Jim Murphy Jim Murphy

My “Aha” Moment: Part 3 (+ Last)

How I realized much of what I’d learned about Billy Penn and Philly was untrue

How I realized much of what I learned about Billy Penn and Philly was untrue

Started 58 years after New York and 52 years after Boston, Philadelphia quickly grew to become the largest city in the U.S. by 1770 … or earlier. It’s still the 2nd largest city on the East Coast. Photo by Jim Murphy, author of “Real Philly History, Real Fast.”

I asked myself just one simple question … 

While waiting for a tour group from Mumbai at the National Constitution Center one morning, I looked down at Independence Hall and asked myself: “What was Philadelphia like when William Penn got here?”

The answers changed everything for me. Why?

Since then, I’ve learned many things about Philadelphia most residents don’t know … and have corrected some major untruths.

These new answers also helped me become a better tour guide … and to write my book, “Real Philly History, Real Fast” over an 11-year period.

For example, I learned:

  • Philadelphia wasn’t really farmland, it was a hardwood forest.

  • Philadelphia included just three or four tiny buildings when Billy Penn first landed near the Blue Anchor Tavern.

  • Philadelphia was really a “howling wilderness, ” says Francis Daniel Pastorius. 

But, because of our two superstars, William Penn and Ben Franklin, Philadelphia zoomed past New York and Boston to became the largest, most important and some say most cultured city in the U.S. by about 1770 … or earlier.

Philly started the revolutionary Percent for Art Program in 1959, the first one in the U.S. This colorful sculpture by Deborah Kass carries a double message: The familiar Philly or New York YO greeting is on one side, the Jewish OY or expression of exasperation or dismay on the other. It’s in front of the Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish History in Philadelphia. Photo by Jim Murphy.

Philadelphia is still revolutionary

We didn’t stop doing creative things when William Penn or Ben Franklin died. 

In 1959, Philly started the first Percent for Art Program in America, an idea we borrowed from Vienna. To date there are 650 public artworks. Then in 1984 we started the first Mural Arts Program in the U.S. as a way to fight graffiti. With over 4,000 murals to our credit to date, countries from around the world visit Philly to learn the secrets of our success.


This colorful mural called “Mapping Courage” is on South Street near 6th Street. It shows famous researcher W.E.B. DuBois, community members and area firefighters. Copyright 2008, City of Philadelphia Mural Arts Program/artist Willis “Nomo” Humphrey.


Philly also is one of America’s densest cities

To me, density is what makes a city interesting. It’s lots of people from different backgrounds living close together. And the last time I looked, only three of the 10 largest cities in the U.S. have more than 11,000 people per square mile: New York, Chicago, and yes, Philadelphia, with 11,993.

I consider Houston and Phoenix … which surpassed Philadelphia in population in recent years … as areas — not cities. They check in with less than 4,000 people per square mile.

Interesting Oddities:

  • William Penn spent less than four years total in Philadelphia. Yet his city quickly became the largest and most important city in the country. 

  • In August 1684, Penn raced back go England in 1684, just two years after arriving in Philadelphia. Why? To deal with a border dispute with Maryland that took almost a century to resolve. Penn did not return to Philadelphia again until 1699.

  • Penn had up to 12 slaves at Pennsbury Manor in Bucks County. Growing up, I never learned that. His good friend, Francis Daniel Pastorius, wrote a petition against slavery at Germantown in 1688. But the Quakers did not “find religion” on the slavery question until the 1770s.

Did you know that the Mason-Dixon Survey started in Philadelphia?

It did, in 1763, on what is now South Street in Philadelphia. In William Penn’s original plan, the name was Cedar Street 

The survey’s purpose was to end the long-standing boundary dispute mentioned earlier between Pennsylvania and Maryland. An earlier treaty put the border at 15 miles south of the southernmost house in Philadelphia. So in 1763, surveyors Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon sailed here from England to end the dispute once and for all.

They located the southernmost house in William Penn’s city of Philadelphia, which now would be under I-95. Then they moved 15 miles directly south and began cutting a 30-foot swath of space through the Pennsylvania and Maryland forest.

Ironically, the names Mason and Dixon were not on the original survey. The final boundary became famous as the Mason-Dixon Line only after the Missouri Compromise of 1820, when it became the dividing line between free and slave states.

Fascinating Facts:

  • William Penn hoped his “Holy Experiment” would attract people to Philadelphia. It did. Later he said his city grew as much in seven years as some did in 40. He was right. 

  • Thomas Holme, the surveyor who produced Philadelphia’s original city plan, originally named the East-West streets after prominent Quakers. Penn said that was un-quakerly, and re-named them after plants and trees that grew indigenously in the area.

This is the last remaining stairway along Philadelphia’s old sea wall. The stairways were ordered by William Penn to give citizens easy public access to the waterfront. Photo by Jim Murphy.

The Wood Street Steps

  • To make sure the public had easy access to the waterfront, Penn built as many as 12 stairways from the current South Street to Vine Street. They went onto a “sheer embankment bluff” along the water, now Front Street, that ranged in height from 15 to 50 feet high, says Harry Kyriakodis in his book, “Philadelphia’s Lost Waterfront.”

  • These only remaining steps at Wood Street are shorter than those that were further south. But thankfully, they still exist. 

  • Kyriakodis says: “Other than Gloria Dei Church in South Philadelphia, this stairwell is the city’s only remaining relic of the colonial era along the Delaware.” When I take tours there, people just love to see them.

This diorama from Arch Street Meetinghouse depicts an arched bridge on Front Street that eventually led to the street name being changed from Mulberry Street to Arch Street. The ladder on the right I believe symbolizes the William Penn steps that ran up the embankment. Photo by Jim Murphy.

Things very few people know about Philly

  • Edwin Wolf 2, librarian for the Library Company of Philadelphia, wrote: “In 1808, a bill advocating a move back from the dull, uncomfortable and muddy Federal City (of Washington, D.C. to Philadelphia) won a majority vote in Congress, but a crisis with Great Britain intervened and the resolution was tabled.” Too bad.

  • Philadelphia’s huge and popular twice-a-week markets on what was originally High Street are one reason author Joseph Jackson called Philadelphia’s Market Street “the Most Historic Highway in America.” Very early on, Philly residents began referring to it as “Market Street.” Penn’s markets were said to compare very favorably to city markets in London and Paris. Penn himself wrote the rules for his market a year before he even landed here in 1682. Smoking was prohibited in 1722.

  • Philadelphia’s clocks on 4 sides of City Hall are 3 feet larger in diameter than those of “Big Ben” in London. In fact, at one time, our City Hall clocks were called “Big Penn.”

  • Both Colonial New York and Boston had fortifcations. William Penn’s city of Philadelphia did not. He wanted to live peacefully with the Native Americans here, and felt such protection would be unnecessary.

  • The British dumped about 450 Acadians or “Cajuns” from the Nova Scotia region of Canada at Province Island (near today’s airport) in 1755. Considering themselves prisoners of war, the Acadians refused to do anything for themselves. Quaker leader Anthony Benezet helped them get lodging in 1-story homes on the 600 block of Pine Street. About half of them died from yellow fever and are buried in Washington Square. The rest gradually moved south. Their story is told in the long poem “Evangeline” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow … and in a great song and video “Acadian Driftwood” by the Band. (See You Tube in the sources below.)

Some final Billy Penn facts

  • William Penn’s statue faces northeast toward Penn Treaty Park, where his “Great Treaty” with the Lenape leader Tamanend reportedly took place. The French philosopher Voltaire reportedly desribed it as “the only treaty between those people [the Indians] and the Christians that was not ratified by an oath, and was never infring’d.” Quakers were not permitted to make oaths.

  • Thomas Jefferson reportedly called William Penn “the greatest law-giver the world has produced.” That’s pretty strong praise from one of our best-known Founding Fathers.

  • William Penn hoped his “Holy Experiment” would attract people to his Colony who wanted to freely practice their religion. With 33 churches in Philadelphia by 1790 I think you could say he was successful.

Here’s what I think the National Park Service should put up near Independence Hall to honor Native Americans:

A Weeping Willow Tree

In January of 2024, misguided members of the National Park Service tried to completely remove William Penn from Welcome Park and replace him with Native Americans.

 Instead, I suggest that the U.S. pay tribute to these Native Americans in a much more prominent location: on the green lawn next to the Liberty Bell at Independence National Historical Park (INHP).

Why? A weeping willow perfectly symbolizes the treatment Native Americans received at the hands of our U.S. Government … and the horrendous years of turmoil afterward: The broken promises, the lies, the forced relocation and the death of so many individuals as they made the 1,200-mile-trek we now call the infamous “Trail of Tears.”

What would be more appropriate?

The Weeping Willow is perfect choice to demonstrate how badly the U.S. treated Indian tribes in the U.S. © Copyright Christine Westerback and licensed for reuse under a cc-by-sa/2.0 Creative Commons Licence. Weeping Willow photo taken 13 years ago near Tottenham, Haringey, England.

Recent Awards and Accolades for Philadelphia

2025: America’s Most Walkable City by USA Today for third year in a row

2025: Best City in America for Street Art by USA Today

2025: Citizens Bank Park named Best Major League Baseball Stadium by USA Today

2025: Philadelphia is One of Trip Advisors’ “Best of Best” Destinations in the U.S., say Food & Wine Global Tastemakers

2025: Longwood Gardens voted One of the Hundred Greatest Places in the World by Time Magazine.











Read More
Jim Murphy Jim Murphy

Blog Post Title Three

It all begins with an idea.

It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more. Or maybe you have a creative project to share with the world. Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.

Don’t worry about sounding professional. Sound like you. There are over 1.5 billion websites out there, but your story is what’s going to separate this one from the rest. If you read the words back and don’t hear your own voice in your head, that’s a good sign you still have more work to do.

Be clear, be confident and don’t overthink it. The beauty of your story is that it’s going to continue to evolve and your site can evolve with it. Your goal should be to make it feel right for right now. Later will take care of itself. It always does.

Read More
Jim Murphy Jim Murphy

Blog Post Title Four

It all begins with an idea.

It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more. Or maybe you have a creative project to share with the world. Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.

Don’t worry about sounding professional. Sound like you. There are over 1.5 billion websites out there, but your story is what’s going to separate this one from the rest. If you read the words back and don’t hear your own voice in your head, that’s a good sign you still have more work to do.

Be clear, be confident and don’t overthink it. The beauty of your story is that it’s going to continue to evolve and your site can evolve with it. Your goal should be to make it feel right for right now. Later will take care of itself. It always does.

Read More