213305

PENH THINE IN LUITRAL QUTUCOR NORKOUT.

IT BRODSKY ILL FOR OPPOSING PITCHER WHEN THESE HUSKY

Batsmen approach the plate. The boys are Members of

THe Bases aLL Board of the UNiversity of Pennsylvania

WHICH HELD THE FIRST OUTDOOR PRACTICE OF THE SEASON

The University of Pennsylvania (Penn[11] or UPenn[12]) is a private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S. It is one of nine colonial colleges and was chartered prior to the U.S. Declaration of Independence when Benjamin Franklin, the university's founder and first president, advocated for an educational institution that trained leaders in academia, commerce, and public service. Penn identifies as the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, though this representation is challenged by other universities, since Franklin first convened the board of trustees in 1749, arguably making it the fifth-oldest institution of higher education in the U.S.[note 2]

The university has four undergraduate schools and 12 graduate and professional schools. Schools enrolling undergraduates include the College of Arts and Sciences, the School of Engineering and Applied Science, the Wharton School, and the School of Nursing. Among its graduate schools are its law school, whose first professor James Wilson participated in writing the first draft of the U.S. Constitution, its medical school, which was the first medical school established in North America, and Wharton, the nation's first collegiate business school. Penn's endowment is $20.7 billion, making it the sixth-wealthiest private academic institution in the nation as of 2022. In 2021, it ranked fourth among U.S. universities in research expenditures, according to the National Science Foundation.[13]

The University of Pennsylvania's main campus is located in the University City neighborhood of West Philadelphia, and is centered around College Hall. Notable campus landmarks include Houston Hall, the first modern student union, and Franklin Field, the nation's first dual-level college football stadium and the nation's longest-standing NCAA Division I college football stadium in continuous operation.[14] The university's athletics program, the Penn Quakers, fields varsity teams in 33 sports as a member of NCAA Division I's Ivy League conference.

Penn alumni, trustees, and faculty have included 8 Founding Fathers of the United States who signed the Declaration of Independence,[15][16] 7 who signed the United States Constitution,[17] 24 members of the Continental Congress, 3 Presidents of the United States, [18] 38 Nobel laureates, 9 foreign heads of state, 3 United States Supreme Court justices, at least 4 Supreme Court justices of foreign nations,[19] 32 U.S. senators, 163 members of the U.S. House of Representatives, 19 U.S. Cabinet Secretaries, 46 governors, 28 State Supreme Court justices, 36 living undergraduate billionaires (largest number of any college or university in the USA),[20] and 5 Medal of Honor recipients.[21][22]

History

Main article: History of the University of Pennsylvania

In 1740, a group of Philadelphians organized to erect a great preaching hall for George Whitefield, a traveling evangelist.[23] The building was designed and constructed by Edmund Woolley and was the largest building in Philadelphia at the time, drawing thousands of people the first time in which it was preached.[24]: 26 

In the fall of 1749, Ben Franklin circulated a pamphlet, "Proposals Relating to the Education of Youth in Pensilvania," his vision for what he called a "Public Academy of Philadelphia".[25]

On June 16, 1755, the College of Philadelphia was chartered, paving the way for the addition of undergraduate instruction.[26]: 13 

Campus

The Statue of Benjamin Franklin, honoring the university's founder, in front of College Hall on Penn's main campus[27]

Upper Quad Gate forming lower part of Memorial Tower, which honors veterans of the Spanish–American War

Much of Penn's current architecture was designed by the Philadelphia-based architecture firm Cope and Stewardson, whose owners were Philadelphia born and raised architects and professors at Penn who also designed Princeton University and a large part of Washington University in St. Louis.[28][29] They were known for having combined the Gothic architecture of the University of Oxford and University of Cambridge with the local landscape to establish the Collegiate Gothic style.[30]

The present core campus covers over 299 acres (121 ha) in a contiguous area of West Philadelphia's University City section, whereas the older heart of the campus comprises the University of Pennsylvania Campus Historic District. All of Penn's schools and most of its research institutes are located on this campus. The surrounding neighborhood includes several restaurants, bars, a large upscale grocery store, and a movie theater on the western edge of campus. Penn's core campus borders Drexel University and is a few blocks from the University City campus of Saint Joseph's University (which absorbed University of the Sciences in Philadelphia via a merger) and The Restaurant School at Walnut Hill College.

The cancer research center Wistar Institute is also located on campus. In 2014, a new 7-story glass and steel building was completed next to the institute's original brick edifice built in 1897 further expanding collaboration between the university and the Wistar Institute.[31]

The Module 6 Utility Plant and Garage at Penn was designed by BLT Architects and completed in 1995. Module 6 is located at 38th and Walnut and includes spaces for 627 vehicles, 9,000 sq ft (840 m2) of storefront retail operations, a 9,500-ton chiller module and corresponding extension of the campus chilled water loop, and a 4,000-ton ice storage facility.[32]

In 2010, in its first significant expansion across the Schuylkill River, Penn purchased 23 acres (9.3 ha) at the northwest corner of 34th Street and Grays Ferry Avenue, the then site of DuPont Marshall Research Labs. In October 2016, Penn completed the design (with help from architects Matthias Hollwich, Marc Kushner, and KSS Architects) and renovation of the center piece of the project, a former paint factory it named Pennovation Works. Pennovation Works houses shared desks, wet labs, common areas, a "pitch bleacher," and other attributes of a tech incubator. The rest of the site, which Penn is formally calling "South Bank" (of Schuylkill River), is a mixture of lightly refurbished industrial buildings that serve as affordable and flexible workspaces and land for future development. Penn hopes that "South Bank will provide a place for academics, researchers, and entrepreneurs to establish their businesses in close proximity to each other to facilitate cross-pollination of their ideas, creativity, and innovation.[33]

Parks and arboreta

In 2007, Penn acquired about 35 acres (14 ha) between the campus and the Schuylkill River at the former site of the Philadelphia Civic Center and a nearby 24-acre (9.7 ha) site then owned by the United States Postal Service. Dubbed the Postal Lands, the site extends from Market Street on the north to Penn's Bower Field on the south, including the former main regional U.S. Postal Building at 30th and Market Streets, now the regional office for the U.S. Internal Revenue Service. Over the next decade, the site became the home to educational, research, biomedical, and mixed-use facilities. The first phase, comprising a park and athletic facilities, opened in the fall of 2011.

In September 2011, Penn completed the construction of the $46.5 million, 24-acre (9.7 ha) Penn Park, which features passive and active recreation and athletic components framed and subdivided by canopy trees, lawns, and meadows. It is located east of the Highline Green and stretches from Walnut Street to South Streets.

Penn maintains two arboreta. The first, the roughly 300-acre (120 ha) The Penn Campus Arboretum at the University of Pennsylvania, encompasses the entire University City main campus. The campus arboretum is an urban forest with over 6,500 trees representing 240 species of trees and shrubs, ten specialty gardens and five urban parks,[34] which has been designated as a Tree Campus USA[35] since 2009 and formally recognized as an accredited ArbNet Arboretum since 2017.[34] Penn maintains an interactive website linked to Penn's comprehensive tree inventory, which allows users to explore Penn's entire collection of trees.[36] The second arboretum, Penn's Morris Arboretum & Gardens (the official arboretum of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania) is 92 acres (sited over 15 miles from Penn's "Campus Arboretum") and contains more than 13,000 labelled plants from over 2,500 types, representing the temperate floras of North America, Asia, and Europe, with a primary focus on Asia [37]

New Bolton Center (Penn Vet's Large Animal Hospital Campus)

Main article: New Bolton Center

Penn also owns the 687-acre (278 ha) New Bolton Center, the research and large-animal health care center of its veterinary school.[38] Located near Kennett Square, New Bolton Center received nationwide media attention when Kentucky Derby winner Barbaro underwent surgery at its Widener Hospital for injuries suffered while running in the Preakness Stakes.[39]

Libraries

Van Pelt Library, Penn's main library building

Penn's first standalone library built 1891 (image circa 1915), designed by Frank Furness

Interior of School of Design library

Penn library system has grown into a system of 14 libraries with 400 full-time equivalent (FTE) employees and a total operating budget of more than $48 million.[40] The library system has 6.19 million book and serial volumes as well as 4.23 million microform items and 1.11 million e-books.[7] It subscribes to over 68,000 print serials and e-journals.[41][42]

Penn has the following libraries, associated by school or subject area: (1) communications library, located on campus on Walnut Street between 36th and 37th Streets in the Annenberg Communications School; (2) Biddle Law Library, located on campus on 3500 block of Sansom in the Law School; (3) The Holman Biotech Commons library, located on campus, on 3500 block of Hamilton Walk, adjacent to the Robert Wood Johnson Pavilion of the Medical School and the Nursing School; (4) chemistry library, located on campus, on 3300 block of Spruce, in the 1973 Wing of the Chemistry Building; (5) dental medicine library located on campus, on 4000 block of Locust Street, in Dental School; (6) fine arts library, located on campus, on 3400 block of Woodland Ave, within the Fisher Fine Arts Library; (7) Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies library, located off campus, at 420 Walnut Street, near Independence Hall and Washington Square; (8) humanities and social sciences library (including Weigle Information Commons) located on campus, between 34th and 35th streets on Locust Street in the Van Pelt-Dietrich Library Center; (9) Lea library collection of Roman Catholic Church history, located on campus, between 34th and 35th streets on Locust Street, on the 6th floor of Van Pelt-Dietrich Library Center; (10) Lippincott business library, located on campus, between 35th and 36th streets on Locust Street, in the second floor of the Van Pelt-Dietrich Library Center; (11) Math/Physics/Astronomy library, located on campus, on 3200 block of Walnut Streets, adjacent to The Palestra on the third floor of David Rittenhouse Laboratory; (12) archaeology and anthropology library within Penn Museum; (13) Rare Books and Manuscripts library (including the Yarnall Library of Theology) located on campus, between 34th and 35th streets on Locust Street, in Van Pelt-Dietrich Library Center; (14) veterinary medicine library, located on Penn Campus, between 38th and 39th streets on Sansom Street, within the Vet School (with satellite library located off campus at New Bolton Center. Penn also maintains books and records off campus at high density storage facility.

The Penn Design School's Fine Arts Library was built to be Penn's main library and the first with its own building. The main library at the time was designed by Frank Furness to be first library in nation to separate the low ceilings of the library stack, where the books were stored, from forty-foot-plus high ceilinged rooms, where the books were read and studied.[43][44][45]

The Yarnall Library of Theology, a major American rare book collection, is part of Penn's libraries. The Yarnall Library of Theology was formerly affiliated with St. Clement's Church in Philadelphia. It was founded in 1911 under the terms of the wills of Ellis Hornor Yarnall (1839–1907) and Emily Yarnall, and subsequently housed at the former Philadelphia Divinity School. The library's major areas of focus are theology, patristics, and the liturgy, history and theology of the Anglican Communion and the Episcopal Church in the United States of America. It includes a large number of rare books, incunabula, and illuminated manuscripts, and new material continues to be added.[46][47]

Art installations

The Covenant, designed by artist Alexander Liberman and installed at Penn in 1975

The campus has more than 40 notable art installations, in part because of a 1959 Philadelphia ordinance requiring total budget for new construction or major renovation projects in which governmental resources are used to include 1% for art[48] to be used to pay for installation of site-specific public art,[49] in part because many alumni collected and donated art to Penn, and in part because of the presence of the University of Pennsylvania School of Design on the campus.[50]

In 2020, Penn installed Brick House, a monumental work of art, created by Simone Leigh at the College Green gateway to Penn's campus near the corner of 34th Street and Woodland Walk. This 5,900-pound (2,700 kg) bronze sculpture, which is 16 feet (4.9 m) high and 9 feet (2.7 m) in diameter at its base, depicts an African woman's head crowned with an afro framed by cornrow braids atop a form that resembles both a skirt and a clay house.[51] At the installation, Penn president Amy Guttman proclaimed that "Ms. Leigh's sculpture brings a striking presence of strength, grace, and beauty—along with an ineffable sense of mystery and resilience—to a central crossroad of Penn's campus."[52]

The Covenant, known to the student body as "Dueling Tampons"[53][54] or "The Tampons,"[55] is a large red structure created by Alexander Liberman and located on Locust Walk as a gateway to the high-rise residences "super block." It was installed in 1975 and is made of rolled sheets of milled steel.

A white button, known as The Button and officially called the Split Button is a modern art sculpture designed by designed by Swedish sculptor Claes Oldenburg (who specialized in creating oversize sculptures of everyday objects). It sits at the south entrance of Van Pelt Library and has button holes large enough for people to stand inside. Penn also has a replica of the Love sculpture, part of a series created by Robert Indiana. It is a painted aluminum sculpture and was installed in 1998 overlooking College Green.[50]

In 2019, the Association for Public Art loaned Penn[56] two multi-ton sculptures.[57] The two works are Social Consciousness[58][56] (created by Sir Jacob Epstein in 1954 and sited on the walkway between Wharton's Lippincott Library and Phi Phi chapter of Alpha Chi Rho fraternity house) and Atmosphere and Environment XII (created by Louise Nevelson in 1970, which is sited on Shoemaker Green between Franklin Field and Ringe Squash Courts).[59]

In addition to the contemporary art, Penn also has several traditional statues, including a good number created by Penn's first Director of Physical Education Department, R. Tait McKenzie.[60] Among the notable sculptures is that of Young Ben Franklin, which McKenzie produced and Penn sited adjacent to the fieldhouse contiguous to Franklin Field. The sculpture is titled Benjamin Franklin in 1723 and was created by McKenzie during the pre-World War 1 era (1910–1914). Other sculptures he produced for Penn include the 1924 sculpture of then Penn provost Edgar Fahs Smith.

Penn is presently reevaluating all of its public art and has formed a working group led by Penn Design dean Frederick Steiner, who was part of a similar effort at the University of Texas at Austin that led to the removal of statues of Jefferson Davis and other Confederate officials, and Penn's Chief Diversity Officer, Joann Mitchell. Penn has begun the process of adding art and removing or relocating art.[61] Penn removed from campus in 2020 the statue of the Reverend George Whitefield (who had inspired the 1740 establishment of a trust to establish a charity school, which trust Penn legally assumed in 1749) when research showed Whitefield owned fifty enslaved people and drafted and advocated for the key theological arguments in favor of slavery in Georgia and the rest of the Thirteen Colonies.[62]

Penn Museum

Main article: University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology

University Museum and Warden Garden

Since the Penn Museum was founded in 1887,[63] it has taken part in 400 research projects worldwide.[64] The museum's first project was an excavation of Nippur, a location in current day Iraq.[65]

Penn Museum is home to the largest authentic sphinx in North America at about seven feet high, four feet wide, 13 feet long, and 12.9 tons (made of solid red granite).

The sphinx was discovered in 1912 by the British archeologist, Sir William Matthew Flinders Petrie, during an excavation of the ancient Egyptian city of Memphis, Egypt, where the sphinx had guarded a temple to ward off evil. Since Petri's expedition was partially financed by Penn Petrie offered it to Penn, which arranged for it to be moved to museum in 1913. The sphinx was moved in 2019 to a more prominent spot intended to attract visitors.[66]

The museum has three gallery floors with artifacts from Egypt, the Middle East, Mesoamerica, Asia, the Mediterranean, Africa and indigenous artifacts of the Americas.[64] Its most famous object is the goat rearing into the branches of a rosette-leafed plant, from the royal tombs of Ur.

The Penn Museum's excavations and collections foster a strong research base for graduate students in the Graduate Group in the Art and Archaeology of the Mediterranean World. Features of the Beaux-Arts building include a rotunda and gardens that include Egyptian papyrus.

Other Penn museums, galleries, and art collections

Penn maintains a website providing a detailed roadmap to small museums and galleries and over one hundred locations across campus where the public can access Penn's over 8,000 artworks acquired over 250 years and includes, but is not limited to, paintings, sculptures, photography, works on paper, and decorative arts.[67] The largest of the art galleries is the Institute of Contemporary Art, one of the only kunsthalles in the country, which showcases various art exhibitions throughout the year. Since 1983 the Arthur Ross Gallery, located at the Fisher Fine Arts Library, has housed Penn's art collection[68] and is named for its benefactor, philanthropist Arthur Ross.

Residences

Main article: University of Pennsylvania College Houses

Every College House at the University of Pennsylvania has at least four members of faculty in the roles of House Dean, Faculty Master, and College House Fellows.[69] Within the College Houses, Penn has nearly 40 themed residential programs for students with shared interests such as world cinema or science and technology. Many of the nearby homes and apartments in the area surrounding the campus are often rented by undergraduate students moving off campus after their first year, as well as by graduate and professional students. The College Houses include W.E.B. Du Bois, Fisher Hassenfeld, Gregory, Gutmann, Harnwell, Harrison, Hill College House, Kings Court English, Lauder, Riepe, Rodin, Stouffer, and Ware. The first College House was Van Pelt College House, established in the fall of 1971. It was later renamed Gregory House.[70] Fisher Hassenfeld, Ware and Riepe together make up one building called "The Quad." The latest College House to be built is Guttman[71] (formerly named New College House West), which opened in the fall of 2021.[72]

Penn students in Junior or Senior year may live in the 45 sororities and fraternities governed by three student-run governing councils, Interfraternity Council,[73] Intercultural Greek Council, and Panhellenic Council.[74]

The university's first purpose-built dormitory in the foreground (on right), built in 1765[75]

 

The Upper Quad, originally called The Triangle,[76] and formerly "The Men's Dormitory," viewed from the Memorial Tower[77]

 

Woodland Walk pathway between Hill College House and Lauder College House

 

Hill College House, a dormitory designed in 1958 to house female students, was designed by Eero Saarinen

 

"The Quad," formerly known as the Men's Dormitory, in 2014

 

The Alpha Tau Omega fraternity house, built by George W. Childs Drexel as one of two mansions for his daughters

Organization

See also: List of presidents of the University of Pennsylvania

University of Pennsylvania graduate and professional schools[78]

School Year founded

Perelman School of Medicine 1765[79]

School of Engineering and Applied Science 1852[80]

Law School 1850[note 3]

School of Design 1868

School of Dental Medicine 1878[82]

The Wharton School 1881[83]

Graduate School of Arts and Sciences 1755[84]

School of Veterinary Medicine 1884[85]

School of Social Policy and Practice 1908

Graduate School of Education 1915

School of Nursing 1935

Annenberg School for Communication 1958

The College of Arts and Sciences is the undergraduate division of the School of Arts and Sciences. The School of Arts and Sciences also contains the Graduate Division and the College of Liberal and Professional Studies, which is home to the Fels Institute of Government, the master's programs in Organizational Dynamics, and the Environmental Studies (MES) program. Wharton is the business school of the University of Pennsylvania. Other schools with undergraduate programs include the School of Nursing and the School of Engineering and Applied Science (SEAS).

The current president is J. Larry Jameson (interim).[86]

Campus police

The University of Pennsylvania Police Department (UPPD) is the largest, private police department in Pennsylvania, with 117 members. All officers are sworn municipal police officers and retain general law enforcement authority while on the campus.[87]

Seal

The 1757 seal of the academy and College of Philadelphia

The official seal of the Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania serves as the signature and symbol of authenticity on documents issued by the corporation.[88] The most recent design, a modified version of the original seal, was approved in 1932, adopted a year later and is still used for much of the same purposes as the original.[88] The official seal of the Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania serves as the signature and symbol of authenticity on documents issued by the corporation.[88] A request for one was first recorded in a meeting of the trustees in 1753 during which some of the Trustees "desired to get a Common Seal engraved for the Use of [the] Corporation." In 1756, a public seal and motto for the college was engraved in silver.[89] The most recent design, a modified version of the original seal, was approved in 1932, adopted a year later and is still used for much of the same purposes as the original.[88]

The outer ring of the current seal is inscribed with "Universitas Pennsylvaniensis," the Latin name of the University of Pennsylvania. The inside contains seven stacked books on a desk with the titles of subjects of the trivium and a modified quadrivium, components of a classical education: Theolog[ia], Astronom[ia], Philosoph[ia], Mathemat[ica], Logica, Rhetorica and Grammatica. Between the books and the outer ring is the Latin motto of the university, "Leges Sine Moribus Vanae."[88]

Academics

Penn's "One University Policy" allows students to enroll in classes in any of Penn's twelve schools.[90]

Penn has a strong focus on interdisciplinary learning and research. It offers double degree programs, unique majors, and academic flexibility. Penn's "One University" policy allows undergraduates access to courses at all of Penn's undergraduate and graduate schools except the medical, veterinary and dental schools. Undergraduates at Penn may also take courses at Bryn Mawr, Haverford, and Swarthmore under a reciprocal agreement known as the Quaker Consortium.

Admissions

Fall first-year statistics, by year

2022[91] 2019[92] 2018[93] 2017[94]

Applicants 54,588 44,961 44,491 40,413

Admits 3,404 3,446 3,740 3,757

Admit rate 4.24% 6.66% 7.41% 8.30%

Enrolled 2,417 2,400 2,518 2,456

Yield 68.18% 69.65% 67.33% 65.37%

SAT range* 1510–1560 1450–1560 1440–1560 1420–1560

ACT range* 34–36 33–35 32–35 32–35

* SAT and ACT ranges are from the 25th to the 75th percentile. Undergraduate admissions to the University of Pennsylvania is considered by US News to be "most selective." Admissions officials consider a student's GPA to be a very important academic factor, with emphasis on an applicant's high school class rank and letters of recommendation.[95] Admission is need-blind for U.S., Canadian, and Mexican applicants.[96]

For the class of 2026, entering in Fall 2022, the university received 54,588 applications.[97] The Atlantic also ranked Penn among the 10 most selective schools in the country. At the graduate level, based on admission statistics from U.S. News & World Report, Penn's most selective programs include its law school, the health care schools (medicine, dental medicine, nursing, veterinary), the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, and Wharton business school.

Coordinated dual-degree, accelerated, interdisciplinary programs

Smith Walk with a view of Towne Building and the Engineering Quad

Penn offers unique and specialized coordinated dual-degree (CDD) programs, which selectively award candidates degrees from multiple schools at the university upon completion of graduation criteria of both schools in addition to program-specific programs and senior capstone projects. Additionally, there are accelerated and interdisciplinary programs offered by the university. These undergraduate programs include:

Huntsman Program in International Studies and Business[98]

Jerome Fisher Program in Management and Technology (M&T)[99]

Roy and Diana Vagelos Program in Life Sciences and Management (LSM)[100]

Nursing and Health Care Management (NHCM)[101]

Roy and Diana Vagelos Integrated Program in Energy Research (VIPER)[102]

Vagelos Scholars Program in Molecular Life Sciences (MLS)[103]

Singh Program in Networked and Social Systems Engineering (NETS)[104]

Digital Media Design (DMD)[105]

Computer and Cognitive Science: Artificial Intelligence[106]

Accelerated 7-Year Bio-Dental Program[107]

Accelerated 6-Year Law and Medicine Program[108]

Dual-degree programs that lead to the same multiple degrees without participation in the specific above programs are also available. Unlike CDD programs, "dual degree" students fulfill requirements of both programs independently without the involvement of another program. Specialized dual-degree programs include Liberal Studies and Technology as well as an Artificial Intelligence: Computer and Cognitive Science Program. Both programs award a degree from the College of Arts and Sciences and a degree from the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. Also, the Vagelos Scholars Program in Molecular Life Sciences allows its students to either double major in the sciences or submatriculate and earn both a BA and an MS in four years. The most recent Vagelos Integrated Program in Energy Research (VIPER) was first offered for the class of 2016. A joint program of Penn's School of Arts and Sciences and the School of Engineering and Applied Science, VIPER leads to dual Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Science in Engineering degrees by combining majors from each school.

For graduate programs, Penn offers many formalized double degree graduate degrees such as a joint J.D./MBA and maintains a list of interdisciplinary institutions, such as the Institute for Medicine and Engineering, the Joseph H. Lauder Institute for Management and International Studies, and the Institute for Research in Cognitive Science.

The University of Pennsylvania School of Social Policy and Practice, commonly known as Penn SP2, is a school of social policy and social work that offers degrees in a variety of subfields, in addition to several dual degree programs and sub-matriculation programs.[109][110][111] Penn SP2's vision is: "The passionate pursuit of social innovation, impact and justice."[112]

Originally named the School of Social Work, SP2 was founded in 1908 and is a graduate school of the University of Pennsylvania. The school specializes in research, education, and policy development in relation to both social and economic issues.[113][114]

The School of Veterinary Medicine offers five dual-degree programs, combining the Doctor of Veterinary Medicine (VMD) with a Master of Social Work (MSW), Master of Environmental Studies (MES), Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Master of Public Health (MPH) or Masters in Business Administration (MBA) degree. The Penn Vet dual-degree programs are meant to support veterinarians planning to engage in interdisciplinary work in the areas of human health, environmental health, and animal health and welfare.[115]

Academic medical center and biomedical research complex

In 2018, the university's nursing school was ranked number one by Quacquarelli Symonds.[116] That year, Quacquarelli Symonds also ranked Penn's school of Veterinary Medicine sixth.[117] In 2019, the Perelman School of Medicine was named the third-best medical school for research in U.S. News & World Report's 2020 ranking.[118]

The University of Pennsylvania Health System, also known as UPHS, is a multi-hospital health system headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, owned by Trustees of University of Pennsylvania. UPHS and the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania together constitute Penn Medicine, a clinical and research entity of the University of Pennsylvania. UPHS hospitals include the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania,[119] Penn Presbyterian Medical Center, Pennsylvania Hospital, Chester County Hospital, Lancaster General Hospital, and Princeton Medical Center.[120] Penn Medicine owns and operates the first hospital in the United States, the Pennsylvania Hospital.[121] It is also home to America's first surgical amphitheatre[122] and its first medical library.[123]

The Pennsylvania Hospital as painted by Pavel Svinyin in 1811

 

Perelman School of Medicine

 

Penn School of Dental Medicine

 

Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania

 

Penn-owned Princeton Medical Center, eastern facade

International partnerships

Students can study abroad for a semester or a year at partner institutions, which include the Singapore Management University, London School of Economics, University of Edinburgh, Chinese University of Hong Kong, University of Melbourne, Sciences Po, University of Queensland, University College London, King's College London, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and ETH Zurich.

Reputation and rankings

Academic rankings

National

ARWU[124] 12

Forbes[125] 8

U.S. News & World Report[126] 6

Washington Monthly[127] 4

WSJ/College Pulse[128] 7

Global

ARWU[129] 14

QS[130] 12

THE[131] 16

U.S. News & World Report[132] 15

U.S. News & World Report's 2024 rankings place Penn 6th of 394 national universities in the United States.[126] The Princeton Review student survey ranked Penn in 2023 as 7th in their Dream Colleges list.[133] Penn was ranked 4th of 444 in the United States by College Factual for 2024.[134] In 2023, Penn was ranked as having the 7th happiest students in the United States (the highest in the Ivy League).[135][136]

Among its professional schools, the school of education was ranked number one in 2021 and Wharton School of Business was ranked number one in 2022[137] and 2024 [138] and the communication, dentistry, medicine, nursing, law and veterinary schools rank in the top 5 nationally.[139] Penn's Law School was ranked number 4 in 2023[140] and Design school, and its School of Social Policy and Practice are ranked in the top 10.[139]

Research

ENIAC, the first general-purpose electronic computer, founded at Penn in 1946

Penn is classified as an "R1" doctoral university: "Highest research activity."[141] Its economic impact on the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania for 2015 amounted to $14.3 billion.[142] Penn's research expenditures in the 2018 fiscal year were $1.442 billion, the fourth largest in the U.S.[143] In fiscal year 2019 Penn received $582.3 million in funding from the National Institutes of Health.[144]

Penn's research centers often span two or more disciplines. In the 2010–2011 academic year, five interdisciplinary research centers were created or substantially expanded; these include the Center for Health-care Financing,[145] the Center for Global Women's Health at the Nursing School,[146] the Morris Arboretum's Horticulture Center,[147] the Jay H. Baker Retailing Center at Wharton[148] and the Translational Research Center at Penn Medicine.[149] With these additions, Penn now counts 165 research centers hosting a research community of over 4,300 faculty and over 1,100 postdoctoral fellows, 5,500 academic support staff and graduate student trainees.[7] To further assist the advancement of interdisciplinary research President Amy Gutmann established the "Penn Integrates Knowledge" title awarded to selected Penn professors "whose research and teaching exemplify the integration of knowledge."[150] These professors hold endowed professorships and joint appointments between Penn's schools.

Penn is also among the most prolific producers of doctoral students. With 487 PhDs awarded in 2009, Penn ranks third in the Ivy League, only behind Columbia and Cornell; Harvard did not report data.[151] It also has one of the highest numbers of post-doctoral appointees (933 in number for 2004–2007), ranking third in the Ivy League (behind Harvard and Yale) and tenth nationally.[152]

In most disciplines Penn professors' productivity is among the highest in the nation and first in the fields of epidemiology, business, communication studies, comparative literature, languages, information science, criminal justice and criminology, social sciences and sociology.[153] According to the National Research Council nearly three-quarters of Penn's 41 assessed programs were placed in ranges including the top 10 rankings in their fields, with more than half of these in ranges including the top five rankings in these fields.[154]

Penn's research tradition has historically been complemented by innovations that shaped higher education. In addition to establishing the first medical school, the first university teaching hospital, the oldest continuously operating degree-granting program in chemical engineering,[155] the first business school, and the first student union, Penn was also the cradle of other significant developments.

In 1852, Penn Law was the first law school in the nation to publish a law journal still in existence (then called The American Law Register, now the Penn Law Review, one of the most cited law journals in the world).[156] Under the deanship of William Draper Lewis, the law school was also one of the first schools to emphasize legal teaching by full-time professors instead of practitioners, a system that is still followed today.[157]

The Wharton School was home to several pioneering developments in business education. It established the first research center in a business school in 1921 and the first center for entrepreneurship center in 1973[158] and it regularly introduced novel curricula for which BusinessWeek wrote, "Wharton is on the crest of a wave of reinvention and change in management education."[159][160] The university has also contributed major advancements in the fields of economics and management. Among the many discoveries are conjoint analysis, widely used as a predictive tool especially in market research, Simon Kuznets's method of measuring Gross National Product,[161] the Penn effect (the observation that consumer price levels in richer countries are systematically higher than in poorer ones) and the "Wharton Model"[162] developed by Nobel-laureate Lawrence Klein to measure and forecast economic activity. The idea behind Health Maintenance Organizations also belonged to Penn professor Robert Eilers, who put it into practice during then-President Nixon's health reform in the 1970s.[161]

Several major scientific discoveries have also taken place at Penn. The university is probably best known as the place where the first general-purpose electronic computer (ENIAC) was born in 1946 at the Moore School of Electrical Engineering.[163] It was here also where the world's first spelling and grammar checkers were created, as well as the popular COBOL programming language.[163]

Penn can also boast some of the most important discoveries in the field of medicine. The dialysis machine used as an artificial replacement for lost kidney function was conceived and devised out of a pressure cooker by William Inouye while he was still a student at Penn Med;[164] the Rubella and Hepatitis B vaccines were developed at Penn;[164] the discovery of cancer's link with genes, cognitive therapy, Retin-A (the cream used to treat acne), Resistin, the Philadelphia gene (linked to chronic myelogenous leukemia) and the technology behind PET Scans were all discovered by Penn Med researchers.[164] More recent gene research has led to the discovery of the (a) genes for fragile X syndrome, the most common form of inherited mental retardation; (b) spinal and bulbar muscular atrophy, a disorder marked by progressive muscle wasting; (c) Charcot–Marie–Tooth disease, a progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects the hands, feet and limbs;[164] and (d) genetically engineered T cells used to treat lymphoblastic leukemia and refractory diffuse large B cell lymphoma.[165][166] Another contribution to medicine was made by Ralph L. Brinster (Penn faculty member since 1965) who developed the scientific basis for in vitro fertilization and the transgenic mouse at Penn and was awarded the National Medal of Science in 2010.

Penn professors Alan J. Heeger, Alan MacDiarmid and Hideki Shirakawa invented a conductive polymer process that earned them the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. The theory of superconductivity was also partly developed at Penn, by then-faculty member John Robert Schrieffer (along with John Bardeen and Leon Cooper).

Penn professors Carl June and Michael C. Milone at Penn Medicine developed Kymriah, the first FDA-approved CAR T cell therapy for treating certain types of leukemia, approved in August 2017.[167][168]

Student life

Ethnic breakdown of enrollment

Ethnic enrollment,

fall 2018[169] Number (percentage)

of undergraduates

African American 715 (7.1%)

Native American 12 (0.1%)

Asian American and

Pacific Islander 2,084 (20.7%)

Hispanic and

Latino American 1,044 (10.4%)

White 4,278 (42.6%)

International 1,261 (12.6%)

Two or more races,

non-Hispanic 460 (4.6%)

Unknown 179 (1.8%)

Total 10,033 (100%)

Of those accepted for admission in 2018, 48 percent were Asian, Hispanic, African-American or Native American.[7] Fourteen percent of entering undergraduates in 2018 were international students.[7] The composition of international first-year students in 2018 was: 46% from Asia; 15% from Africa and the Middle East; 16% from Europe; 14% from Canada and Mexico; 8% from the Caribbean, Central America and South America; 5% from Australia and the Pacific Islands.[7] The acceptance rate for international students admission in 2018 was 493 out of 8,316 (6.7%).[7] In 2018, 55% of all enrolled students were women.[7]

In the last few decades, Jewish enrollment has been declining. c. 1999 about 28% of the students were Jewish.[170] In early 2020, 1,750 Penn undergraduate students were Jewish,[171] which would be approximately 17%[172] of the some 10,000 undergrads for 2019–20. Penn has been ranked as the number one LGBTQ+ friendly school in the country.[173] Penn's LGBTQ+ center is second oldest in the nation[174] and oldest in Commonwealth of Pennsylvania as it has been serving the LGBTQ+ community since 1979 by providing support and guidance through 25 groups (including Penn J-Bagel a Jewish LGBTQ+ group, the Lambda Alliance a general LGBTQ social organization, and oSTEM a group for LGBTQ people in STEM fields).[175] Penn offers courses in Sexuality and Gender Studies which allows students to discover and learn queer theory, history of sexual norms, and other gender orientation related courses.[176]

Penn Face and behavioral health

The university's social pressure surrounding academic perfection, extreme competitiveness, and nonguaranteed readmission have created what is known as "Penn Face": students put on a façade of confidence and happiness while enduring mental turmoil.[177][178][179][180][181] Stanford University calls this phenomenon "Duck Syndrome."[180][182] In recent years, mental health has become an issue on campus with ten student suicides between the years of 2013 to 2016.[183] The school responded by launching a task force.[184][185] The most widely covered case of Penn Face has been Madison Holleran.[186][187] In 2018, initiatives were enacted to ameliorate mental health problems, such as requiring sophomores to live on campus and the daily closing of Huntsman Hall at 2:00 a.m.[188][189] The university's suicide rate was the catalyst for a 2018 state bill, introduced by Governor Tom Wolf, to raise Pennsylvania's standards for university suicide prevention.[190] The university's efforts to address mental health on campus came into the national spotlight again in September 2019 when the director of the university's counseling services died by suicide six months after starting the position.[191]

Student organizations

See also: University of Pennsylvania senior societies, Penn Debate Society, and Penn History Review

The Philomathean Society Presidential Library, named after former U.S. president and Penn Med alumnus William Henry Harrison

The Philomathean Society, founded in 1813, is the United States' oldest continuously existing collegiate literary society and continues to host lectures and intellectual events open to the public.[192]

The Daily Pennsylvanian is an independent, student-run newspaper, which has been published daily since it was founded in 1885.[193] The newspaper went unpublished from May 1943 to November 1945 due to World War II.[193] In 1984, the university lost all editorial and financial control of The Daily Pennsylvanian (also known as The DP) when the newspaper became its own corporation.[193] The Daily Pennsylvanian has won the Pacemaker Award administered by the Associated Collegiate Press multiple times, most recently in 2019.[194][195] The DP also publishes a weekly arts and culture magazine called 34th Street Magazine.

The Penn Debate Society (PDS), founded in 1984 as the Penn Parliamentary Debate Society, is Penn's debate team, which competes regularly on the American Parliamentary Debate Association and the international British Parliamentary circuit.[196]

The Penn History Review is a journal, published twice a year, through the Department of History, for undergraduate historical research, by and for undergraduates, and founded in 1991.[197][198][199]

Penn Electric Racing

Penn Electric Racing unveiled REV8 on March 31, 2023, in front of the Statue of Benjamin Franklin in front of College Hall

Penn Electric Racing is the university's Formula SAE (FSAE) team, competing in the international electric vehicle (EV) competition. Colloquially known as "PER," the team designs, manufactures, and races custom electric racecars against other collegiate teams. In 2015, PER built and raced their first racecar, REV1, at the Lincoln Nebraska FSAE competition, winning first place.[200] The team repeated their success with their next two racecars: REV2 won second place in 2016,[201] and REV3 won first place in 2017.[202]

Performing arts organizations

Penn is home to numerous organizations that promote the arts, from dance to spoken word, jazz to stand-up comedy, theatre, a cappella and more. The Performing Arts Council (PAC) oversees 45 student organizations in these areas.[203] The PAC has four subcommittees: A Cappella Council; Dance Arts Council; Singer, Musicians, and Comedians (SMAC); and Theatre Arts Council (TAC-e).

Penn Glee Club

See also: The University of Pennsylvania Glee Club

Penn Glee Club's 1915–1916 academic year membership photo

The University of Pennsylvania Glee Club, founded in 1862, is tied for fourth oldest continually running glee clubs in the United States[204] and the oldest performing arts group at the University of Pennsylvania.

Each year, the Penn Glee Club writes and produces a fully staged, Broadway-style production with an eclectic mix of Penn standards, Broadway classics, classical favorites, and pop hits, highlighting choral singing from all genders[205]

The Glee Club draws its singing members from the undergraduate and graduate students.

The Penn Glee Club has traveled to nearly all 50 states in the United States and over 40 nations and territories on five continents and has appeared on national television with such celebrities as Bob Hope, Frank Sinatra, Jimmy Stewart, and Ed McMahon. Since its first performance at the White House for President Calvin Coolidge in 1926, the club has sung for numerous heads of state and world leaders.

Penn Band

Main article: The University of Pennsylvania Band

The University of Pennsylvania Band at the 2019 homecoming game

The University of Pennsylvania Band has been a part of student life since 1897.[206] The Penn Band presently mainly performs at football and basketball games as well as university functions (e.g. commencement and convocation). It was the first college band to perform at Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, and has performed with notable musicians, including John Philip Sousa, members of the Philadelphia Orchestra, and the U.S. Marine Band ("The President's Own").

Penn Band has performed for Princess Grace Kelly of Monaco (sister and aunt to number of alumni), alumnus and District Attorney and Mayor of Philadelphia, and Governor of Pennsylvania Ed Rendell, Vice President Al Gore, Presidents Theodore Roosevelt, Lyndon B. Johnson and Ronald Reagan, and Polish dissident and President Lech Wałęsa.

Penn's a cappella community

Penn Masala performs in the Blue Room of the White House in October 2009 on invitation from President Barack Obama.

The A Cappella Council (ACK) is composed of 14 a cappella groups. Penn's a cappella groups entertain audiences with repertoires including pop, rock, R&B, jazz, Hindi, and Chinese songs.[207] ACK is also home to Off The Beat, which has received the most contemporary a cappella recording awards of any collegiate group in the United States and the most features on the Best of College A Cappella albums.[208] Penn Masala, formed in 1996, is world's oldest[209][210] and premier[211][212] South Asian a cappella group based in an American university, which has performed for Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Henry Kissinger, Ban Ki-moon, Farooq Abdullah, Imran Khan, Rajkumar Hirani, A.R. Rahman, Narendra Modi[213] and Sunidhi Chauhan, had their a cappella version of Nazia Hassan's Urdu classic "Aap Jaisa Koi," (originally from the movie Qurbani) sung in the movie American Desi.[214]

Penn alumni Elizabeth Banks (class of 1996) and Max Handelman (Banks' husband, class of 1995) invited Masala to appear in Pitch Perfect 2, as Banks reported that Penn's a capella community inspired the film series starring and/or produced by Banks and Handleman.[215]

Comedy organizations

The Mask and Wig clubhouse

Mask and Wig, a club founded in 1889, was (until fall of 2021[216]) the oldest all-male musical comedy troupe in the country. In 2021 the club voted to become gender-inclusive, with auditions open to all undergraduates: male, female, and non-binary.

Bloomers comedy group, founded in 1978, is the .".. nation's first collegiate all-women musical and sketch comedy troupe...."[217] Bloomers was founded at Penn by Joan Harrison.[218] In the mid teens, Bloomers revised its constitution to be open to .".. anyone who does not identify as a cisgender man...."[219] and now accepts all persons from under-represented gender identities who perform comedy.[220][221] Bloomers performs sketches and elaborate shows almost every semester. The comedy troupe is named after bloomers, the once popular long, loose fitting under garment, gathered at the ankle, worn under a short skirt (developed in the mid 19th century as a healthy comfortable alternative to the heavy, constricting dresses then worn by American women), which were in turn, named after Amelia Jenks Bloomer. Bloomers most well known performing alumna is Vanessa Bayer, formerly of Saturday Night Live and is SNL's longest-serving female cast member.[222]

Religious and spiritual organizations

The following religious and spiritual organizations have a significant on campus presence at Penn:

(A) Mainstream Protestantism: Dating back to 1857, The Christian Association (a.k.a. The CA), is composed primarily of students from Mainline Protestant backgrounds.[223] Historically, the CA ran several foreign missions including one in China[224] and for decades ran a camp for socio-economically disadvantaged children from Philadelphia.[225] At present the CA occupies part of the parsonage at Tabernacle United Church of Christ.[226]

(B) Judaism: Organized Jewish life did not begin on campus in earnest until the start of 20th century.[227] Jewish Life on campus is centered at Penn branch of Hillel International,[228][172] which inspires students to explore Judaism, creates patterns of Jewish living that can be sustained after graduation, provides religious communities, promotes educational initiatives, social justice projects, social and cultural opportunities, and groups focusing on Israel education and politics, and hosts a Kosher Penn approved dining hall (supervised by the Community Kashrus of Greater Philadelphia).[229] In addition to Hillel, the other major Jewish organization with significant impact on Penn's campus is The Chabad Lubavitch House at Penn (founded in 1980[230]), which, among other activities, brings together Jewish college students with noted Jewish academics for in-depth discussions and debate.[231]

(C) Roman Catholicism: The Penn Newman Catholic Center (the Newman Center), founded in 1893 (as the first Newman Center in the country) with the mission of supporting students, faculty, and staff in their religious endeavors. The organization brings prominent Christian figures to campus, including Rev. Thomas "Tom" J. Hagan, OSFS, who worked in the Newman Center and founded Haiti-based non-profit Hands Together;[232] and James Martin SJ (Wharton undergraduate class of 1982[233]). Father Martin, an editor-at-large of the Jesuit magazine America,[234] and frequent commentator on the life and teachings of Jesus and Ignatian spirituality, is especially well known for his outreach to the LGBT community, which has drawn a strong backlash from parts of the Catholic Church, but has provided comfort to Penn students and other members of Roman Catholic community who wish to stay connected with their faith and identify as LGBQT.[235][236][237]

(D) Hinduism and Jainism: Penn funds (via the Graduate and Professional Student Assembly or similar undergraduate organization) a variety of official clubs focused on India including a number focused on students who are Hindu or Jain such as: (1) 'Pan-Asian American Community House (PAACH)', a center for students to celebrate South Asian, East Asian, Southeast Asian, culture and religion,[238] (2) 'Rangoli – The South Asian Association at Penn' that educates and informs Penn students (mainly graduate and professional students) with ancestry and/or interest in South Asia whose goals include a desire to "rekindle the spirit of community" through events,[239] and (3) 'Penn Hindu & Jain Association', a student-run official club at Penn that has 80 to 110 student members and an extensive alumni network, dedicated to raise awareness of the Hindu and Jain faiths and foster further development of these communities in the greater Philadelphia area by providing a variety of services and hosting a number of events such as Holi Festival (which has been held annually at Penn since 1993[240][241][242]) and ." . . aims to be a home to anyone seeking to explore their spiritual, religious, or social interests."[243]

(E) Islam: In 1963, the Muslim Students' Association (MSA National) and Penn chapter of MSA National were founded to facilitate Muslim life among students on college campuses.[244][245] Penn MSA was established to help Penn Muslims build faith and community by fostering a space under the guidance of Islamic principles[246][247] and towards that goal Penn MSA supports mission of its related umbrella organization, Islamic Society of North America, to "foster the development of the Muslim community, interfaith relations, civic engagement, and better understandings of Islam."[248] The Muslim Life Program at Penn also provides such support and helped cause Penn (in January 2017) to hire its first full-time Muslim chaplain, the co-president of the Association of Campus Muslim Chaplains, Sister Patricia Anton (whose background includes working with Muslim, interfaith, academic and peace-building institutions such as Islamic Society of North America and Islamic Relief). Chaplain Anton's mandate includes supporting and guiding the Penn Muslim community to foster further development of such community by creating a welcoming environment that provides Penn Muslim community opportunities to intellectually and spiritually engage with Islam.[249] Penn also has a residential house, the Muslim Life Residential Program, which provides a live/learn environment focused on the appreciation of Islamic culture, food, history, and practice, and shows its Penn student residents how Islam is deeply integrated in the culture of Philadelphia so they may appreciate how Islam influences daily life.[250]

(F) Buddhism: Penn has a Buddhist chaplain[251][252] (as well as chaplains of other faiths) and funds the Penn Meditation and Buddhism Club, which (1) is dedicated to helping Penn students practice mindfulness and meditation and learning about Buddhism, (2) conducts weekly meetings that begin with a guided meditation and are followed by discussions of topic(s) relating to mindfulness and Buddhism, and (3) organizes other activities such as ramen nights and weekend meditation retreats to the local Won Buddhism center.[253]

Athletics

Main article: Penn Quakers

Penn's sports teams are nicknamed the Quakers, but the teams are often also referred to as The Red and Blue as reflected in the popular song sung after every athletic contest where the Penn Band or other musical groups are present.[254][255] The athletes participate in the Ivy League and Division I (Division I FCS for football) in the NCAA. In recent decades, they often have been league champions in football (14 times from 1982 to 2010) and basketball (22 times from 1970 to 2006). The first athletic team at Penn was the cricket team, which formed in 1842 and played regularly through 1846, the year it lost its "grounds," and then only played intermittently until 1864, the year it played its first intercollegiate game (against Haverford College).[256] The rowing (or crew) team composed of Penn students but not officially representing Penn was formed in 1854 but did not compete against other colleges as official part of Penn until 1879. The rugby football team began to play against other colleges, most notably against College of New Jersey (now Princeton University) in 1874 using a combination of association football (i.e. soccer) and rugby rules (the twenty players on each side were able to use their hands but were not able to pass or bat the ball forward).[257][258][259]

Baseball

Main article: Penn Quakers baseball

University of Pennsylvania versus Georgetown Baseball Program circa 1901

The University of Pennsylvania's first baseball team was fielded in 1875. Penn has won four championships in the Eastern Intercollegiate Baseball League, a baseball-only conference that existed from 1930 to 1992, which consisted of the eight Ivy League schools and Army and Navy.[260] Since 1992, Penn baseball has claimed an Ivy League title, advancing to the NCAA Division I Baseball Championship five times.[261]

Basketball

Main article: Penn Quakers men's basketball

1907-1908 Penn Quakers basketball team in photo that appeared in Spaldings Official A.A.U. basketball guide (September 1907).[262]

Penn basketball is steeped in tradition. Penn was retroactively recognized as the pre-NCAA tournament national champion for the 1919–20 and 1920–21 seasons by the Helms Athletic Foundation and for the 1919–20 season by the Premo-Porretta Power Poll.[263] Penn made its only (and the Ivy League's second) Final Four appearance in 1979, where the Quakers lost to Magic Johnson-led Michigan State in Salt Lake City. (Dartmouth twice finished second in the tournament in the 1940s, but that was before the beginning of formal League play.) Penn's team is also a member of the Philadelphia Big 5, along with La Salle, Saint Joseph's, Temple, Villanova, and Drexel. In 2007, the men's team won its third consecutive Ivy League title and then lost in the first round of the NCAA Tournament to Texas A&M. Penn last made the NCAA tournament in 2018 where it lost to top seeded Kansas.[264]

Cricket

Penn's 1887 Cricket Team, which won the Intercollegiate Cricket Association, the de facto national championship, displaying the trophy granted to winner (held in front row by person wearing white hat)

The first University of Pennsylvania cricket team, reported to be the first cricket team in the United States composed exclusively of Americans,[265] was organized in 1842.[266] On May 7, 1864, Penn played its first intercollegiate game against Haverford College (the 3rd oldest intercollegiate athletic contest after Harvard Yale 1852 crew race and Amherst Williams 1859 Baseball game[267][268]).[269][270] After Penn moved west of the Schuylkill River in 1872, Penn played cricket at one of the local clubs, Belmont Cricket Club, Merion Cricket Club, Germantown Cricket Club, or at Haverford College.[269] Beginning in 1875 and through 1880, Penn fielded a varsity eleven, which played a few matches each year against opponents that included Haverford College and Columbia College.[271]

In 1881, Penn, Harvard College, Haverford College, Princeton College (then known as College of New Jersey), and Columbia College formed the Intercollegiate Cricket Association,[270] which Cornell University later joined.[256] Penn won The Intercollegiate Cricket Association championship, the de facto national championship, 23 times (18 solo, three shared with Haverford and Harvard, one shared with Haverford and Cornell, and one shared with just Haverford) during the 44 years that The Intercollegiate Cricket Association existed from 1881 through 1924.[272]

In the 1890s, Penn's cricket team frequently toured Canada and the British Isles.[273] Perhaps the university's most famous cricket player was George Patterson (class of 1888), who still holds the North American batting record and who went on to play for the professional Philadelphia Cricket Team.[274]

Following the World War I, cricket began to experience a serious decline,[275] such that in 1924 Penn fielded its last team in the twentieth century. Starting in 2009, however, Penn once again fielded a cricket team, albeit club, that ended up being the first winner of a tournament for teams from the Ivies.[276]

Curling

University of Pennsylvania Curling Club qualified for the 2023 National Championship at 6th place, the same ranking they qualified for the 2022 National Championship (where they finished in 2nd place), but in 2023 the team won the national championship by defeating arch rival Princeton University in the championship match (6 to 3).[277][278] Penn Curling also won the National Championship in 2016 and is the only East Coast team to have won the Curling National Championship.[279]

Football

Main article: Penn Quakers football

Chuck Bednarik, also known as Concrete Charlie was a three-time All-American at Penn who was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame, the first player selected in the 1949 NFL Draft by the Philadelphia Eagles, where he went on to win the 1960 NFL Championship and was inducted into Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Penn first fielded a football team against Princeton at the Germantown Cricket Club in Philadelphia on November 11, 1876.[280]

During the 1890s, Penn's coach and alumnus George Washington Woodruff introduced the quarterback kick, a forerunner of the forward pass, as well as the place-kick from scrimmage and the delayed pass.

The achievements of two of Penn's other outstanding players from that era, John Heisman, a Law School alumnus, and John Outland, a Penn Med alumnus, are remembered each year with the presentation of the Heisman Trophy to the most outstanding college football player of the year, and the Outland Trophy to the most outstanding college football interior lineman of the year.

The Bednarik Award, named for Chuck Bednarik, a three-time All-American center and linebacker who starred on the 1947, is awarded annually to college football's best defensive player. Bednarik went on to play for 12 years with the Philadelphia Eagles, and was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1969.

Penn's game against University of California, Berkeley on September 29, 1951, in front of a crowd of 60,000 at Franklin Field, was first college football game to be broadcast in color.[281][282]

Ice hockey

Main article: Penn Quakers men's ice hockey

University of Pennsylvania team in front of photo of College Hall in 1896–97, its first season of existence, featuring George Orton future winner of gold medal in the 1900 Summer Olympics im 2500 meter steeplechase (top row, second from the end of the right side) and who was the first disabled person to compete in the Olympics)

Penn's first ice hockey team competed during the 1896–97 academic year, and joined the nascent Intercollegiate Hockey Association (IHA) in 1898–99. On the first team in 1896–97 were several players of Canadian background, among them middle-distance runner and Olympian George Orton (the first disabled person to compete in the Olympics). Penn fielded teams intermittently until 1965 when it formed a varsity squad that was terminated in 1977. Penn now fields a club team that plays in the American Collegiate Hockey Association Division II,[283] is a member of the Colonial States College Hockey Conference, and continues to play at the Class of 1923 Arena in Philadelphia.[284]

Olympic athletes

The University of Pennsylvania men's track team was the 1907 IC4A point winner. Left to right: Guy Haskins, R.C. Folwell, T.R. Moffitt, John Baxter Taylor, Jr., the first black athlete in the U.S. to win a gold medal in the Olympics,[285] Nathaniel Cartmell, and J.D. Whitham (seated)

At least 43 different Penn alumni have earned 81 Olympic medals (26 gold).[286][note 4] Penn won more of its "medals"[286] (which were actually cups, trophies, or plaques, as medals were not introduced until a later Olympics) at 1900 Summer Olympics held in Paris than at any other Olympics.[287]

Rowing

Penn's eight-oared crew in 1901, the first foreign crew to reach the final of the Grand Challenge Cup[288] at Henley Royal Regatta

Rowing at Penn dates back to at least 1854 with the founding of the University Barge Club. The university currently hosts both heavyweight and lightweight men's teams and an open weight women's team, all of which compete as part of the Eastern Sprints League. Ellis Ward was Penn's first intercollegiate crew coach from 1879 through 1912.[289] During the course of Ward's coaching career at Penn his .".. Red and Blue crews won 65 races, in about 150 starts."[290] Ward coached Penn's 8-oared boat to the finals of the Grand Challenge Cup (the oldest and most prized trophy) at the Henley Royal Regatta (but in that final race was defeated by the champion Leander Club).[291]

Penn Rowing has produced a long list of famous coaches and Olympians. Members of Penn crew team, rowers Sidney Jellinek, Eddie Mitchell, and coxswain, John G. Kennedy, won the bronze medal for the United States at 1924 Olympics.[292]

Joe Burk (class of 1935) was captain of Penn crew team, winner of the Henley Diamond Sculls twice, named recipient of the James E. Sullivan Award for nation's best amateur athlete in 1939, and Penn coach from 1950 to 1969. The 1955 Men's Heavyweight 8, coached by Joe Burk, became one of only four American university crews in history to win the Grand Challenge Cup at the Henley Royal Regatta. The outbreak of World War Two canceled the 1940 Olympics for which Burk was favored to win the gold medal.

Other Penn Olympic athletes and or Penn coaches of such athletes include: (a) John Anthony Pescatore (who competed in the 1988 Seoul Olympic Games for the United States as stroke of the men's coxed eight which earned a bronze medal[293] and later competed at the 1992 Barcelona Olympic Games in the men's coxless pair), (b) Susan Francia (winner of gold medals as part of the women's 8 oared boat at 2008 Olympics and 2012 Olympics), (c) Regina Salmons (member of 2021 USA team),[294] (d) Rusty Callow, (e) Harry Parker, (f) Ted Nash,[292] and (g) John B. Kelly Jr., son of John B. Kelly Sr. (winner of three medals at 1920 Summer Olympics) and brother of Princess Grace of Monaco, was the second Penn Crew alumnus to win the James E. Sullivan Award[295] for being nation's best amateur athlete (in 1947), who was winner of a bronze medal at the 1956 Summer Olympics).

Penn men's crew team won the National Collegiate Rowing Championship in 1991. A member of that team, Janusz Hooker (Wharton class of 1992)[296] won the bronze medal in Men's Quadruple Sculls for Australia at the 1996 Summer Olympics.[297] The Penn teams presently row out of College Boat Club, No. 11 Boathouse Row.

Rugby

John Heisman, a University of Pennsylvania Law School class of 1892 alumnus and rugby football player, posing at Penn in 1891 holding elongated ellipsoidal rugby ball and gestures resembling the famed "Heisman Pose"[298]

The Penn men's rugby football team is one of the oldest collegiate rugby teams in the United States. Penn first fielded a team in mid-1870s playing by rules much closer to the rugby union and Association football code rules (relative to American football rules, as such American football rules had not yet been invented[257]). Among its earliest games was a game against College of New Jersey (which in 1895 changed its name to Princeton) played in Philadelphia on Saturday, November 11, 1876, which was less than two weeks before Princeton met on November 23, 1876, with Harvard and Columbia to confirm that all their games would be played using the rugby union rules.[280][257] Princeton and Penn played their November 1876 game per a combination of rugby (there were 20 players per side and players were able to touch the ball with their hands) and Association football codes. The rugby code influence was due, in part, to the fact that some of their students had been educated in English public schools.[299] Among the prominent alumni to play in a 19th-century version of rugby in which rules then did not allow forward passes or center snaps was John Heisman, namesake of the Heisman Trophy and an 1892 graduate of the University of Pennsylvania Law School.[300]

Heisman was instrumental in the first decade of the 20th century in changing the rules to more closely relate to the present rules of American football.[301] One of Heisman's teammates (who was unanimously voted Captain in the fall after Heisman graduated) was Harry Arista Mackey, Penn Law class of 1893[302] (who subsequently served as Mayor of Philadelphia from 1928 to 1932).[303] In 1906, Rugby per Rugby Union code was reintroduced to Penn[304] (as Penn last played per Rugby Union Code in 1882 as Penn played rugby per a number of different rugby football rulebooks and codes from 1883 through 1890s[305]) by Frank Villeneuve Nicholson (Frank Nicholson (rugby union)) University of Pennsylvania School of Dental Medicine (class of 1910),[306] who in 1904 had captained the Australian national rugby team in its match against England.[307]

Penn played per rugby union code rules at least through 1912, contemporaneously with Penn playing American gridiron football. Evidence of such may be found in an October 22, 1910, Daily Pennsylvanian article (quoted below) and a yearbook photo[308] that rugby per rugby union code was played.

Such is the devotion to English rugby football on the part of University of Pennsylvania's students from New Zealand, Australia, and England that they meet on Franklin Field at 7 o'clock every morning and practice the game. The varsity track and football squads monopolize the field to such an extent that the early hours of the morning are the only ones during which the rugby enthusiasts can play. Any time except Friday, Saturday and Sunday, a squad of 25 men may be seen running through the hardest kind of practice after which they may divide into two teams and play a hard game. Once a week, captain CC Walton, ('11), dental, who hails from New Zealand, gives the enthusiastic players a blackboard talk in which he explains the intricacies of the game in detail.[309]

The player-coach of United States Olympic gold-winning rugby team at the 1924 Summer Olympics was Alan Valentine, who played rugby while at Penn (which he attended during 1921/1922 academic year) as he was getting a master's degree at Wharton.[286]

Though Penn played rugby per rugby union rules from 1929 through 1934,[310] there is no indication that Penn had a rugby team from 1935 through 1959 when Penn men's rugby became permanent due to leadership of Harry "Joe" Edwin Reagan III[311] Penn's College class of 1962 and Penn Law class of 1965, who also went onto help create and incorporate (in 1975) and was Treasurer (in 1981) of USA Rugby and Oreste P. "Rusty" D'Arconte Penn's College class of 1966[312] Thus, with D'Arconte's hustle and Reagan's charisma and organizational skills, a team, which had fielded a side of fifteen intermittently from 1912 through 1960, became permanent.

In spring of 1984[313][314] Penn women's rugby, led by Social Chair Tamara Wayland (College class of 1985 who subsequently became the women's representative to and vice president of USA Rugby South from 1996 to 1998),[315] Club President Marianne Seligson, and Penn Law student Gigi Sohn,[316] began to compete. Penn women's rugby team is coached, as of 2020, by (a) Adam Dick,[317] a 300-level certified coach with over 15 years of rugby coaching experience including being the first coach of the first women's rugby team at the University of Arizona and who was a four-year starter at University of Arizona men's first XV rugby team and (b) Philly women's player Kate Hallinan.

Penn's men's rugby team plays in the Ivy Rugby Conference[318] and have finished as runners-up in both 15s and 7s in the Conference and won the Ivy Rugby Tournament in 1992.[319] As of 2011, the club uses the state-of-the-art facilities at Penn Park. The Penn Quakers' rugby team played on national TV at the 2013 Collegiate Rugby Championship, a college rugby tournament that for number of years had been played each June at Subaru Park in Philadelphia, and was broadcast live on NBC. In their inaugural appearance in the tournament, the Penn men's rugby team won the Shield Competition, beating local Big Five rival, Temple University, 17–12 in the final. In the semifinal match of that Shield Competition, Penn Rugby became the first Philadelphia team to beat a non-Philadelphia team in CRC history, with a 14–12 win over the University of Texas.[320]

As of 2020, Penn men's rugby team [321] is coached by Tiger Bax,[322] a former professional rugby player hailing from Cape Town, South Africa, whose playing experience includes stints in the Super Rugby competition with the Stormers (15s) and Mighty Mohicans (7s), as well as with the Gallagher Premiership Rugby side, Saracens[323] and whose coaching experience includes three successful years as coach at Valley Rugby Football Club in Hong Kong; and Tyler May, from Cherry Hill, New Jersey, who played rugby at Pennsylvania State University where he was a first XV player for three years.

Penn's graduate business and law schools also fielded rugby teams. The Wharton rugby team has competed from 1978 to the present.[324] The Penn Law Rugby team (1985 through 1993) counts among its alumni Walter Joseph Jay Clayton, III[325] Penn Law class of 1993, and chair of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission from May 4, 2017, until December 23, 2020, Raymond Hulser, former Chief of Public Integrity Section of United States Department of Justice,[326] and Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart[327] who approved the search of Mar-a-Lago, the residence of former U.S. president Donald Trump in Palm Beach, Florida.[328]

Undergraduate Penn Rugby Alumni include (1) Conor Lamb (Penn College class of 2006 and Penn Law class of 2009), who played for undergraduate team, and, as of 2021, is a member of United States House of Representatives, elected originally to Pennsylvania's 18th congressional district, since 2019 is a U.S. Representative from Pennsylvania's 17th congressional district and (2) Argentina's richest person,[329] Marcos Galperin (Wharton Undergraduate Class of 1994), a premier player on the 1992 Ivy League Tournament championship team,[330] who founded Mercado Libre,[331] an online marketplace dedicated to e-commerce and online auction, which, as of 2016,[332] is the most popular e-commerce site in South America by number of visitors.[333]

Facilities

Penn's Franklin Field, in photograph taken shortly after completion of the upper deck in 1925.

Franklin Field, with a present seating capacity of 52,593,[334] is where the Quakers play football, lacrosse, sprint football and track and field (and formerly played baseball, field hockey, soccer, and rugby). It is the oldest stadium still operating for college football games,[335] first stadium to sport two tiers,[336] first stadium in the country to have a scoreboard, second stadium to have a radio broadcast of football, first stadium from which a commercially televised football game was broadcast,[334] and first stadium from which college football game was broadcast in color.[281] Franklin Field also played host to the Philadelphia Eagles from 1958 to 1970.[334] Since 1895, Franklin Field has hosted the annual collegiate track and field event "the Penn Relays," which is the oldest and largest track and field competition in the United States.[337]

Penn's Palestra is often referred to as the Cathedral of College Basketball.[338]

Penn's Palestra is home gym of the Penn Quakers men's and women's basketball and volleyball teams, wrestling team, Philadelphia Big Five basketball, and other high school and college sporting events, and is located mere yards from Franklin Field.[339] The Palestra has been called "the most important building in the history of college basketball" and "changed the entire history of the sport for which it was built".[340] . The Palestra has hosted more NCAA Tournament basketball games than any other facility.

Penn's River Fields hosts a number of athletic fields including the Rhodes Soccer Stadium, the Ellen Vagelos C'90 Field Hockey Field, and Irving "Moon" Mondschein Throwing Complex.[341] Penn baseball plays its home games at Meiklejohn Stadium at Murphy Field.

Penn's Class of 1923 Arena (with seating for up to 3,000 people) was built to host the University of Pennsylvania Varsity Ice Hockey Team, which has been disbanded, and now hosts or in the past hosted: Penn's Men's and Penn Women's club ice hockey teams, practices and/or exhibition games for the Philadelphia Flyers, Colorado Avalanche and Carolina Hurricanes, roller hockey for the Philadelphia Bulldogs professional team, and rock concerts such as one in 1982 featuring Prince.[342][343][344]

Penn's three rowing teams use Number 11 Boathouse Row as their headquarters

People

Main article: List of University of Pennsylvania people § Alumni

Notable people

Penn alumni, faculty and trustees include those who have distinguished themselves in the sciences, academia, politics, business, military, sports, arts, and media.

Penn alumni include 2 Presidents of the United States: Donald Trump and William Henry Harrison,[345] (and 8 Presidents who were awarded honorary doctorate degrees by Penn).[346] Of the Presidents who were awarded the honorary doctorates by Penn, 5 were awarded prior to them becoming President (Washington, Taft, Wilson, Hoover, and Eisenhower) and 3 were awarded while they were President (Garfield and both Roosevelts).[347]

In addition, 9 foreign heads of state attended Penn (including former prime minister of the Philippines, Cesar Virata; the first president of Nigeria, Nnamdi Azikiwe; the first president of Ghana, Kwame Nkrumah; and the current president of Ivory Coast, Alassane Ouattara).

The current President of United States, Joe Biden (since January 20, 2021[348][349]) was a Benjamin Franklin Presidential Practice Professor at University of Pennsylvania, where he led the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement, a center focused principally on diplomacy, foreign policy, and national security.[350]

Penn alumni or faculty also include 3 United States Supreme Court justices: William J. Brennan, Owen J. Roberts, and James Wilson and at least 4 Supreme Court justices of foreign nations, (including Ronald Wilson of the High Court of Australia, Ayala Procaccia of the Israel Supreme Court, Yvonne Mokgoro, former justice of the Constitutional Court of South Africa, and Irish Court of Appeal justice Gerard Hogan).

Since its founding, Penn alumni, trustees, and/or faculty have included 8 Founding Fathers of the United States who signed the Declaration of Independence,[15][16] 7 who signed the United States Constitution,[17] and 24 members of the Continental Congress.

Penn alumni also include 32 U.S. senators, 163 members of the U.S. House of Representatives, 19 U.S. Cabinet Secretaries, 46 governors, 28 State Supreme Court justices.

Penn alumni in finance and investment banking include Warren Buffett[note 5] (CEO of Berkshire Hathaway), and Elon Musk (co-founder of PayPal, Tesla, OpenAI and Neuralink, founder of SpaceX and The Boring Company) and those on Wall Street[351] who received federal aid, 10 years after starting at Penn, have the highest median incomes among alumni of Ivy League schools.[352] Penn has the largest number of undergraduate alumni (36) who are billionaires (with combined wealth of 367 billion dollars - also largest number among colleges and universities in USA).[353][354]

Penn alumni have won (a) 53 Tony Awards,[355][356] (b) 17 Grammy Awards,[357] (c) 25 Emmy Awards,[358][359] (d) 13 Oscars,and (e) 1 EGOT (John Legend[360])[note 6].

Penn alumni have also had a significant impact on the United States military as they include Samuel Nicholas, United States Marine Corps founder, and William A. Newell, whose congressional action formed a predecessor to the current United States Coast Guard,[361]: p.1 col.5 – p.2 col.1  and numerous alumni have become generals or similar rank in the United States Armed Forces. At least 2 Penn alumni have been NASA astronauts[362] and 5 Penn alumni have been awarded the Medal of Honor.[21][22]

As of 2023, there have been 38 Nobel laureates affiliated (see List of Nobel laureates by university affiliation) with the University of Pennsylvania.[363][364]

At least 43 different Penn alumni have earned 81 Olympic medals (26 gold).[286][note 7]

Penn's alumni also include poets Ezra Pound and William Carlos Williams, Lutheran religious leader William Augustus Muhlenberg, civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr., linguist and political theorist Noam Chomsky, architect Louis Kahn, cartoonist Charles Addams, actresses Candice Bergen and Elizabeth Banks, journalist Joe Klein, and fashion designer Tory Burch.

Alumni organizations

Penn has over 120 international alumni clubs in 52 countries and 37 states, which offer opportunities for alumni to reconnect, participate in events, and work on collaborative initiatives.[365] In addition, in 1989, Penn bought a 14-story clubhouse building (purpose-built for Yale Club) in New York City from Touro College for $15 million[366] to house Penn's largest alumni chapter. After raising a separate $25 million (including $150,000+ donations each from such alumni as Estee Lauder heirs Leonard Lauder and Ronald Lauder, Saul Steinberg, Michael Milken, Donald Trump, and Ronald Perelman) and two years of renovation,[367] the Penn Club of New York moved to its current location at 30 West 44th Street on NYC's Clubhouse Row.[368]

Philadelphia, commonly referred to as Philly, is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania[11] and the sixth-most populous city in the nation, with a population of 1,603,797 in the 2020 census. The city is the urban core of the larger Delaware Valley, also known as the Philadelphia metropolitan area, the nation's seventh-largest and one of the world's largest metropolitan regions with 6.245 million residents in its metropolitan statistical area and 7.366 million residents in its combined statistical area.[12]

Philadelphia is known for its extensive contributions to United States history, especially the American Revolution, and served as the nation's capital until 1800.[13] It maintains contemporary influence in business and industry, culture, sports, and music.[14][15]

Philadelphia was founded in 1682 by William Penn, an English Quaker and advocate of religious freedom. The city served as the capital of the Pennsylvania Colony during the British colonial era[3][16] and went on to play a historic and vital role as the central meeting place for the nation's founding fathers. Philadelphia hosted the First Continental Congress in 1774, preserved the Liberty Bell, and hosted the Second Continental Congress during which the founders signed the Declaration of Independence.[17] The U.S. Constitution was later ratified in Philadelphia at the Philadelphia Convention of 1787. Philadelphia remained the nation's largest city until 1790, served as the nation's first capital from May 10, 1775, until December 12, 1776, and on four subsequent occasions during and following the American Revolution, including from 1790 to 1800 during the construction of the new national capital of Washington, D.C.

With 18 four-year universities and colleges, Philadelphia is one of the nation's leading centers for higher education and academic research.[18][19] As of 2018, the Philadelphia metropolitan area was the state's largest and nation's ninth-largest metropolitan economy with a gross metropolitan product of US$444.1 billion. The city is home to five Fortune 500 corporate headquarters as of 2022.[20] As of 2023, metropolitan Philadelphia ranks among the top five U.S. venture capital centers, facilitated by its proximity to New York City's entrepreneurial and financial ecosystems.[21] The Philadelphia Stock Exchange, owned by Nasdaq since 2008, is the nation's oldest stock exchange and a global leader in options trading.[22] 30th Street Station, the city's primary rail station, is the third-busiest Amtrak hub in the nation, and the city's multimodal transport and logistics infrastructure also includes Philadelphia International Airport and the rapidly-growing PhilaPort seaport.[23]

Philadelphia is a national cultural center, hosting more outdoor sculptures and murals than any other city in the nation.[24][25] Fairmount Park, when combined with adjacent Wissahickon Valley Park in the same watershed, is 2,052 acres (830 ha), representing one of the nation's largest and the world's 45th-largest urban park.[26] The city is known for its arts, culture, cuisine, and colonial and Revolution-era history; in 2016, it attracted 42 million domestic tourists who spent $6.8 billion, representing $11 billion in economic impact to the city and its surrounding Pennsylvania counties.[27] With five professional sports teams and one of the nation's most loyal fan bases, Philadelphia is often ranked as the nation's best city for professional sports fans.[28][29][30][31] The city has a culturally and philanthropically active LGBTQ+ community. Philadelphia also has played an immensely influential historic and ongoing role in the development and evolution of American music, especially R&B, soul, and rock.[32][33]

Philadelphia is a city of many firsts, including the nation's first library (1731),[34] hospital (1751),[34] medical school (1765),[35] national capital (1774),[36] university (by some accounts) (1779),[37] central bank (1781), stock exchange (1790),[34] zoo (1874),[38] and business school (1881).[39] Philadelphia contains 67 National Historic Landmarks, including Independence Hall.[40][41][19] From the city's 17th century founding through the present, Philadelphia has been the birthplace or home to an extensive number of prominent and influential Americans. In 2021, Time magazine named Philadelphia one of the world's greatest 100 places.[42] Two years later, in 2023, travel guide publisher Lonely Planet ranked Philadelphia the best city in the nation to visit.[43]

History

Main article: History of Philadelphia

For a chronological guide, see Timeline of Philadelphia.

See also: List of National Historic Landmarks in Philadelphia and National Register of Historic Places listings in Philadelphia

Native peoples

Prior to the arrival of Europeans in the early 17th century, the Philadelphia area was home to the Lenape (Delaware) Indians in the village of Shackamaxon. They were also called the Delaware Indians,[44] and their historical territory was along the Delaware River watershed, western Long Island, and the Lower Hudson Valley.[a] Most Lenape were pushed out of their Delaware homeland during the 18th century by expanding European colonies, exacerbated by losses from intertribal conflicts.[44] Lenape communities were weakened by newly introduced diseases, mainly smallpox, and conflict with Europeans. The Iroquois occasionally fought the Lenape. Surviving Lenape moved west into the upper Ohio River basin. The American Revolutionary War and the United States' independence pushed them further west. In the 1860s, the United States government sent most Lenape remaining in the eastern United States to the Indian Territory to present-day Oklahoma and surrounding territories under the Indian removal policy.

Colonial

William Penn (holding paper) and King Charles II depicted in The Birth of Pennsylvania, a 1680 portrait by Jean Leon Gerome Ferris

A Portraiture of the City of Philadelphia, by Thomas Holme

A 1683 portrait of Philadelphia by Thomas Holme that is believed to be the city's first map

William Penn's 1682 Treaty of Shackamaxon with the Lenape tribe depicted in Penn's Treaty with the Indians, a 1772 portrait by Benjamin West

Europeans came to the Delaware Valley in the early 17th century. The first settlements were founded by Dutch colonists, who built Fort Nassau on the Delaware River in 1623 in what is now Brooklawn, New Jersey. The Dutch considered the entire Delaware River valley to be part of their New Netherland colony. In 1638, Swedish settlers led by renegade Dutch established the colony of New Sweden at Fort Christina, located in present-day Wilmington, Delaware, and quickly spread out in the valley. In 1644, New Sweden supported the Susquehannocks in their war against Maryland colonists.[45] In 1648, the Dutch built Fort Beversreede on the west bank of the Delaware, south of the Schuylkill River near the present-day Eastwick section of Philadelphia, to reassert their dominion over the area. The Swedes responded by building Fort Nya Korsholm, or New Korsholm, named after a town in Finland with a Swedish majority.

In 1655, a Dutch military campaign led by New Netherland Director-General Peter Stuyvesant took control of the Swedish colony, ending its claim to independence. The Swedish and Finnish settlers continued to have their own militia, religion, and court, and to enjoy substantial autonomy under the Dutch. An English fleet captured the New Netherland colony in 1664, though the situation did not change substantially until 1682, when the area was included in William Penn's charter for Pennsylvania.[46]

In 1681, in partial repayment of a debt, Charles II of England granted Penn a charter for what would become the Pennsylvania colony. Despite the royal charter, Penn bought the land from the local Lenape in an effort to establish good terms with the Native Americans and ensure peace for the colony.[47] Penn made a treaty of friendship with Lenape chief Tammany under an elm tree at Shackamaxon, in what is now the city's Fishtown neighborhood.[3] Penn named the city Philadelphia, which is Greek for "brotherly love", derived from the Ancient Greek terms φίλος phílos (beloved, dear) and ἀδελφός adelphós (brother, brotherly). There were a number of cities named Philadelphia in the Eastern Mediterranean during the Greek and Roman periods, including modern Alaşehir, mentioned as the site of an early Christian congregation in the Book of Revelation. As a Quaker, Penn had experienced religious persecution and wanted his colony to be a place where anyone could worship freely. This tolerance, which exceeded that of other colonies, led to better relations with the local native tribes and fostered Philadelphia's rapid growth into America's most important city.[48]

Penn planned a city on the Delaware River to serve as a port and place for government. Hoping that Philadelphia would become more like an English rural town instead of a city, Penn laid out roads on a grid plan to keep houses and businesses spread far apart with areas for gardens and orchards.

The city's inhabitants did not follow Penn's plans, however, and instead crowded the present-day Port of Philadelphia on the Delaware River and subdivided and resold their lots.[49] Before Penn left Philadelphia for the final time, he issued the Charter of 1701 establishing it as a city. Though poor at first, Philadelphia became an important trading center with tolerable living conditions by the 1750s. Benjamin Franklin, a leading citizen, helped improve city services and founded new ones that were among the first in the nation, including a fire company, library, and hospital.

A number of philosophical societies were formed, which were centers of the city's intellectual life, including the Philadelphia Society for Promoting Agriculture (1785), the Pennsylvania Society for the Encouragement of Manufactures and the Useful Arts (1787), the Academy of Natural Sciences (1812), and the Franklin Institute (1824).[50] These societies developed and financed new industries that attracted skilled and knowledgeable immigrants from Europe.

American Revolution

See also: Pennsylvania in the American Revolution and Philadelphia campaign

The Committee of Five presenting their draft of the Declaration of Independence in Independence Hall on June 28, 1776, depicted in an 1818 painting by John Trumbull; historian Joseph Ellis called the Declaration "the most potent and consequential words in American history."[51]

President's House on Market Street served as the presidential mansion for the nation's first two presidents, George Washington and John Adams, from 1790 to 1800 prior to the completion of the White House and the development of Washington, D.C. as the nation's new capital

Independence Hall on Chestnut Street between 5th and 6th streets, where the Declaration of Independence was signed and the Constitution was ratified, on July 4, 1776, and June 21, 1788, respectively

Philadelphia's importance and central location in the colonies made it a natural center for America's revolutionaries. By the 1750s, Philadelphia surpassed Boston as the largest city and busiest port in British America, and the second-largest city in the entire British Empire after London.[52][53] In 1774, as resentment of British colonial practices and support for independence was burgeoning in the colonies, Philadelphia hosted the First Continental Congress.

From 1775 to 1781, Philadelphia hosted the Second Continental Congress,[54] which adopted the Declaration of Independence in what was then called the Pennsylvania State House and was later renamed Independence Hall. Historian Joseph Ellis, in 2007, described the Declaration of Independence, written predominantly by Thomas Jefferson, as "the most potent and consequential words in American history,"[17] and its adoption represented a declaration of war against the British Army, which was then the world's most powerful military force. Since the Declaration's July 4, 1776, adoption, its signing has been cited globally and repeatedly by various peoples of the world seeking independence and liberty. It also has been, since its adoption, the basis for annual celebration by Americans; in 1938, this celebration of the Declaration was formalized as Independence Day, one of only ten designated U.S. federal holidays.

After George Washington's defeat at the Battle of Brandywine in Chadds Ford Township, on September 11, 1777, during the Philadelphia campaign, the revolutionary capital of Philadelphia was defenseless and the city prepared for what was perceived to be an inevitable British attack. Because bells could easily be recast into munitions, the Liberty Bell, then known as the Pennsylvania State Bell, and bells from two Philadelphia churches, Christ Church and St. Peter's Church, were hastily taken down and transported by heavily guarded wagon train out of the city. The Liberty Bell was taken to Zion German Reformed Church in Northampton Town, which is present-day Allentown, where it was hidden under the church's floor boards for nine months from September 1777 until the British Army's departure from Philadelphia in June 1778.[55] Two Revolutionary War battles, the Siege of Fort Mifflin, fought between September 26 and November 16, 1777, and the Battle of Germantown, fought on October 4, 1777, took place within Philadelphia's city limits.

In Philadelphia, the Second Continental Congress adopted the Articles of Confederation on November 15, 1777, and the city later served as the meeting place for the Constitutional Convention, which ratified the Constitution in Independence Hall in Philadelphia on September 17, 1787.

Philadelphia served as capital of the United States for much of the colonial and early post-colonial periods, including for a decade, from 1790 to 1800, while Washington, D.C., was being constructed and prepared to serve as the new national capital.[56] In 1793, the largest yellow fever epidemic in U.S. history killed approximately 4,000 to 5,000 people in Philadelphia, or about ten percent of the city's population at the time.[57][58] The capital of the United States was moved to Washington, D.C. in 1800 upon completion of the White House and U.S. Capitol buildings.

The state capital was moved from Philadelphia to Lancaster in 1799, then ultimately to Harrisburg in 1812 Philadelphia remained the nation's largest city until the late 18th century. It also was the nation's financial and cultural center until ultimately being eclipsed in total population by New York City in 1790. In 1816, the city's free Black community founded the African Methodist Episcopal Church, the first independent Black denomination in the country, and the first Black Episcopal Church. The free Black community also established many schools for its children with the help of Quakers. Large-scale construction projects for new roads, canals, and railroads made Philadelphia the first major industrial city in the United States.

19th century

Further information: Pennsylvania in the American Civil War

Loan of the City of Philadelphia, issued March 7, 1866

Opening day ceremonies at the Centennial Exposition at Memorial Hall in Fairmount Park in 1876, the first world fair held in the U.S. on the centennial anniversary of the nation's founding

Throughout the 19th century, Philadelphia hosted a variety of industries and businesses; the largest was the textile industry. Major corporations in the 19th and early 20th centuries included the Baldwin Locomotive Works, William Cramp & Sons Shipbuilding Company, and the Pennsylvania Railroad.[59] Established in 1870, the Philadelphia Conveyancers' Association was chartered by the state in 1871. Along with the U.S. Centennial in 1876, the city's industry was celebrated in the Centennial Exposition, the first official World's fair in the U.S.

Immigrants, mostly from Ireland and Germany, settled in Philadelphia and the surrounding districts. These immigrants were largely responsible for the first general strike in North America in 1835, in which workers in the city won the ten-hour workday. The city was a destination for thousands of Irish immigrants fleeing the Great Famine in the 1840s; housing for them was developed south of South Street and later occupied by succeeding immigrants. They established a network of Catholic churches and schools and dominated the Catholic clergy for decades. Anti-Irish, anti-Catholic nativist riots erupted in Philadelphia in 1844. The rise in population of the surrounding districts helped lead to the Act of Consolidation of 1854, which extended the city limits from the 2 square miles (5.2 km2) of Center City to the roughly 134 square miles (350 km2) of Philadelphia County.[60][61] In the latter half of the 19th century and leading into the 20th century, immigrants from Russia, Eastern Europe, and Italy, and African Americans from the southern U.S. settled in the city.[62]

Philadelphia was represented by the Washington Grays in the American Civil War. The African-American population of Philadelphia increased from 31,699 to 219,559 between 1880 and 1930, largely stemming from the Great Migration from the South.[63][64]

20th century

Chestnut Street in Center City at night in February 2016

By the 20th century, Philadelphia had an entrenched Republican political machine and a complacent population.[65] In 1910, a general strike shut down the entire city.[66]

In 1917, following outrage over the election-year murder of a Philadelphia police officer, led to the shrinking of the City Council from two houses to just one.[67] In July 1919, Philadelphia was one of more than 36 industrial cities nationally to suffer a race riot during Red Summer in post-World War I unrest as recent immigrants competed with Blacks for jobs. In the 1920s, the public flouting of Prohibition laws, organized crime, mob violence, and corrupt police involvement in illegal activities led to the appointment of Brig. Gen. Smedley Butler of the U.S. Marine Corps as the city's director of public safety, but political pressure still prevented long-term success in fighting crime and corruption.[68]

In 1940, non-Hispanic whites constituted 86.8% of the city's population.[69] In 1950, the population peaked at more than two million residents, then began to decline with the restructuring of industry that led to the loss of many middle-class union jobs. In addition, suburbanization enticed many affluent residents to depart the city for its outlying railroad commuting towns and newer housing. The resulting reduction in Philadelphia's tax base and the resources of local government caused the city to struggle through a long period of adjustment, and it approached bankruptcy by the late 1980s.[70][71]

In 1985, the MOVE Bombing of the Cobbs Creek neighborhood by city helicopters occurred, killing 11 and destroying 61 homes.[72]

Revitalization and gentrification of neighborhoods began in the late 1970s and continues into the 21st century with much of the development occurring in the Center City and University City neighborhoods. But this expanded a shortage of affordable housing in the city. After many manufacturers and businesses left Philadelphia or shut down, the city started attracting service businesses and began to market itself more aggressively as a tourist destination. Contemporary glass-and-granite skyscrapers were built in Center City beginning in the 1980s. Historic areas such as Old City and Society Hill were renovated during the reformist mayoral era of the 1950s through the 1980s, making both areas among the most desirable Center City neighborhoods. Immigrants from around the world began to enter the U.S. through Philadelphia as their gateway, leading to a reversal of the city's population decline between 1950 and 2000, during which it lost about 25 percent of its residents.[73][74]

21st century

Philadelphia eventually began experiencing a growth in its population in 2007, which continued with incremental annual increases through the present.[75][76] A migration pattern has been established from New York City to Philadelphia by residents opting for a large city with relative proximity and a lower cost of living.[77][78]

Geography

Topography

Philadelphia's geographic center is about 40° 0′ 34″ north latitude and 75° 8′ 0″ west longitude. The 40th parallel north passes through neighborhoods in Northeast Philadelphia, North Philadelphia, and West Philadelphia including Fairmount Park. The city encompasses 142.71 square miles (369.62 km2), of which 134.18 square miles (347.52 km2) is land and 8.53 square miles (22.09 km2), or 6%, is water.[79] Natural bodies of water include the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers, lakes in Franklin Delano Roosevelt Park, and Cobbs, Wissahickon, and Pennypack creeks. The largest artificial body of water is East Park Reservoir in Fairmount Park.

The lowest point is sea level and the highest point is in Chestnut Hill, about 446 feet (136 m) above sea level on Summit Street near the intersection of Germantown Avenue and Bethlehem Pike at: 40.07815 N, 75.20747 W.[80][81] Philadelphia is located on the Atlantic Seaboard Fall Line that separates the Atlantic Plain from the Piedmont.[82] The Schuylkill River's rapids at East Falls were inundated by completion of the dam at Fairmount Water Works.[83]

The city is the seat of its own county. The city is bordered by six adjacent counties: Montgomery to the northwest; Bucks to the north and northeast; Burlington County, New Jersey to the east; Camden County, New Jersey to the southeast; Gloucester County, New Jersey to the south; and Delaware County to the southwest.

Cityscape

See also: Architecture of Philadelphia and List of tallest buildings in Philadelphia

The skyline of Philadelphia seen from the northwest on the Spring Garden Street Bridge over the Schuylkill River in April 2018 (annotated version)

Philadelphia's skyline at twilight from the southwest on the South Street Bridge with the Schuylkill River on the left in July 2016 (annotated version)

City planning

See also: List of Philadelphia neighborhoods

Philadelphia was created in the 17th century, following the plan by William Penn's surveyor Thomas Holme. Center City is structured with long, straight streets running nearly due east–west and north–south, forming a grid pattern between the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers that is aligned with their courses. The original city plan was designed to allow for easy travel and to keep residences separated by open space that would help prevent the spread of fire.[84] In keeping with the idea of a "Greene Countrie Towne", and inspired by the many types of trees that grew in the region, Penn named many of the east–west streets for local trees.[85] Penn planned the creation of five public parks in the city which were renamed in 1824.[84] Centre Square was renamed Penn Square;[86] Northeast Square was renamed Franklin Square; Southeast Square was renamed Washington Square; Southwest Square was renamed Rittenhouse Square; and Northwest Square was renamed Logan Circle/Square.[87] Center City had an estimated 183,240 residents as of 2015, making it the second-most populated downtown area in the United States after Midtown Manhattan in New York City.[88]

Philadelphia's neighborhoods are divided into six large sections that surround Center City: North Philadelphia, Northeast Philadelphia, South Philadelphia, Southwest Philadelphia, West Philadelphia, and Northwest Philadelphia. The city's geographic boundaries have been largely unchanged since these neighborhoods were consolidated in 1854. However, each of these large areas contains numerous neighborhoods, some of whose boundaries derive from the boroughs, townships, and other communities that constituted Pennsylvania County before their inclusion within the city.[89]

The City Planning Commission, tasked with guiding growth and development of the city, has divided the city into 18 planning districts as part of the Philadelphia2035 physical development plan.[90][91] Much of the city's 1980 zoning code was overhauled from 2007 to 2012 as part of a joint effort between former mayors John F. Street and Michael Nutter. The zoning changes were intended to rectify incorrect zoning maps to facilitate future community development, as the city forecasts an additional 100,000 residents and 40,000 jobs will be added by 2035.

The Philadelphia Housing Authority (PHA) is the largest landlord in Pennsylvania. Established in 1937, the PHA is the nation's fourth-largest housing authority, serving about 81,000 people with affordable housing, while employing 1,400 on a budget of $371 million.[92] The Philadelphia Parking Authority is responsible for ensuring adequate parking for city residents, businesses, and visitors.[93]

Architecture

Main articles: Architecture of Philadelphia and List of tallest buildings in Philadelphia

Philadelphia City Hall at night in December 2012

Two of Center City Philadelphia's most prominent high-rise buildings, One Liberty Place, built between 1985 and 1987 (in background), and Philadelphia City Hall, built between 1871 and 1901 (in foreground)

Philadelphia's architectural history dates back to colonial times and includes a wide range of styles. The earliest structures were constructed with logs, but brick structures were common by 1700. During the 18th century, the cityscape was dominated by Georgian architecture, including Independence Hall and Christ Church.

In the first decades of the 19th century, Federal and Greek Revival architecture were the dominant styles produced by Philadelphia architects such as Benjamin Latrobe, William Strickland, John Haviland, John Notman, Thomas Walter, and Samuel Sloan.[94] Frank Furness is considered Philadelphia's greatest architect of the second half of the 19th century. His contemporaries included John McArthur Jr., Addison Hutton, Wilson Eyre, the Wilson Brothers, and Horace Trumbauer. In 1871, construction began on the Second Empire-style Philadelphia City Hall. The Philadelphia Historical Commission was created in 1955 to preserve the cultural and architectural history of the city. The commission maintains the Philadelphia Register of Historic Places, adding historic buildings, structures, sites, objects and districts as it sees fit.[95]

In 1932, Philadelphia became home to the first modern International Style skyscraper in the United States, the PSFS Building, designed by George Howe and William Lescaze. The 548 ft (167 m) City Hall remained the tallest building in the city until 1987 when One Liberty Place was completed. Numerous glass and granite skyscrapers were built in Center City beginning in the late 1980s. In 2007, the Comcast Center surpassed One Liberty Place to become the city's tallest building. The Comcast Technology Center was completed in 2018, reaching a height of 1,121 ft (342 m), as the tallest building in the United States outside of Manhattan and Chicago.[96]

For much of Philadelphia's history, the typical home has been the row house. The row house was introduced to the United States via Philadelphia in the early 19th century and, for a time, row houses built elsewhere in the United States were known as "Philadelphia rows".[94] A variety of row houses are found throughout the city, from Federal-style continuous blocks in Old City and Society Hill to Victorian-style homes in North Philadelphia to twin row houses in West Philadelphia. While newer homes have been built recently, much of the housing dates to the 18th, 19th, and early 20th centuries, which has created problems such as urban decay and vacant lots. Some neighborhoods, including Northern Liberties and Society Hill, have been rehabilitated through gentrification.[97][98]

Elfreth's Alley, first developed in 1703, is the nation's oldest residential street.[99]

Elfreth's Alley, first developed in 1703, is the nation's oldest residential street.[99]

 

Carpenters' Hall, built between 1770 and 1774 in Georgian architecture style

Carpenters' Hall, built between 1770 and 1774 in Georgian architecture style

 

The Second Bank of the United States, built between 1818 and 1824, exhibiting Greek Revival architecture

The Second Bank of the United States, built between 1818 and 1824, exhibiting Greek Revival architecture

 

Second Empire-style Philadelphia City Hall, built between 1871 and 1901, on South Broad Street

Second Empire-style Philadelphia City Hall, built between 1871 and 1901, on South Broad Street

 

The Art Deco-style grand concourse at 30th Street Station, one of the nation's busiest passenger train stations, built between 1927 and 1933

The Art Deco-style grand concourse at 30th Street Station, one of the nation's busiest passenger train stations, built between 1927 and 1933

Parks

See also: Drinking fountains in Philadelphia, Fairmount Park, and List of parks in Philadelphia

Philadelphia's Fairmount Park on the Schuylkill River, the city's largest and one of the world's largest public parks

As of 2014, the city's total park space, including municipal, state, and federal parks in the city, amounts to 11,211 acres (17.5 sq mi).[26] Philadelphia's largest park is Fairmount Park, which includes the Philadelphia Zoo and encompasses 2,052 acres (3.2 sq mi) of the total parkland. Fairmount Park's adjacent Wissahickon Valley Park contains 2,042 acres (3.2 sq mi).[100] Fairmount Park, when combined with Wissahickon Valley Park, is one of the largest contiguous urban park areas in the U.S.[26] The two parks, along with the Colonial Revival, Georgian and Federal-style mansions in them, have been listed as one entity on the National Register of Historic Places since 1972.[101]

Climate

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Climate chart (explanation)

J

F

M

A

M

J

J

A

S

O

N

D

  3.1  4126

  2.8  4428

  4  5334

  3.5  6544

  3.3  7454

  4  8364

  4.4  8870

  4.3  8668

  4.4  7961

  3.5  6749

  2.9  5639

  4  4631

█ Average max. and min. temperatures in °F

█ Precipitation totals in inches

Metric conversion

Within the Köppen climate classification, Philadelphia falls under the northern periphery of the humid subtropical climate zone (Köppen Cfa).[102] Within the Trewartha climate classification, Philadelphia has a temperate maritime climate (Do) limited to the north by the continental climate (Dc).[103] Summers are typically hot and muggy. Fall and spring are generally mild, and winter is moderately cold. The plant life hardiness zones are 7a and 7b, reflecting an average annual extreme minimum temperature between 0 and 10 °F (−18 and −12 °C).[104]

Snowfall is highly variable. Some winters have only light snow while others include major snowstorms. The normal seasonal snowfall averages 22.4 in (57 cm), with rare snowfalls in November or April, and rarely any sustained snow cover.[105] Seasonal snowfall accumulation has ranged from trace amounts in 1972–73, to 78.7 inches (200 cm) in the winter of 2009–10.[105][b] The city's heaviest single-storm snowfall was 30.7 in (78 cm), which occurred in January 1996.[106]

Precipitation is generally spread throughout the year, with eight to eleven wet days per month,[107] at an average annual rate of 44.1 inches (1,120 mm), but historically ranging from 29.31 in (744 mm) in 1922 to 64.33 in (1,634 mm) in 2011.[105] The most rain recorded in one day occurred on July 28, 2013, when 8.02 in (204 mm) fell at Philadelphia International Airport.[105] Philadelphia has a moderately sunny climate with an average of 2,498 hours of sunshine annually. The percentage of sunshine ranges from 47% in December to 61% in June, July, and August.[108]

The January daily average temperature is 33.7 °F (0.9 °C). The temperature frequently rises to 50 °F (10 °C) during thaws. July averages 78.7 °F (25.9 °C). Heat waves accompanied by high humidity and heat indices are frequent, with highs reaching or exceeding 90 °F (32 °C) on 30 days of the year. The average window for freezing temperatures is November 6 to April 2,[105] allowing a growing season of 217 days. Early fall and late winter are generally dry, with February having the lowest average precipitation at 2.75 inches (70 mm). The dewpoint in the summer averages between 59.1 and 64.5 °F (15 and 18 °C).[105]

The highest recorded temperature was 106 °F (41 °C) on August 7, 1918. Temperatures at or above 100 °F (38 °C) are not common, with the last occurrence of such a temperature being July 21, 2019.[109] The lowest officially recorded temperature was −11 °F (−24 °C) on February 9, 1934.[109] Temperatures at or below 0 °F (−18 °C) are rare, with the last such occurrence being January 19, 1994.[105] The record low maximum is 5 °F (−15 °C) on February 10, 1899, and December 30, 1880. The record high minimum is 83 °F (28 °C) on July 23, 2011, and July 24, 2010.[110]

vte

Climate data for Philadelphia (Philadelphia Airport), 1991–2020 normals,[c] extremes 1872–present[d]

Climate data for Philadelphia

Time Series

Graphs are unavailable due to technical issues. There is more info on Phabricator and on MediaWiki.org.

See or edit raw graph data.

Air quality

Philadelphia County received an ozone grade of F and a 24-hour particle pollution rating of D in the American Lung Association's 2017 State of the Air report, which analyzed data from 2013 to 2015.[115][116] The city was ranked 22nd for ozone, 20th for short-term particle pollution, and 11th for year-round particle pollution.[117] According to the same report, the city experienced a significant reduction in high ozone days since 2001—from nearly 50 days per year to fewer than 10—along with fewer days of high particle pollution since 2000—from about 19 days per year to about 3—and an approximate 30% reduction in annual levels of particle pollution since 2000.[116]

Five of the ten largest combined statistical areas (CSAs) were ranked higher for ozone: Los Angeles (1st), New York City (9th), Houston (12th), Dallas (13th), and San Jose, California (18th). Many smaller CSAs were also ranked higher for ozone, including Sacramento (8th), Las Vegas (10th), Denver (11th), El Paso (16th), and Salt Lake City (20th). Only two of those same ten CSAs, San Jose and Los Angeles, were ranked higher than Philadelphia for both year-round and short-term particle pollution.[117]

Demographics

Main article: Demographics of Philadelphia

See also: Chinese in Philadelphia; History of Irish Americans in Philadelphia; History of Italian Americans in Philadelphia; Koreans in Philadelphia; Little Saigon, Philadelphia; History of Jews in Philadelphia; LGBT culture in Philadelphia; and Puerto Ricans in Philadelphia

Historical population

Year Pop. ±%

1683 600 —    

1731 12,000 +1900.0%

1790 28,522 +137.7%

1800 41,220 +44.5%

1810 53,722 +30.3%

1820 63,802 +18.8%

1830 80,462 +26.1%

1840 93,665 +16.4%

1850 121,376 +29.6%

1860 565,529 +365.9%

1870 674,022 +19.2%

1880 847,170 +25.7%

1890 1,046,964 +23.6%

1900 1,293,697 +23.6%

1910 1,549,008 +19.7%

1920 1,823,779 +17.7%

1930 1,950,961 +7.0%

1940 1,931,334 −1.0%

1950 2,071,605 +7.3%

1960 2,002,512 −3.3%

1970 1,948,609 −2.7%

1980 1,688,210 −13.4%

1990 1,585,577 −6.1%

2000 1,517,550 −4.3%

2010 1,526,006 +0.6%

2020 1,603,797 +5.1%

2023 1,550,542 −3.3%

U.S. Decennial Census[118]

2010–2020[11]

Source: U.S. Decennial Census[119]

As of the 2020 U.S. Census, there were 1,603,797 people residing in Philadelphia, representing a 1.2% increase from the 2019 census estimate.[76] The racial composition of the city was 39.3% Black alone (42.0% Black alone or in combination), 36.3% White alone (41.9% White alone or in combination), 8.7% Asian alone, 0.4% American Indian and Alaska Native alone, 8.7% some other race, and 6.9% multiracial. 14.9% of residents were Hispanic or Latino.[120]

34.8% had a bachelor's degree or higher. 23.9% spoke a language other than English at home, the most common of which was Spanish (10.8%). 15.0% of the populations foreign born, roughly half of whom are naturalized U.S. citizens. 3.7% of the population are veterans. The median household income was $52,889 and 22.8% of the population lived in poverty. 49.5% of the population drove alone to work, while 23.2% used public transit, 8.2% carpooled, 7.9% walked, and 7.0% worked from home. The average commute is 31 minutes.[120]

After the 1950 census, when a record high of 2,071,605 was recorded, the city's population began a long decline. The population dropped to a low of 1,488,710 residents in 2006 before beginning to rise again. Between 2006 and 2017, Philadelphia added 92,153 residents. In 2017, the U.S. Census Bureau estimated that the racial composition of the city was 41.3% Black (non-Hispanic), 34.9% White (non-Hispanic), 14.1% Hispanic or Latino, 7.1% Asian, 0.4% Native American, 0.05% Pacific Islander, and 2.8% multiracial.[121]

Census racial composition 2020[120] 2010[122] 2000 1990[123] 1980[123] 1970[123]

Black or African American (non-Hispanic) 38.3% 42.2% 42.6% 39.3% 37.5% 33.3%[e]

White (non-Hispanic) 34.3% 36.9% 42.5% 52.1% 57.1% 63.8[e]

Hispanic or Latino (of any race) 14.9% 12.3% 8.5% 5.6% 3.8% 2.4%[e]

Asian 8.3% 6.3% 4.5% 2.7% 1.1% 0.3%

Pacific Islanders 0.1% <0.1% <0.1% <0.1%

Native Americans 0.4% 0.5% 0.3% 0.2% 0.1% 0.1%

Two or more races 6.9% 2.8% 2.2% n/a[124] n/a n/a

Ethnic origins in Philadelphia

Immigration and cultural diversity

Philadelphia's famed Italian Market in South Philadelphia

A Gayborhood street sign near Washington Square

In addition to the city's economic growth, the city's population has been fueled by foreign immigration. According to The Pew Charitable Trusts, the city's foreign-born population increased by 69% between 2000 and 2016 to constitute nearly 20% of Philadelphia's workforce,[125] and it doubled between 1990 and 2017 to constitute 13.8% of the city's total population, with the top five countries of origin being China by a significant margin followed by the Dominican Republic, Jamaica, India, and Vietnam.[126]

Top 10 countries of origin for foreign-born Philadelphians, 2017[127]

Country Population

 China 22,140

 Dominican Republic 13,792

 Jamaica 13,500

 India 11,382

 Vietnam 10,132

 Haiti 9,186

 Mexico 7,823

 Ukraine 6,898

 Albania 5,258

 South Korea/ North Korea 4,385

Irish, Italian, German, Polish, English, Russian, Ukrainian, and French ancestries constitute the largest European ethnic groups in the city.[128] Philadelphia has the second-largest Irish and Italian populations in the United States after New York City. South Philadelphia remains one of the largest Italian neighborhoods in the country and is home to the Italian Market.

The Pennsport neighborhood and Gray's Ferry section of South Philadelphia, home to many Mummer clubs, are well known as Irish neighborhoods. The Kensington, Port Richmond, and Fishtown neighborhoods have historically been heavily Irish and Polish. Port Richmond is a center for the Polish-American community in Philadelphia, and it remains a common destination for Polish immigrants. Northeast Philadelphia, although known for its Irish and Irish-American population, is home to a Jewish and Russian population. Mount Airy in Northwest Philadelphia also contains a Jewish community. Nearby Chestnut Hill is historically known as an Anglo-Saxon Protestant community.

Philadelphia's Black American population is the fourth-largest in the country after New York City, Chicago, and Houston. West Philadelphia and North Philadelphia are largely African-American neighborhoods, but many are leaving those areas in favor of the Northeast and Southwest sections of Philadelphia. A higher proportion of African-American Muslims reside in Philadelphia than most other major U.S. cities. West Philadelphia and Southwest Philadelphia are home to various Afro-Caribbean and African immigrant communities.[129]

The Puerto Rican population in Philadelphia is the second-largest on the U.S. mainland after New York City, and the second-fastest growing after Orlando.[130] Eastern North Philadelphia, particularly Fairhill and surrounding areas to the north and east, has one of the highest concentrations of Puerto Ricans outside Puerto Rico, with many large swaths of blocks being close to 100% Puerto Rican.[131][132] Puerto Rican and Dominican populations reside in North Philadelphia and the Northeast, and Mexican and Central American populations exist in South Philadelphia.[133] South American migrants were being transported by bus from Texas to Philadelphia beginning in 2022.[134]

Philadelphia's Asian American population includes those of Chinese, Indians, Vietnamese, South Koreans, Filipinos, Cambodians, and Indonesians. Over 35,000 Chinese Americans lived in the city in 2015,[135] including a Fuzhounese population. Center City hosts a Chinatown that is served by Chinatown bus lines with service to/from Chinatown, Manhattan.[136] A Korean community initially settled in the North Philadelphia neighborhood of Olney; however, the primary Koreatown has subsequently shifted further north, straddling the city's border with adjacent Cheltenham in Montgomery County and Cherry Hill in South Jersey. South Philadelphia is home to Vietnamese-Americans in Little Saigon and Cambodian-Americans in Cambodia Town, as well as Thai-American, Indonesian-American, and Chinese-American communities.

Philadelphia's Gay village near Washington Square is home to a concentration of gay and lesbian-friendly businesses, restaurants, and bars.[137][138]

Religion

Main article: Religion in Philadelphia

In a 2014 study by the Pew Research Center, 68% of the population of the city identified themselves as Christian.[139] Approximately 41% of Christians in the city and area professed attendance at a variety of churches that could be considered Protestant, while 26% professed Catholic beliefs.

The Protestant Christian community in Philadelphia is dominated by mainline Protestant denominations including the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, United Church of Christ, the Episcopal Church in the United States, Presbyterian Church (USA) and American Baptist Churches USA. One of the most prominent mainline Protestant jurisdictions is the Episcopal Diocese of Pennsylvania. The African Methodist Episcopal Church was established in Philadelphia. Historically, the city has strong connections to the Quakers, Unitarian Universalism, and the Ethical Culture movement, all of which continue to be represented in the city. The Quaker Friends General Conference is based in Philadelphia. Evangelical Protestants making up less than 15% of the population were also prevalent.

Evangelical Protestant bodies included the Anglican Church in North America, Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod, Presbyterian Church in America, and National Baptist Convention of America. The Catholic community is primarily served by the Latin Catholic Archdiocese of Philadelphia, the Ukrainian Catholic Archeparchy of Philadelphia, and the Syro-Malankara Catholic Eparchy of the United States of America and Canada, though some independent Catholic churches exist throughout Philadelphia and its suburbs. The Latin Church-based jurisdiction is headquartered in the city, and its see is the Cathedral Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul. The Ukrainian Catholic jurisdiction is headquartered in Philadelphia, and is seated at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception.

Less than 1% of Philadelphia's Christians were Mormons. The remainder of the Christian demographic is spread among smaller Protestant denominations and the Eastern and Oriental Orthodox among others. The Diocese of Eastern Pennsylvania (Orthodox Church in America) and Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America (Ecumenical Patriarchate) divide the Eastern Orthodox in Philadelphia. The Russian Orthodox St. Andrew's Cathedral is in the city. The same study says that other religions collectively compose about 8% of the population, including Judaism, Hinduism, Islam, Buddhism, and Sikhism.[140] Philadelphia has the fifth-largest Muslim population among U.S. cities.[141] The remaining 24% claimed no religious affiliation.

The Philadelphia metropolitan area's Jewish population was estimated at 206,000 in 2001, which was the sixth-largest in the U.S. at that time.[142] Jewish traders were operating in southeastern Pennsylvania long before William Penn. Jews in Philadelphia took a prominent part in the War of Independence. Although the majority of the early Jewish residents were of Portuguese or Spanish descent, some among them had emigrated from Germany and Poland. About the beginning of the 19th century, a number of Jews from the latter countries, finding the services of the Congregation Mickvé Israel unfamiliar to them, resolved to form a new congregation which would use the ritual to which they had been accustomed.

African diasporic religions are practiced in some Latino and Hispanic and Caribbean communities in North and West Philadelphia.[143][144]

Languages

As of 2010, 79.12% (1,112,441) of Philadelphia residents age 5 and older spoke English at home as a primary language, while 9.72% (136,688) spoke Spanish, 1.64% (23,075) Chinese, 0.89% (12,499) Vietnamese, 0.77% (10,885) Russian, 0.66% (9,240) French, 0.61% (8,639) other Asian languages, 0.58% (8,217) African languages, 0.56% (7,933) Cambodian (Mon-Khmer), and Italian was spoken as a main language by 0.55% (7,773) of the population over the age of five. In total, 20.88% (293,544) of Philadelphia's population age 5 and older spoke a mother language other than English.[145]

Poverty

Philadelphia is home to many food poverty programs, of which two of the largest are Philabundance which claims to feed 90000 people per week.[146][147][148][149] and Share Food Program which claims to feed 1 million people per month.[150]

Economy

Main article: Economy of Philadelphia

Top publicly traded companies

headquartered in Philadelphia

Corporation 2019

rank Revenue

(billions)

Comcast 32 94.5

Aramark 198 15.8

FMC 556 4.7

Urban Outfitters 634 4.0

Carpenter Technology 940 2.2

Source: Fortune[151]

Philadelphia's close geographical and transportation connections to other large metropolitan economies along the Eastern Seaboard of the United States have been cited as offering a significant competitive advantage for business creation and entrepreneurship.[152] The city is the center of economic activity in both Pennsylvania and the four-state Delaware Valley metropolitan region. Five Fortune 500 companies are headquartered in the city. As of 2021, the Philadelphia metropolitan area is estimated to produce a gross metropolitan product (GMP) of US$479 billion,[153] an increase from the $445 billion calculated by the Bureau of Economic Analysis for 2017,[154] representing the ninth-largest U.S. metropolitan economy.

Philadelphia's economic sectors include financial services, health care, biotechnology, information technology, trade and transportation, manufacturing, oil refining, food processing, and tourism. Metropolitan Philadelphia is one of the top five American venture capital hubs, credited to its proximity to New York City's financial and tech and biotechnology ecosystems.[21] Financial activities account for the largest economic sector of the metropolitan area, which is one of the largest health education and research centers in the United States. The city's two largest employers are the federal and city governments. Philadelphia's largest private employer is the University of Pennsylvania, followed by the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.[155] A study commissioned by the city's government in 2011 projected 40,000 jobs would be added to the city within 25 years, raising the number of jobs from 675,000 in 2010 to an estimated 715,000 by 2035.[156]

Corporations

Main article: List of companies based in the Philadelphia area

The Philadelphia Stock Exchange, the nation's first stock exchange, at 1411 Walnut Street

Comcast Center in Center City, headquarters of the nation's largest multinational telecommunications conglomerate and the city's second-tallest building after Comcast Technology Center[157]

The Philadelphia Stock Exchange, acquired by Nasdaq in 2007, is a global leader in options trading.[22] The city is home to the headquarters of cable television and internet service provider Comcast, insurance companies Cigna, Colonial Penn, and Independence Blue Cross, food services company Aramark, chemical makers FMC Corporation and Rohm and Haas, pharmaceutical companies GlaxoSmithKline, Amicus Therapeutics, Spark Therapeutics, apparel retailers Five Below and Urban Outfitters and its subsidiary Anthropologie, automotive parts retailer Pep Boys, and stainless steel producer Carpenter Technology Corporation.

Other corporation headquarters in the city include RiteAid, Crown Holdings, and Brandywine Realty Trust. The headquarters of Boeing Rotorcraft Systems and its main rotorcraft factory are in the Philadelphia suburb of Ridley Park; The Vanguard Group, and the U.S. headquarters of Siemens Healthineers are headquartered in Malvern, Pennsylvania, a Philadelphia suburb. Healthcare conglomerate AmerisourceBergen is located in suburban Conshohocken, Pennsylvania. Across the Delaware River in adjacent Camden County, New Jersey, Campbell Soup Company and Subaru USA are both headquartered in the city of Camden, and TD Bank (USA) is headquartered in nearby suburban Cherry Hill, New Jersey.

Tech and biotech

Philadelphia is a hub for information technology and biotechnology.[158] Philadelphia and Pennsylvania are attracting new life sciences ventures.[159] The Philadelphia metropolitan area, comprising the Delaware Valley, has become a growing hub for venture capital funding.[159]

Tourism

See also: List of tourist attractions in Philadelphia

Philadelphia's history attracts many tourists, with the Independence National Historical Park, which includes the Liberty Bell, Independence Hall, and other historic sites, received over 5 million visitors in 2016.[160] The city welcomed 42 million domestic tourists in 2016 who spent $6.8 billion, generating an estimated $11 billion in total economic impact in the city and surrounding four counties of Pennsylvania.[27] The annual Naked Bike Ride attracts participants from around the United States and internationally to Philadelphia.

Trade and transportation

Main article: Transportation in Philadelphia

Philadelphia International Airport is undergoing a $900 million infrastructural expansion to increase passenger capacity and augment passenger experience;[161][162] while the Port of Philadelphia, having experienced the highest percentage growth by tonnage loaded in 2017 among major U.S. seaports, was in the process of doubling its shipping capacity to accommodate super-sized post-Panamax shipping vessels in 2018.[163] Philadelphia's 30th Street Station is the third-busiest Amtrak rail hub, following Penn Station in Manhattan and Union Station in Washington, D.C., transporting over 4 million inter-city rail passengers annually.[164]

Education

Main article: Education in Philadelphia

See also: Free Library of Philadelphia

Primary and secondary education

See also: School District of Philadelphia

William Penn Charter School, established in 1689, the nation's oldest Quaker school

Education in Philadelphia is provided by many private and public institutions. The School District of Philadelphia is the local school district, operating public schools, in all of the city.[165] The Philadelphia School District is the eighth-largest school district in the nation[166] with 142,266 students in 218 traditional public schools and 86 charter schools as of 2014.[167]

The city's K-12 enrollment in district–run schools dropped from 156,211 students in 2010 to 130,104 students in 2015. During the same time period, the enrollment in charter schools increased from 33,995 students in 2010 to 62,358 students in 2015.[155] This consistent drop in enrollment led the city to close 24 of its public schools in 2013.[168] During the 2014 school year, the city spent an average of $12,570 per pupil, below the average among comparable urban school districts.[155]

Graduation rates among district-run schools, meanwhile, steadily increased in the ten years from 2005. In 2005, Philadelphia had a district graduation rate of 52%. This number increased to 65% in 2014, still below the national and state averages. Scores on the state's standardized test, the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment (PSSA) trended upward from 2005 to 2011 but subsequently decreased. In 2005, the district-run schools scored an average of 37.4% on math and 35.5% on reading. The city's schools reached their peak scores in 2011 with 59.0% on math and 52.3% on reading. In 2014, the scores dropped significantly to 45.2% on math and 42.0% on reading.[155]

Of the city's public high schools, including charter schools, only four performed above the national average on the SAT (1497 out of 2400[169]) in 2014: Masterman, Central, Girard Academic Music Program, and MaST Community Charter School. All other district-run schools were below average.[155]

Higher education

See also: List of colleges and universities in Philadelphia

The University of Pennsylvania, an Ivy League university in Philadelphia founded in 1749 by Benjamin Franklin and one of the world's highest-ranked universities

The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, one of the world's most prestigious business schools

Medical and research facilities of the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. Philadelphia has the third-largest student concentration on the East Coast, with more than 120,000 college and university students enrolled within the city and nearly 300,000 in the metropolitan area.[170] More than 80 colleges, universities, trade, and specialty schools are in the Philadelphia region. One of the founding members of the Association of American Universities is in the city, the University of Pennsylvania, an Ivy League institution with claims to be the First university in the United States.[171][37]

The city's largest university by student enrollment is Temple University, followed by Drexel University.[172] The city's nationally ranked research universities comprise the University of Pennsylvania, Temple University, Drexel University, and Thomas Jefferson University. Philadelphia is also home to five schools of medicine: Drexel University College of Medicine, Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine, Temple University School of Medicine, and Thomas Jefferson University's Sidney Kimmel Medical College. Hospitals, universities, and higher education research institutions in Philadelphia's four congressional districts received more than $252 million in National Institutes of Health grants in 2015.[173]

Other institutions of higher learning within the city's borders include:

Chestnut Hill College

Community College of Philadelphia

Curtis Institute of Music

Holy Family University

La Salle University

Moore College of Art and Design

Peirce College

Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts

Saint Joseph's University

The Restaurant School at Walnut Hill College

University of the Arts

Culture

Main article: Culture of Philadelphia

See also: List of National Historic Landmarks in Philadelphia, List of sites of interest in Philadelphia, and List of tourist attractions in Philadelphia

The Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts at 300 Broad Street, home of the Philadelphia Orchestra

Philadelphia is home to many national historical sites that relate to the founding of the United States. Independence National Historical Park is the center of these historical landmarks and one of the country's 22 UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Independence Hall, where the Declaration of Independence was signed, and the Liberty Bell is housed, are among the city's most popular attractions. Other national historic sites include the homes of Edgar Allan Poe and Thaddeus Kosciuszko, and early government buildings, including the First and the Second Bank of the United States, Fort Mifflin, and the Gloria Dei (Old Swedes') Church.[174] Philadelphia alone has 67 National Historic Landmarks, the third most of any city in the country.[174]

Philadelphia's major science museums include the Franklin Institute, which contains the Benjamin Franklin National Memorial, the Academy of Natural Sciences, the Mütter Museum, and the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. History museums include the National Constitution Center, the Museum of the American Revolution, the Philadelphia History Museum, the National Museum of American Jewish History, the African American Museum in Philadelphia, the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, the Masonic Library and Museum of Pennsylvania in the Masonic Temple, and the Eastern State Penitentiary. Philadelphia is home to the United States's first zoo[175] and hospital,[176] as well as Fairmount Park, one of America's oldest and largest urban parks,[26] founded in 1855.[177]

The city is home to important archival repositories, including the Library Company of Philadelphia, established in 1731 by Benjamin Franklin at 1314 Locust Street,[178] and the Athenaeum of Philadelphia, founded in 1814.[179] The Presbyterian Historical Society is the country's oldest denominational historical society, organized in 1852.[180]

Arts

See also: List of museums in Philadelphia, List of public art in Philadelphia, and Mummers Parade

The Philadelphia Museum of Art

Keys To Community, a bust of Benjamin Franklin by James Peniston at 325 Arch Street in Center City

The city is home to multiple art museums, including the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and the Rodin Museum, which holds the largest collection of work by Auguste Rodin outside France. The city's largest art museum, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, is one of the largest art museums in the world. The long flight of steps to the Art Museum's main entrance became famous after the film Rocky (1976).[181]

Annual events include the Philadelphia Film Festival, held annually each October, the 6abc Dunkin' Donuts Thanksgiving Day Parade, the nation's longest-running continuously held Thanksgiving Day parade, and the Mummers Parade, the nation's longest continuously held folk parade, which is held every New Year's Day predominantly on Broad Street.

Areas such as South Street and the Old City section of the city have a vibrant night life. The Avenue of the Arts in Center City contains many restaurants and theaters, such as the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, home of the Philadelphia Orchestra, and the Academy of Music, home of Opera Philadelphia and the Pennsylvania Ballet.[181] The Wilma Theatre and the Philadelphia Theatre Company at the Suzanne Roberts Theatre produce a variety of new plays.[182][183] Several blocks to the east are the Lantern Theater Company at St. Stephens Episcopal Church;[184] and the Walnut Street Theatre, a National Historic Landmark stated to be the oldest and most subscribed-to theatre in the English-speaking world, founded in 1809.[185] In May 2019, the Walnut Street Theatre announced a major expansion to begin in 2020.[186] New Freedom Theatre, Pennsylvania's oldest African-American theatre, is located on North Broad Street.

Philadelphia has more public art than any other American city.[187] In 1872, the Association for Public Art, formerly the Fairmount Park Art Association, was created as the first private association in the United States dedicated to integrating public art and urban planning.[188] In 1959, lobbying by the Artists Equity Association helped create the Percent for Art ordinance, the first for a U.S. city.[189] The program, which has funded more than 200 pieces of public art, is administered by the Philadelphia Office of Arts and Culture, the city's art agency.[190] The city has more murals than any other American city, due to the 1984 creation of the Department of Recreation's Mural Arts Program, which seeks to beautify neighborhoods and provide an outlet for graffiti artists. The program has funded more than 2,800 murals by professional, staff and volunteer artists and educated more than 20,000 youth in underserved neighborhoods throughout Philadelphia.[191]

The city is home to a number of art organizations, including the regional art advocacy nonprofit Philadelphia Tri-State Artists Equity,[192] the Philadelphia Sketch Club, one of the country's oldest artists' clubs,[193] and The Plastic Club, started by women excluded from the Sketch Club.[194] Many Old City art galleries stay open late on the First Friday event of each month.[195]

Music

Main article: Music of Philadelphia

The Curtis Institute of Music at 1726 Locust Street in Center City, one of the world's premier conservatories

The Philadelphia Orchestra is generally considered one of the top five orchestras in the United States. The orchestra performs at the Kimmel Center[196] and has a summer concert series at the Mann Center for the Performing Arts.[197] Opera Philadelphia performs at the nation's oldest continually operating opera house—the Academy of Music.[181] The Philadelphia Boys Choir & Chorale has performed its music all over the world.[198] The Philly Pops plays orchestral versions of popular jazz, swing, Broadway, and blues songs at the Kimmel Center and other venues within the mid-Atlantic region.[199] The Curtis Institute of Music is one of the world's premier conservatories and among the most selective institutes of higher education in the nation.[200]

Philadelphia has played a prominent role in the music of the United States. The culture of American popular music has been influenced by significant contributions of Philadelphia area musicians and producers, in both the recording and broadcasting industries. In 1952, the teen dance party program called Bandstand premiered on local television, hosted by Bob Horn. The show was renamed American Bandstand in 1957, when it began national syndication on ABC, hosted by Dick Clark and produced in Philadelphia until 1964 when it moved to Los Angeles.[201] Promoters marketed youthful musical artists known as teen idols to appeal to the young audience. Philadelphia-born singers such as Frankie Avalon, James Darren, Eddie Fisher, Fabian Forte, and Bobby Rydell, along with South Philly-raised Chubby Checker, topped the music charts, establishing a clean-cut rock and roll image.

Philly soul music of the late 1960s–1970s is a highly produced version of soul music which led to later forms of popular music such as disco and urban contemporary rhythm and blues.[202] On July 13, 1985, John F. Kennedy Stadium was the American venue for the Live Aid concert.[203] The city also hosted the Live 8 concert, which attracted about 700,000 people to the Benjamin Franklin Parkway on July 2, 2005.[204]

Notable rock and pop musicians from Philadelphia and its suburbs include Bill Haley & His Comets, Nazz, Todd Rundgren, Hall & Oates, the Hooters, Cinderella, DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince, Ween, Schoolly D, Pink, the Roots, Beanie Sigel, State Property, Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes, Meek Mill, Lil Uzi Vert, and others.

Cuisine

Main article: Cuisine of Philadelphia

Pat's Steaks (foreground) and Geno's Steaks (background) in South Philadelphia

The city is known for its hoagies, stromboli, roast pork sandwich, scrapple, soft pretzels, water ice, Irish potato candy, tastykakes, and the cheesesteak sandwich which was developed by Italian immigrants.[205] The Philadelphia area has many establishments that serve cheesesteaks, including restaurants, taverns, delicatessens and pizza parlors.[206][207][208] The originator of the thinly-sliced steak sandwich in the 1930s, initially without cheese, is Pat's King of Steaks, which faces its rival Geno's Steaks, founded in 1966,[209] across the intersection of 9th Street and Passyunk Avenue in the Italian Market of South Philadelphia.[210]

McGillin's Olde Ale House, opened in 1860 on Drury Street in Center City, is the oldest continuously operated tavern in the city.[211] The City Tavern is a replica of a historic 18th-century building first opened in 1773, demolished in 1854 after a fire, and rebuilt in 1975 on the same site as part of Independence National Historical Park.[212] The tavern offers authentic 18th-century recipes, served in seven period dining rooms, three wine cellar rooms and an outdoor garden.[213]

The Reading Terminal Market is a historic food market founded in 1893 in the Reading Terminal building, a designated National Historic Landmark. The enclosed market is one of the oldest and largest markets in the country, hosting over a hundred merchants offering Pennsylvania Dutch specialties, artisan cheese and meat, locally grown groceries, and specialty and ethnic foods.[214]

Dialect

Main article: Philadelphia English

The traditional Philadelphia accent is considered by some linguists to be the most distinctive accent in North America.[215] The Philadelphia dialect, which is spread throughout the Delaware Valley and South Jersey, is part of a larger Mid-Atlantic American English family, a designation that also includes the Baltimore dialect. Additionally, it shares many similarities with the New York accent. Owing to over a century of linguistic data collected by researchers at the University of Pennsylvania under sociolinguist William Labov, the Philadelphia dialect has been one of the best-studied forms of American English.[216][217][f] The accent is especially found within the Irish American and Italian American working-class neighborhoods.[218] Philadelphia also has its own unique collection of neologisms and slang terms.[219]

Sports

Main article: Sports in Philadelphia

See also: Philadelphia 76ers, Philadelphia Flyers, Philadelphia Eagles, Philadelphia Phillies, and Philadelphia Union

Citizens Bank Park, home of the Phillies since 2004, and Lincoln Financial Field, home of the Eagles since 2003

The Philadelphia Eagles are presented with the Vince Lombardi Trophy after winning Super Bowl LII on February 4, 2018

Wells Fargo Center in South Philadelphia, home of the two-time Stanley Cup champion Philadelphia Flyers of the National Hockey League (NHL) and three-time champion Philadelphia 76ers of the National Basketball Association (NBA)

Historic Boathouse Row at night on the Schuylkill River, a symbol of the city's rich rowing history

Philadelphia's first professional sports team was baseball's Athletics, organized in 1860.[220] The Athletics were initially an amateur league team that turned professional in 1871, and then became a founding team of the current National League in 1876.[221] The city is one of 13 U.S. cities to have teams in all four major league sports: the Philadelphia Phillies of Major League Baseball (MLB), the Philadelphia Eagles of the National Football League (NFL), the Philadelphia Flyers of the National Hockey League (NHL), and the Philadelphia 76ers of the National Basketball Association (NBA).[222] The Phillies, formed in 1883 as the Quakers and renamed in 1884,[223] are the oldest team continuously playing under the same name in the same city in the history of American professional sports.[224]

The Philadelphia metro area is also home to the Philadelphia Union of Major League Soccer (MLS). The Union began playing their home games in 2010 at PPL Park, a soccer-specific stadium in Chester, Pennsylvania.[225] The stadium's name was changed to Talen Energy Stadium in 2016[226] and to Subaru Park in 2020.[227]

Philadelphia was the second of eight American cities to have won titles in all four major leagues (MLB, NFL, NHL and NBA), and also has a title in soccer from the now-defunct North American Soccer League in the 1970s. The city's professional teams and their fans endured 25 years without a championship, from the 76ers 1983 NBA Finals win[228] until the Phillies 2008 World Series win.[229][230] The lack of championships was sometimes attributed in jest to the Curse of Billy Penn after One Liberty Place became the first building to surpass the height of the William Penn statue on top of City Hall's tower in 1987.[231] After nine years passed without another championship, the Eagles won their first Super Bowl following the 2017 season.[232] In 2004, ESPN placed Philadelphia second on its list of The Fifteen Most Tortured Sports Cities.[233][234] Fans of the Eagles and Phillies were singled out as the worst fans in the country by GQ magazine in 2011, which used the subtitle of "Meanest Fans in America" to summarize incidents of drunken behavior and a history of booing.[235][236]

Major professional sports teams that originated in Philadelphia but later moved to other cities include the Golden State Warriors basketball team, which played in Philadelphia from 1946 to 1962[237] and the Oakland Athletics baseball team, which was originally the Philadelphia Athletics and played in Philadelphia from 1901 to 1954.[238]

Philadelphia is home to professional, semi-professional, and elite amateur teams in cricket, rugby league (Philadelphia Fight), and rugby union. Major running events in the city include the Penn Relays (track and field), the Philadelphia Marathon, and the Broad Street Run. The Collegiate Rugby Championship is played every June at Talen Energy Stadium in Chester.[239]

Rowing has been popular in Philadelphia since the 18th century.[240] Boathouse Row is a symbol of Philadelphia's rich rowing history, and each Big Five member has its own boathouse.[241] Philadelphia hosts numerous local and collegiate rowing clubs and competitions, including the annual Dad Vail Regatta, which is the largest intercollegiate rowing event in North America with more than 100 U.S. and Canadian colleges and universities participating;[242] the annual Stotesbury Cup Regatta, which is billed as the world's oldest and largest rowing event for high school students;[243][244] and the Head of the Schuylkill Regatta.[245] The regattas are held on the Schuylkill River and organized by the Schuylkill Navy, an association of area rowing clubs that has produced numerous Olympic rowers.[246]

The Philadelphia Spinners were a professional ultimate team in Major League Ultimate (MLU) until 2016. The Spinners were one of the original eight teams of the American Ultimate Disc League (AUDL) that began in 2012. They played at Franklin Field and won the inaugural AUDL championship and the final MLU championship in 2016.[247] The MLU was suspended indefinitely by its investors in December 2016.[248] As of 2018, the Philadelphia Phoenix continue to play in the AUDL.[249]

Philadelphia is home to the Philadelphia Big 5, a group of five NCAA Division I college basketball programs. The Big 5 include La Salle, Penn, Saint Joseph's, Temple, and Villanova universities.[250] The sixth NCAA Division I school in Philadelphia is Drexel University. Villanova won the 1985,[251] 2016,[252] and 2018[253] championship of the NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament. Philadelphia will be one of the eleven US host cities for the 2026 FIFA World Cup.[254]

Team League Sport Venue Capacity Founded Championships

Philadelphia Phillies MLB Baseball Citizens Bank Park 46,528 1883 1980, 2008

Philadelphia Eagles NFL American football Lincoln Financial Field 69,176 1933 1948, 1949, 1960, 2017

Philadelphia 76ers NBA Basketball Wells Fargo Center 21,600 1963 1966–67, 1982–83

Philadelphia Flyers NHL Ice hockey Wells Fargo Center 19,786 1967 1973–74, 1974–75

Philadelphia Union MLS Soccer Subaru Park 18,500 2010 none

Philadelphia Wings NLL Lacrosse Wells Fargo Center 19,786 2018 none

Law and government

See also: Philadelphia City Hall

Old City Hall at 5th and Chestnut Street, Philadelphia's town hall from 1800 to 1854

Philadelphia County is a legal nullity. All county functions were assumed by the city in 1952.[255] The city has been coterminous with the county since 1854.[61]

Philadelphia's 1952 Home Rule Charter was written by the City Charter Commission, which was created by the Pennsylvania General Assembly in an act of April 1949, and a city ordinance of June 1949. The existing city council received a proposed draft in February 1951, and the electors approved it in an election held in April 1951.[256] The first elections under the new Home Rule Charter were held in November 1951, and the newly elected officials took office in January 1952.[255]

The city uses the strong-mayor version of the mayor–council form of government, which is led by one mayor in whom executive authority is vested. The mayor has the authority to appoint and dismiss members of all boards and commissions without the approval of the city council. Elected at-large, the mayor is limited to two consecutive four-year terms, but can run for the position again after an intervening term.[256]

Courts

See also: District Attorney of Philadelphia, United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, and United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania

Philadelphia County is coterminous with the First Judicial District of Pennsylvania. The Philadelphia County Court of Common Pleas is the trial court of general jurisdiction for the city, hearing felony-level criminal cases and civil suits above the minimum jurisdictional limit of $10,000. The court has appellate jurisdiction over rulings from the Municipal and Traffic Courts, and some administrative agencies and boards. The trial division has 70 commissioned judges elected by the voters, along with about one thousand other employees.[257] The court has a family division with 25 judges[258] and an orphans' court with three judges.[259]

As of 2018, the city's District Attorney is Larry Krasner, a Democrat.[260] The last Republican to hold the office is Ronald D. Castille, who left in 1991 and later served as the Chief Justice of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court from 2008 to 2014.[261]

The Philadelphia Municipal Court handles traffic cases, misdemeanor and felony criminal cases with maximum incarceration of five years, and civil cases involving $12,000 or less ($15,000 in real estate and school tax cases), and all landlord-tenant disputes. The municipal court has 27 judges elected by the voters.[262]

Pennsylvania's three appellate courts also have sittings in Philadelphia. The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, the court of last resort in the state, regularly hears arguments in Philadelphia City Hall.[263] The Superior Court of Pennsylvania and the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania also sit in Philadelphia several times a year.[264][265] Judges for these courts are elected at large.[266] The state Supreme Court and Superior Court have deputy prothonotary offices in Philadelphia.[267][268]

Philadelphia is home to the federal United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania and the Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, both of which are housed in the James A. Byrne United States Courthouse.[269][270]

Politics

See also: List of mayors of Philadelphia; Philadelphia City Council; and Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania § Politics

Musical Fund Hall at 808 Locust Street hosted the first nominating Republican National Convention in 1856

Cherelle Parker, (D), the 100th and current Mayor of Philadelphia

The current mayor is Cherelle Parker who won the election in November 2023.[271] Parker's predecessor, Jim Kenney, served two terms from 2016 to January 2024.[272] Parker is a member of the Democratic Party. For over seven decades, since 1952, every Philadelphia mayor has been a Democrat.

Philadelphia City Council is the legislative branch which consists of ten council members representing individual districts and seven members elected at-large, all of whom are elected to four-year terms.[273] Democrats are currently the majority and hold 14 seats including nine of the ten districts and five at-large seats. Republicans hold one seat: the Northeast-based Tenth District. The Working Families Party holds two at-large seats making them the Council's minority party. The current council president is Kenyatta Johnson.[274]

Philadelphia's political structure consists of a system of wards and divisions. There are 66 wards with 11 to 51 divisions each for a total of 1703 divisions. Each division elects two committee people who are supposed to live within the division boundaries, and committee people select a leader for their ward.[275] Democrats and Republicans elect their own committee people every four years. The committee person's role is to serve as a point of contact between voters and party officials and help get out the vote.[276] Most wards are closed which means the ward leader makes sole endorsement decisions; open wards allow committee people to weigh in on these decisions.[277] There are groups such as Open Wards Philadelphia and individuals who are working to elect ward leaders who promote an open ward system.[278]

Chart of voter registration

  Democratic (75.16%)

  Republican (11.29%)

  Independent (11.04%)

  Other Parties (2.50%)

Philadelphia County voter registration statistics as of March 4, 2024[279]

Political Party Total Voters Percentage

Democratic 775,851 75.00%

Republican 117,639 11.37%

No Party Affiliation 114,990 11.11%

Minor parties 25,924 2.50%

Total 1,034,404 100.00%

United States presidential election results for Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania[280] 

Year Republican Democratic Third party

No.  % No.  % No.  %

2020 132,870 17.86% 604,175 81.21% 6,921 0.93%

2016 108,748 15.32% 584,025 82.30% 16,845 2.37%

2012 96,467 13.97% 588,806 85.24% 5,503 0.80%

2008 117,221 16.33% 595,980 83.00% 4,824 0.67%

2004 130,099 19.30% 542,205 80.44% 1,765 0.26%

2000 100,959 17.99% 449,182 80.04% 11,039 1.97%

1996 85,345 16.00% 412,988 77.44% 34,944 6.55%

1992 133,328 20.90% 434,904 68.16% 69,826 10.94%

1988 219,053 32.45% 449,566 66.60% 6,358 0.94%

1984 267,178 34.60% 501,369 64.94% 3,555 0.46%

1980 244,108 33.99% 421,253 58.66% 52,739 7.34%

1976 239,000 32.03% 494,579 66.28% 12,618 1.69%

1972 344,096 43.89% 431,736 55.07% 8,138 1.04%

1968 254,153 29.90% 525,768 61.85% 70,196 8.26%

1964 239,733 26.24% 670,645 73.42% 3,094 0.34%

1960 291,000 31.79% 622,544 68.02% 1,733 0.19%

1956 383,414 42.97% 507,289 56.85% 1,618 0.18%

1952 396,874 41.40% 557,352 58.15% 4,321 0.45%

1948 425,962 48.12% 432,699 48.88% 26,636 3.01%

1944 346,380 40.96% 496,367 58.70% 2,883 0.34%

1940 354,878 39.81% 532,149 59.69% 4,459 0.50%

1936 329,881 36.94% 539,757 60.45% 23,310 2.61%

1932 331,092 54.54% 260,276 42.88% 15,651 2.58%

1928 420,320 59.99% 276,573 39.48% 3,703 0.53%

1924 347,457 77.73% 54,213 12.13% 45,352 10.15%

1920 307,826 73.43% 90,151 21.50% 21,235 5.07%

1916 194,163 66.81% 90,800 31.25% 5,638 1.94%

1912 91,944 36.53% 66,308 26.35% 93,438 37.12%

1908 185,263 69.09% 75,310 28.09% 7,568 2.82%

1904 227,709 80.85% 48,784 17.32% 5,161 1.83%

1900 173,657 73.93% 58,179 24.77% 3,053 1.30%

1896 176,462 72.06% 63,323 25.86% 5,102 2.08%

1892 116,685 57.45% 84,470 41.59% 1,947 0.96%

1888 111,358 54.20% 92,786 45.16% 1,300 0.63%

1884 101,288 58.00% 71,288 40.82% 2,057 1.18%

1880 97,220 55.92% 76,330 43.91% 294 0.17%

Philadelphia had historically been a bastion of the Republican Party from the American Civil War until the mid-1930s.[281][282] In 1856, the first Republican National Convention was held at Musical Fund Hall at 808 Locust Street in Philadelphia.[283]

Democratic registrations increased after the Great Depression; however, the city was not carried by Democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt in his landslide victory of 1932, as Pennsylvania was one of only six states won by Republican Herbert Hoover. Voter turnout surged from 600,000 in 1932 to nearly 900,000 in 1936 and Roosevelt carried Philadelphia with over 60% of the vote. Philadelphia has voted Democratic in every presidential election since 1936. In 2008, Democrat Barack Obama drew 83% of the city's vote. Obama's win was even greater in 2012, capturing 85% of the vote. In 2016, Democrat Hillary Clinton won 82% of the vote.[280]

As a result of the previously declining population in the city and state,[284] Philadelphia has only three congressional districts of the 18 districts in Pennsylvania, based on the 2010 census apportionment:[285] the 2nd district, represented by Brendan Boyle; the 3rd, represented by Dwight Evans; and the 5th, represented by Mary Gay Scanlon.[286] All three representatives are Democrats, though Republicans still have some support in the city, primarily in the Northeast.[287] Sam Katz ran competitive mayoral races as the Republican nominee in 1999 and 2003, losing to Democrat John Street both times.[288][289]

Pennsylvania's longest-serving Senator, Arlen Specter,[290] was an alumnus of the University of Pennsylvania who opened his first law practice in Philadelphia.[291] Specter served as a Republican from 1981 and as a Democrat from 2009, losing that party's primary in 2010 and leaving office in January 2011.[292] He was assistant counsel on the Warren Commission in 1964 and the city's district attorney from 1966 to 1974.[291]

Philadelphia has hosted various national conventions, including in 1848 (Whig), 1856 (Republican), 1872 (Republican), 1900 (Republican), 1936 (Democratic), 1940 (Republican), 1948 (Republican), 1948 (Progressive), 2000 (Republican), and 2016 (Democratic).[293] Philadelphia has been home to one vice president, George M. Dallas,[294] and one general of the American Civil War, George B. McClellan, who won his party's nomination for president but lost in the general election to Abraham Lincoln in 1864.[295] In May 2019, former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden chose Philadelphia to be his 2020 U.S. presidential campaign headquarters.[296]

Environmental policy

"Green Cities, Clean Water" is an environmental policy initiative based in Philadelphia that has shown promising results in mitigating the effects of climate change.[297] The researchers on the policy have stated that despite such promising plans of green infrastructure building, "the city is forecasted to grow warmer, wetter, and more urbanized over the century, runoff and local temperatures will increase on average throughout the city".[297] Even though landcover predictive models on the effects of the policy initiative have indicated that green infrastructure could be useful at decreasing the amount of runoff in the city over time, the city government would have to expand its current plans and "consider the cobenefit of climate change adaptation when planning new projects'' in limiting the scope of city-wide temperature increase.[297]

Public safety

Further information: Crime in Philadelphia and Philadelphia crime family

Police and law enforcement

Main article: Philadelphia Police Department

The Philadelphia Police Department administration building, known as the Roundhouse, in Center City east of Chinatown

A Philadelphia police cruiser on Benjamin Franklin Parkway

In a 2015 report by Pew Charitable Trusts, the police districts with the highest rates of violent crime were Frankford (15th district) and Kensington (24th district) in the Near Northeast, and districts to the North (22nd, 25th, and 35th districts), West (19th district) and Southwest (12th district) of Center City. Each of those seven districts recorded more than a thousand violent crimes in 2014. The lowest rates of violent crime occurred in Center City, South Philadelphia, the Far Northeast, and Roxborough districts, the latter of which includes Manayunk.[155]

Philadelphia had 500, 503 according to some sources, murders in 1990, a rate of 31.5 per 100,000. An average of about 400 murders occurred each year for most of the 1990s. The murder count dropped in 2002 to 288, then rose to 406 by 2006, before dropping slightly to 392 in 2007.[298][299] A few years later, Philadelphia began to see a rapid decline in homicides and violent crime. In 2013, the city had 246 murders, which is a decrease of nearly 40% since 2006.[300]

In 2014, 248 homicides were committed. The homicide rate rose to 280 in 2015, then fell slightly to 277 in 2016, before rising again to 317 in 2017.[301] Homicides increased dramatically in the late 2010s/early 2020s, reaching 499 homicides in 2020[298] and surpassing the 1990 "record" in 2021, with 501st murder on November 27 and 510 by the end of the month.[302] Phillie ended the year with 562 murders, an all-time record. It dropped in 2022 to 514, and significantly further again in 2023, to 410. [303] In 2006, Philadelphia's homicide rate of 27.7 per 100,000 people was the highest of the country's 10 most populous cities.[304] In 2012, Philadelphia had the fourth-highest homicide rate among the country's most populous cities. The rate dropped to 16 homicides per 100,000 residents by 2014 placing Philadelphia as the sixth-highest city in the country.[155]

The number of shootings in the city has declined significantly since the early years of the 21st century. Shooting incidents peaked at 1,857 in 2006 before declining nearly 44 percent to 1,047 shootings in 2014.[155] Major crimes have decreased gradually since a peak in 2006 when 85,498 major crimes were reported. The number of reported major crimes fell 11 percent in three years to 68,815 occurrences in 2014. Violent crimes, which include homicide, rape, aggravated assault, and robbery, decreased 14 percent in three years to 15,771 occurrences in 2014.[155]

In 2014, Philadelphia enacted an ordinance decriminalizing the possession of less than 30 grams of marijuana or eight grams of hashish; the ordinance gave police officers the discretion to treat possession of these amounts as a civil infraction punishable by a $25 ticket, rather than a crime.[305][306] At the time, Philadelphia was at the largest city in the nation to decriminalize the possession of marijuana.[306] From 2013 to 2018, marijuana arrests in the city dropped by more than 85%.[305] The purchase or sale of marijuana remains a criminal offense in Philadelphia.[306]

Firefighting

Main article: Philadelphia Fire Department

The Philadelphia Fire Department provides fire protection and emergency medical services (EMS). The department's official mission is to protect public safety by quick and professional response to emergencies and the promotion of sound emergency prevention measures. This mandate encompasses all traditional firefighting functions, including fire suppression, with 60 engine companies and 30 ladder companies[307] as well as specialty and support units deployed throughout the city; specialized firefighting units for Philadelphia International Airport and the Port of Philadelphia; investigations conducted by the fire marshal's office to determine the origins of fires and develop preventive strategies; prevention programs to educate the public; and support services including research and planning, management of the fire communications center within the city's 911 system, and operation of the Philadelphia Fire Academy.

Media

See also: Media in Philadelphia

Newspapers

Philadelphia's two major daily newspapers are The Philadelphia Inquirer, first published in 1829—the third-oldest surviving daily newspaper in the country—and the Philadelphia Daily News, first published in 1925.[308] The Daily News has been published as an edition of the Inquirer since 2009.[309] Recent owners of the Inquirer and Daily News have included Knight Ridder, The McClatchy Company, and Philadelphia Media Holdings, with the latter organization declaring bankruptcy in 2010.[310] After two years of financial struggle, the newspapers were sold to Interstate General Media in 2012.[310] The two newspapers had a combined daily circulation of 306,831 and a Sunday circulation of 477,313 in 2013, the 18th-largest circulation in the country, and their collective website, Philly.com,[311] was ranked 13th in popularity among online U.S. newspapers by Alexa Internet the same year.[312]

Smaller publications include the Philadelphia Tribune published five days each week for the African-American community;[313] Philadelphia magazine, a monthly regional magazine;[314] Philadelphia Weekly, a weekly alternative newspaper;[315] Philadelphia Gay News, a weekly newspaper for the LGBT community;[316] The Jewish Exponent, a weekly newspaper for the Jewish community;[317] Al Día, a weekly newspaper for the Latino community;[318] and Philadelphia Metro, a free daily newspaper.[319]

Student-run newspapers include the University of Pennsylvania's The Daily Pennsylvanian,[320] Temple University's The Temple News,[321] and Drexel University's The Triangle.[322]

Radio

The first experimental radio license was issued in Philadelphia in August 1912 to St. Joseph's College. The first commercial AM radio stations began broadcasting in 1922: first WIP, then owned by Gimbels department store, followed by WFIL, then owned by Strawbridge & Clothier department store, and WOO, a defunct station owned by Wanamaker's department store, as well as WCAU and WDAS.[323]

As of 2018, the FCC lists 28 FM and 11 AM stations for Philadelphia.[324][325] As of December 2017, the ten highest-rated stations in Philadelphia were adult contemporary WBEB-FM (101.1), sports talk WIP-FM (94.1), classic rock WMGK-FM (102.9), urban adult contemporary WDAS-FM (105.3), classic hits WOGL-FM (98.1), album-oriented rock WMMR-FM (93.3), country music WXTU-FM (92.5), all-news KYW-AM (1060), talk radio WHYY-FM (90.9), and urban adult contemporary WRNB-FM (100.3).[326][327] Philadelphia is served by three non-commercial public radio stations: WHYY-FM (NPR),[328] WRTI-FM (classical and jazz),[329] and WXPN-FM (adult alternative music).[330]

vte

Radio stations in the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, metropolitan area

Television

In the 1930s, the experimental station W3XE, owned by Philco, became the first television station in Philadelphia. The station became NBC's first affiliate in 1939, and later became KYW-TV (currently a CBS affiliate). WCAU-TV, WFIL-TV, and WHYY-TV were all founded by the 1960s.[323] In 1952, WFIL (renamed WPVI) premiered the television show Bandstand, which later became the nationally broadcast American Bandstand hosted by Dick Clark.[331]

Each commercial network has an affiliate in Philadelphia: KYW-TV 3 (CBS), WPVI-TV 6 (ABC), WCAU 10 (NBC), WPHL-TV 17 (The CW with MyNetworkTV on DT2), WFPA-CD 28 (UniMás), WTXF-TV 29 (Fox), WPSG 57 (Independent), WWSI 62 (Telemundo), and WUVP-DT 65 (Univision). The region is served also by public broadcasting stations WPPT-TV (Philadelphia), WHYY-TV (Wilmington, Delaware and Philadelphia), WLVT-TV (Lehigh Valley), and NJTV (New Jersey).[332]

Philadelphia has owned-and-operated stations for five major English-language broadcast networks: NBC – WCAU-TV, CBS – KYW-TV, ABC – WPVI-TV, Fox – WTXF-TV and The CW – WPHL-TV. The major Spanish-language networks are Univision – WUVP-DT, UniMás – WFPA-CD, and Telemundo – WWSI-TV.[332]

As of 2018, the city is the nation's fourth-largest consumer in media market, as ranked by the Nielsen Media Research firm, with nearly 2.9 million TV households.[333]

vte

Broadcast television in the Delaware Valley region

Infrastructure

Transportation

Main article: Transportation in Philadelphia

See also: 30th Street Station, List of SEPTA Metro stations, and Philadelphia International Airport

Philadelphia's 30th Street Station serves both SEPTA regional and Amtrak national trains and is Amtrak's third-busiest train station in the nation.

A Market–Frankford Line train departing 52nd Street station

Philadelphia is served by SEPTA, which operates buses, trains, rapid transit (as both subways and elevated trains), trolleys, and trackless trolleys (electric buses) throughout Philadelphia, the four Pennsylvania suburban counties of Bucks, Chester, Delaware, and Montgomery, in addition to service to Mercer County, New Jersey (Trenton) and New Castle County, Delaware (Wilmington and Newark, Delaware).[334] The city's subway system consists of two routes: the subway section of the Market–Frankford Line running east–west under Market Street which opened in 1905 to the west and 1908 to the east of City Hall,[335] and the Broad Street Line running north–south beneath Broad Street which opened in stages from 1928 to 1938.[336]

Beginning in the 1980s, large sections of the SEPTA Regional Rail service to the far suburbs of Philadelphia were discontinued due to a lack of funding for equipment and infrastructure maintenance.[337][338][339]

Philadelphia's 30th Street Station is a major railroad station on Amtrak's Northeast Corridor with 4.4 million passengers in 2017 making it the third-busiest station in the country after New York City's Pennsylvania Station and Washington's Union Station.[340] 30th Street Station offers access to Amtrak,[341] SEPTA,[342] and NJ Transit lines.[343] Over 12 million SEPTA and NJ Transit rail commuters use the station each year, and more than 100,000 people on an average weekday.[340]

The PATCO Speedline provides rapid transit service to Camden, Collingswood, Westmont, Haddonfield, Woodcrest (Cherry Hill), Ashland (Voorhees), and Lindenwold, New Jersey, from stations on Locust Street between 16th and 15th, 13th and 12th, and 10th and 9th streets, and on Market Street at 8th Street.[344]

Airports

See also: Philadelphia International Airport

An aerial view of Philadelphia International Airport, the busiest airport in Pennsylvania and 21st-busiest in the nation

Two airports serve Philadelphia: the Philadelphia International Airport (PHL) is 7 mi (11 km) south-southwest of Center City on the boundary with Delaware County, providing scheduled domestic and international air service,[345] while Northeast Philadelphia Airport (PNE) is a general aviation relief airport in Northeast Philadelphia serving general and corporate aviation.[346] Philadelphia International Airport is among the busiest airports in the world measured by traffic movements (i.e., takeoffs and landings).[347] More than 30 million passengers pass through the airport annually on 25 airlines, including all major domestic carriers. The airport has nearly 500 daily departures to more than 120 destinations worldwide.[345] SEPTA's Airport Regional Rail Line provides direct service between Center City railroad stations and Philadelphia International Airport.[348]

Roads

The 9,650-foot (2,940 m) long Benjamin Franklin Bridge spans the Delaware River, connecting Philadelphia and South Jersey

The Schuylkill Expressway eastbound at I-676 and US 30, also known as the Vine Street Expressway, in Center City

William Penn planned Philadelphia with numbered streets traversing north and south, and streets named for trees, such as Chestnut, Walnut, and Mulberry (since renamed Arch Street), traversing east and west. The two main streets were named Broad Street (the north–south artery, since designated Pennsylvania Route 611) and High Street (the east–west artery, since renamed Market Street) converging at Centre Square which later became the site of City Hall.[349]

Interstate 95 (the Delaware Expressway) traverses the southern and eastern edges of the city along the Delaware River as the main north–south controlled-access highway, connecting Philadelphia with Newark, New Jersey and New York City to the north and with Baltimore and Washington, D.C. southward. The city is also served by Interstate 76 (the Schuylkill Expressway), which runs along the Schuylkill River, intersecting the Pennsylvania Turnpike at King of Prussia and providing access to Harrisburg and points west. Interstate 676 (the Vine Street Expressway) links I-95 and I-76 through Center City by running below street level between the eastbound and westbound lanes of Vine Street. Entrance and exit ramps for the Benjamin Franklin Bridge are near the eastern end of the expressway, just west of the I-95 interchange.[350]

The Roosevelt Boulevard and Expressway (U.S. 1) connect Northeast Philadelphia with Center City via I-76 through Fairmount Park. Woodhaven Road (Route 63) and Cottman Avenue (Route 73) serve the neighborhoods of Northeast Philadelphia, running between I-95 and the Roosevelt Boulevard. The Fort Washington Expressway (Route 309) extends north from the city's northern border, serving Montgomery County and Bucks County. U.S. Route 30 (Lancaster Avenue) extends westward from West Philadelphia to Lancaster.[350]

Interstate 476 (locally referred to as the Blue Route[351]) traverses Delaware County, bypassing the city to the west and serving the city's western suburbs, and provides a direct route to Allentown and points north, including the Poconos. Interstate 276, the Pennsylvania Turnpike's Delaware River extension, is a bypass and commuter route to the north of the city and a link to the New Jersey Turnpike and New York City.[350]

The Delaware River Port Authority operates four bridges in the Philadelphia area across the Delaware River to New Jersey: the Walt Whitman Bridge (I-76), the Benjamin Franklin Bridge (I-676 and U.S. 30), the Betsy Ross Bridge (New Jersey Route 90), and the Commodore Barry Bridge (U.S. 322 in Delaware County, south of the city).[352] The Burlington County Bridge Commission maintains two bridges across the Delaware River: the Tacony–Palmyra Bridge which connects PA Route 73 in the Tacony section of Northeast Philadelphia with New Jersey Route 73 in Palmyra, Burlington County, and the Burlington–Bristol Bridge which connects NJ Route 413/U.S. Route 130 in Burlington, New Jersey with PA Route 413/U.S. 13 in Bristol Township, north of Philadelphia.[353]

Bus service

The Greyhound terminal is at 1001 Filbert Street (at 10th Street) in Center City, southeast of the Pennsylvania Convention Center and south of Chinatown.[354] Several other bus operators provide service at the Greyhound terminal including Fullington Trailways,[355] Martz Trailways,[356] Peter Pan Bus Lines,[357] and NJ Transit buses.[358]

Other intercity bus services include Megabus with stops at 30th Street Station and the visitor center for Independence Hall,[359] BoltBus (operated by Greyhound) at 30th Street Station,[360] OurBus at various stops in the city.

Rail

Main article: History of rail transport in Philadelphia

Suburban Station with art deco architecture at 16th Street and JFK Boulevard

Since the early days of rail transportation in the United States, Philadelphia has served as a hub for several major rail companies, particularly the Pennsylvania Railroad and the Reading Railroad. The Pennsylvania Railroad first operated Broad Street Station, then 30th Street Station and Suburban Station, and the Reading Railroad operated Reading Terminal, now part of the Pennsylvania Convention Center. The two companies also operated competing commuter rail systems in the area. The two systems now operate as a single system under the control of SEPTA, the regional transit authority. Additionally, the PATCO Speedline subway system and NJ Transit's Atlantic City Line operate successor services to southern New Jersey.[361]

In 1911, Philadelphia had nearly 4,000 electric trolleys running on 86 lines.[362] In 2005, SEPTA reintroduced trolley service to the Girard Avenue Line, Route 15.[363] SEPTA operates six subway-surface trolleys that run on street-level tracks in West Philadelphia and subway tunnels in Center City, along with two surface trolleys in adjacent suburbs.[364]

Philadelphia is a regional hub of the federally-owned Amtrak system, with 30th Street Station being a primary stop on the Washington-Boston Northeast Corridor and the Keystone Corridor to Harrisburg and Pittsburgh. 30th Street also serves as a major station for services via the Pennsylvania Railroad's former Pennsylvania Main Line to Chicago. As of 2018, 30th Street is Amtrak's third-busiest station in the country, after New York City and Washington.[164]

Utilities

Water purity and availability

Fairmount Water Works, Philadelphia's second municipal waterworks, in December 1984

In 1815, Philadelphia began sourcing its water via the Fairmount Water Works on the Schuylkill River, the nation's first major urban water supply system. In 1909, the Water Works was decommissioned as the city transitioned to modern sand filtration methods.[365] Philadelphia Water Department (PWD) provides drinking water, wastewater collection, and stormwater services for Philadelphia, as well as surrounding counties. PWD draws about 57 percent of its drinking water from the Delaware River and the balance from the Schuylkill River.[366] The city has two filtration plants on the Schuylkill River and one on the Delaware River. The three plants can treat up to 546 million gallons of water per day, while the total storage capacity of the combined plant and distribution system exceeds one billion gallons. The wastewater system consists of three water pollution control plants, 21 pumping stations, and about 3,657 miles (5,885 km) of sewers.[366]

Electricity

Exelon subsidiary PECO Energy Company, founded as the Brush Electric Light Company of Philadelphia in 1881 and renamed Philadelphia Electric Company (PECO) in 1902, provides electricity to about 1.6 million customers and more than 500,000 natural gas customers in the southeastern Pennsylvania area including the city of Philadelphia and most of its suburbs.[367] PECO is the largest electric and natural gas utility in the state with 472 power substations and nearly 23,000 miles (37,000 km) of electric transmission and distribution lines, along with 12,000 miles (19,000 km) of natural gas transmission, distribution & service lines.[368]

Natural gas

Further information: Philadelphia Gas Works

Philadelphia Gas Works (PGW), overseen by the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission, is the nation's largest municipally-owned natural gas utility. PGW serves over 500,000 homes and businesses in the Philadelphia area.[369] Founded in 1836, the company came under city ownership in 1987 and has been providing the majority of gas distributed within city limits. In 2014, the City Council refused to conduct hearings on a $1.86 billion sale of PGW, part of a two-year effort that was proposed by the mayor. The refusal led to the prospective buyer terminating its offer.[370][371]

Telecommunications

See also: Area codes 215, 267, and 445

Southeastern Pennsylvania was assigned the 215 area code in 1947 when the North American Numbering Plan of the Bell System went into effect. The geographic area covered by the code was split nearly in half in 1994 when area code 610 was created, with the city and its northern suburbs retaining 215. Overlay area code 267 was added to the 215 service area in 1997, and 484 was added to the 610 area in 1999. A plan in 2001 to introduce a third overlay code to both service areas, area code 445 to 215 and area code 835 to 610, was delayed and later rescinded.[372] Area code 445 was implemented as an overlay for area codes 215 and 267 starting on February 3, 2018.[373]

Notable people

Main article: List of people from Philadelphia

Sister cities

A Chinatown paifang at 10th and Arch streets, a symbol of Philadelphia's sister city relationship with Tianjin

City Country Date

Florence[374] Italy 1964

Tel Aviv[375] Israel 1966

Toruń[376] Poland 1976

Tianjin[377] China 1979

Incheon[378] South Korea 1984

Douala[379] Cameroon 1986

Nizhny Novgorod[380] Russia 1992

Frankfurt[381] Germany 2015

Philadelphia also has three partnership cities or regions:[382]

City Country Date

Kobe[383] Japan 1986

Abruzzo[384] Italy 1997

Aix-en-Provence[385] France 1999

Philadelphia has eight official sister cities as designated by the Citizen Diplomacy International of Philadelphia:[382] Philadelphia has dedicated landmarks to its sister cities. The Sister Cities Park, a site of 0.5 acres (2,400 sq yd) at 18th and Benjamin Franklin Parkway within Logan Square, was dedicated in June 1976. The park was built to commemorate Philadelphia's first two sister city relationships, with Tel Aviv and Florence. The Toruń Triangle, honoring the sister city relationship with Toruń, Poland, was constructed in 1976, west of the United Way building at 18th Street and the Benjamin Franklin Parkway. Sister Cities Park was redesigned and reopened in 2012, featuring an interactive fountain honoring Philadelphia's sister and partnership cities, a café and visitor's center, children's play area, outdoor garden, and boat pond, as well as a pavilion built to environmentally friendly standards.[386][387]

The Chinatown Gate, erected in 1984 and crafted by artisans of Tianjin, stands astride 10th Street, on the north side of its intersection with Arch Street, as a symbol of the sister city relationship. The CDI of Philadelphia has participated in the U.S. Department of State's "Partners for Peace" project with Mosul, Iraq,[388] as well as accepting visiting delegations from dozens of other countries.[389]

See also

flag Pennsylvania portal

flag United States portal

List of Pennsylvania state historical markers in Philadelphia County

Metropolitan areas in the Americas

National Register of Historic Places listings in Philadelphia

USS Philadelphia

Notes

 Description of the Lenape peoples (Delaware nations) historic territories inside the divides of the frequently mountainous landforms flanking the Delaware River's drainage basin. These terrains encompass from South to North and then counter-clockwise:

the shores from the east-shore mouth of the river and the sea coast to Western Long Island (all of both colonial New Amsterdam and New Sweden), andportions of Western Connecticut up to the latitude of the Massachusetts corner of today's boundaries—making the eastern bounds of their influence, thence their region extended:westerly past the region around Albany, New York to the Susquehanna River side of the Catskills, thensoutherly through the eastern Poconos outside the rival Susquehannock lands past Eastern Pennsylvania then southerly past the site of Colonial Philadelphia past the west bank mouth of the Delaware and extending south from that point along a stretch of sea coast in northern colonial Delaware.

The Susquehanna-Delaware River system's watershed divided the frequently contested 'hunting grounds' between the rival Susquehannock peoples and the Lenape peoples, whilst the Catskills and Berkshires played a similar boundary role in the northern regions of their original colonial era range.

 See North American blizzard of 2009#Snowfall (December 19–20, 2009), February 5–6, 2010 North American blizzard#Snowfall (February 5–6, 2010), and February 9–10, 2010 North American blizzard#Impact (February 9–10, 2010). The February 2010 storms contributed to a single month record accumulation of 51.5 in (131 cm). If no snow fell outside of February that season, 2009–10 would still rank as 5th-snowiest. See the Franklin Institute for a visual representation of seasonal snowfall.

 Mean monthly maxima and minima (i.e. the highest and lowest temperature readings during an entire month or year) calculated based on data at said location from 1991 to 2020.

 Official temperature and precipitation measurements for Philadelphia were taken at the Weather Bureau Office in downtown from January 1872 to 19 June 1940, and at Philadelphia Int'l from 20 June 1940 to the present.[111] Snowfall and snow depth records date to 1 January 1884 and 1 October 1948, respectively.[105] In 2006, snowfall measurements were moved to National Park, New Jersey directly across the Delaware River from the airport.[112]

 From 15% sample

 E.g., in the opening chapter of The Handbook of Language Variation and Change (ed. Chambers et al., Blackwell 2002), J.K. Chambers writes that "variationist sociolinguistics had its effective beginnings only in 1963, the year in which William Labov presented the first sociolinguistic research report"; the dedication page of the Handbook says that Labov's "ideas imbue every page".