I
home-school my children, and we’re planning a car trip in spring between
Boston
and Washington, DC to give the kids a living history
lesson. What are some
historical sites besides the Liberty Bell
and Independence Hall that we can visit in
Philadelphia that will
be educational?
Why not use the remarkable life
of Benjamin Franklin to introduce your children to
Philadelphia?
I’ll leave it to you to find an appropriate biography because I don’t know
how
old your children are, but they should read it before they
come to Philadelphia. Some of the
sites below require tickets to
enter, so you’ll want to do some pre-panning if you want to
follow my suggestion.
1) Start your tour of Philly at a little
museum on Elfereth’s Alley (124-126 Elfreth’s Alley) that
shows
you how people lived in the 1700s. You’ll need to pay for a ticket to
enter the
museum, but it’s not expensive. Elfreth’s Alley,
between Arch and Quarry Streets, is the
oldest continuously
inhabited street in the US.
2) You could stop by Betsey Ross’s
house nearby (239 Arch St) or at the National
Constitutional
Center (535 Arch St) where your children can walk around life-sized
statues of
the men who wrote the Constitution. You need to pay
for a ticket for both of these sites.
They’re not part of the
National Park System, so they’re not free.
3) Next stop would be
the Liberty Bell, which was rung on July 8, 1776 to announce the
reading of the Declaration of Independence, a document Franklin
helped to create. Between
Jan 1 and March 1, you don’t need a
ticket to enter the hall. Other times, you’ll need a free
ticket
that you can get at the Independence Visitors Center (6th St between Arch
and Market
St).
4) Then to Congress Hall (150 Chestnut
St), which does not have a Franklin connection but
is still worth
a visit. The United States Congress met here when Philadelphia was the
capital of
the United States from 1790-1800. Franklin died in
1790, which is probably the only reason
he was not a member of
Congress.
5) Independence Hall, where our Declaration of
Independence and our Constitution were
debated and ratified, is
right next to Congress Hall. Between Jan 1 and March 1, you don’t
need a ticket to enter the hall. Other times, you’ll need a free
ticket that you can get at the
Independence Visitors Center (6th
St between Arch and Market St).
6) Stay on Chestnut to Carpenter’s
Hall between Third and Fourth Streets, where the First
Continental Congress met and where Franklin represented Pennsylvania
in 1775. No ticket is
needed for this and it’s free. The hall
been owned by Carpenters' Company of Philadelphia, a
trade guild
since 1770, and they have a keen sense of civic duty to keep this treasure
open to
the public.
7) Then, walk to The Printing Office
and Bindery
(320 Market St) in Franklin Court for
demonstrations of 18th
century printing and binding equipment; Franklin’s first career was as
a printer (using much printer ink) and he was Pennsylvania’s
official printer of money, laws,
and government documents.
Franklin Court is part of Independence National Historic Park,
so
it’s free. You do not need a ticket for any attraction in Franklin
Court.
8) Stay in to Franklin’s Court (316-322 Market St) to the
site where Franklin’s house stood,
you’ll find a museum
filled with paintings, objects, and inventions associated with
Benjamin
Franklin, like his Armonica, a Franklin
stove, and the swim fin. (He also invented the bifocal
eyeglasses
and the lightening rod.)
9) Franklin served as the Postmaster for
Philadelphia and later as the Postmaster General for
the United
Colonies, so next stop is the U.S. Postal Service Museum (314 Market St)
in
Franklin Court where you’ll see originals of Franklin's
Pennsylvania Gazette, his weekly
newspaper.
10) Be sure to
go next door to the Post Office in Franklin Court. It’s the only active
post
office in the United States that does not fly a United
States flag because there wasn't yet one
in 1775 when Mr.
Franklin was the Postmaster for Philadelphia. The postmark "B. Free
Franklin" is still used to cancel stamps.
11) You could end
the day walking the campus of the University of Pennsylvania, founded in
1751 by Mr. Franklin and his illustrious friends, including ten
signers of the Declaration of
Independence and seven signers of
the Constitution. It’s in west Philly across the Schuylkill
River
(pronounced “school kill”.) Penn had the country's first medical school,
the nation's first
teaching hospital, and the nation’s first law
school. Tell your kids that if they study hard, they
can get into
Wharton, the best Business School in the US.
For other
Destinations, go to www.askaresident.com