Penn’s ideals holding up?

In the twentieth century, Penn’s “greene Country Towne” became known as “Filthadelphia.” Just five years ago, Forbes magazine dubbed it the “dirtiest city in America.” It has other problems, as well. So far in 2025, the City of Brotherly Love has been the site of more than 11,000 violent crimes, including nearly 200 murders.

"And thou, Philadelphia ... what travail has there been, to bring thee forth, and preserve thee from such as would abuse and defile thee!"

Penn wrote those words centuries ago, but we can imagine hearing him say them today in light of the city’s failure to live up to its ideals.

We could roll our eyes at such irony. We could shake our heads and lament the sad state of affairs in Philadelphia — and, for that matter, in many parts of this country.

Rather than chuckle darkly at the failure of Penn’s city to live up to his high ideals, however, I prefer to focus on those ideals themselves. Reality, after all, can be disappointing, even depressing. We cannot — and should not — ignore it, but Penn’s ideals, our founders’ ideals, our ideals deserve our attention and our aspiration. Like Penn, Jefferson, Franklin, and others, I believe we can do better. Indeed, we have done better. If you know even a little history, you know how far we have come. Progress is possible when we imagine, embrace, and passionately pursue our ideals.

It’s worth remembering, as Penn did, what comes between our ideals and our realization of them — namely us. The forces who “abuse and defile” are human forces, but so are the forces who can preserve Philadelphia and all the world.

It all comes down — or rises up — to us.

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