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Philadelphia has long been nicknamed “The City of Brotherly Love” from the literal meaning of the city’s name in Greek (Greek: Φιλαδέλφεια ([pʰilaˈdelpʰeːa], Modern Greek: [filaˈðelfia]), “brotherly love”), derived from the Ancient Greek terms φίλος phílos (beloved, dear, or loving) and ἀδελφός adelphós (brother, brotherly). The city was first named by its founder, William Penn.Diese Datei enthält weitere Informationen (beispielsweise Exif-Metadaten), die in der Regel von der Digitalkamera oder dem verwendeten Scanner stammen. Durch nachträgliche Bearbeitung der Originaldatei können einige Details verändert worden sein.

Download the Philadelphia flag Color Palette image along with the color hex codes as a single image. These are the suggested colors to be used for digital media. For print and spot color values, please refer to the information above. The Pantone® (PMS) values and RAL.An antique 1876 Philadelphia centennial Exhibition parade flag with original stick was posted on e-Bay. The description read: “Centennial Union – it proclaimed liberty in 1776 let it proclaim peace and unity in 1876”. One of the first flags had the stars arranged in a circle, based on the idea that all colonies were equal. The thirteen stripes, resting side by side, represented the struggle for independence; red stood for valor, white signified purity and blue represented loyalty. No other symbol captures the power and glory of our nation like the American flag. It has flown as our national emblem in some form without interruption since 1777.

The Declaration of Independence made this resolution necessary. Previously, each colony had their own flag, which they flew on colonial vessels. England considered these armed vessels pirate ships and hanged their crews when they were captured.I have prepared this brochure to help you better understand the significance of the American flag and its customs for display. As always, if you have any questions or comments about this or other issues, please contact my district office at (718) 370-1384.

The American flag has stood as a symbol of freedom and justice for over 225 years. Through wars and in times of peace, the sight of the American flag has given notice to foes and assurances to friends that democracy lives.

The American flag remains a living piece of history and a source of pride and unity for all Americans. The Stars and Stripes embodies the very qualities that make our nation great: liberty, justice, freedom, love of country and national purpose.The origins of the Stars and Stripes have become part of American folklore. It is widely believed that Betsy Ross made the first American flag. However, various towns in colonial America have claimed to be the birthplace of the Stars and Stripes.

In 1818, after a few design changes, the United States Congress decided to retain the flag’s original thirteen stripes and add new stars to reflect each new state that entered the union.The current version of the coat of arms was designed mainly by Colonel Frank Marx and adopted by City Council on February 14, 1874. According to the City Code, the city seal is “ARMS — On a blue field, a fess golden between a plough above and a ship in full sail below; both proper. CREST — A right arm, nude, embowed, couped at shoulder, holding a pair of scales; all proper. SUPPORTERS — Two females, standing full face, the one on the left side of the shield habited white and purple, crowned with an olive wreath; in her right hand a scroll, charged with an anchor; all proper; the one on the right side habited white and blue; in her left hand a cornucopia, proper. MOTTO — PHILADELPHIA MANETO.”

The flag of Philadelphia was officially adopted by city ordinance on March 27, 1895 and is the municipal flag of the city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The flag is a yellow-on-blue bicolor vertical triband defaced with the seal of the city; the Philadelphia City Code defines the flag as “divided vertically in 3 equal parts, of which the first and third shall be azure blue and the middle pale golden yellow” with the city seal on the center of the yellow stripe; flags displayed by entities other than the municipal government often omit the seal. The dimensions of the flag are “10 feet long and 6 feet wide, or similar proportions”. Official but seldom seen variations include a Merchant Flag, Pennant, and Streamer. The blue and yellow colors commemorate the original Swedish colonization of Philadelphia. One flag manufacturer who supplies flags to the city government stated that the shade of blue used is “UN Blue” (the same shade used in the United Nations flag).

The competition should be open to all, Philadelphian and outsider alike – you never know where the best ideas can come from – Chicago’s was designed by a poet, D.C.’s by a professional graphic designer, and Denver’s by a high-schooler.To Exon and Stoller, the flag simply has a marketing problem. If more people knew about the flag and its story, they would embrace it. Most people don’t even know that the city has an official flag. When PFCP introduces the flag at the annual Philly Flag Day, or in classrooms around the city, people get excited about it.Jessica, there is a big difference between a useful symbol and an opportunity for teaching values. Flags are symbols and ought to be as clear and simple as possible – they are meant to identify people, places or things from a great distance, hence the strength of the large flag in front of the art museum.

I love the current flag and proudly fly it over my home in Bergen County, New Jersey. I look forward to seeing the entries this competition invites. I also like the idea mentioned above of retaining the Swedish colors without the city seal as seen at the Art Museum.If you want to see why seals on flags is a bad bet, take a look at a selection of some of the twenty state flags (including Pennsylvania’s) that consist of the state seal on a blue field. Their visual similarity renders these flags so useless as identifiable symbols that a few states have taken the ultimate flag cop-out and just written their names on the flags.

I don’t believe the historical flag should be redesigned. The seal and what it represents is what this city is about-Hope, Peace, and Prosperity…Letting Brotherly Love Continue. People know this is the city of brotherly love; hence, what our city flag stands for. I’m sure once the children learn about the flag through PFCP and what the seal represents they are inspired. Remove this and you may remove opportunities for growth and inspiration in the children of our city. Leave it alone!!!!So let the seal be the seal, and let’s have a flag that’s a great flag. A flag is a symbol, a signal. The flag should be something that is distinctly Philadelphian, with symbolism that tells a story of our history and the values that will shape our future. Of course, I’ve got my own ideas for what would make for a great Philly flag. At tonight’s Fast Forward Philly Event at the Center for Architecture, I’ll take a few minutes to share my own entry to the ongoing competition to redesign the flag. I hope that it lives up to the high ideals of a civic flag that Reverend Doctor McCook illuminated in 1894. Now is the time for Philadelphia to reinvent its city flag. Not because because the existing flag isn’t sufficient, but because it fails to capture the public imagination, fails a flag design, and fails to be the universally recognized and popular icon for the city that it ought to be. Some say that the flag is fine as is, and that it’s failure to take hold among Philadelphians as a symbol of our city is simply a failure of marketing. As DesignPhiladelphia kicks off this week, the power of great design to excite and unite is evident.Since his motives are unimpeachable, let’s embrace them. However, his graphic design sense leaves him open to some criticism. McCook was a prominent lecturer and author, noted entomologist, a Presbyterian minister, and the Vice President of the Academy of Natural Sciences, but he wasn’t necessarily a great designer. The flag is a little… lazy. It’s what they call in vexillology (the study of flags) “a seal on a bed sheet.” A seal is something that is meant for letters and citations, a complex bit of heraldry that proclaims the officialdom of a document – anyone who studies seals (sigillographers) could tell you that.

The people at PFCP has done wonders advancing the cause of the flag. They’ve built partnerships with the schools and philanthropists. Philebrities like Tony Luke and Will Smith’s father sit on their Board. They ought to lever these resources and prestige to hold a competition, if only to build conversation and awareness about the current flag. As for the original flag, set aside the weight of history for a moment and, consider this: how would it have fared as an emblem of the city had it faced any competition at all? McCook’s design was merely the first, not necessarily the best. But if people really can’t stand to see something that isn’t modern, let’s just simplify it even more. Three bands — blue, yellow, blue — with no other symbolism. The idea of the city between two rivers is enough. The best way to get a flag befitting of our great city is a competition. Public competitions produced the iconic flags of Chicago, (which has an entire website dedicated to tattoos depicting its flag) Denver, and Washington, D.C. – the three flags that topped the North American Vexillogical Society’s 2004 ranking of flag designs.I like the version of the philly flag without the emblem. Just the quaker colors (i believe). its flown several places across the city including the art museum.

Philadelphia has a great seal. The figures of Peace and Plenty stand astride a shield bearing a plow and ship, holding symbols of hope and prosperity, crowned by the scales of Justice and entwined in a banner with the City’s motto Philadelphia Maneto. It’s packed with lots of imagery and symbolism, and a close reading of it reveals a lot about the values of the city and its history. It’s best done up close, in the seal’s home court – on a letter, in your hands. It’s unfair to try to make the seal do double duty as the flag. On a fluttering flag, you can’t see a seal closely enough to decipher its elements, and it does nothing to make the flag an easily discernible icon.Putting little emblems, whether well designed or not, is never a good idea on a flag – in this case they are intended as a seal. Let our teachers and parents and citizens teach the important values that represent the aspirations of William Penn as exemplified by his beloved city of Philadelphia.The fact is that the competition to rethink the flag is already underway. There’s an informal redesign competition happening right now on Reddit. The industrial design and branding firm Bresslergroup is sponsoring a Reflag Project as part of this week’s DesignPhiladelphia festival. Flags from their designers are flying at NextFab and the Trestle Inn right now. Part of their Reflag Project invites people to Tweet photos of themselves with one of the Bresslergroup’s flags using #reflag to be entered to win two tickets to The Rail Park fundraiser on October 18. I do agree that simple is better. How about an eagle with a silhouette resembling the liberty bell. More ridiculous would be a brawn W.Penn striking a sword into the liberty bell with cheese wiz flying out the sides . Here’s the short story of how Philadelphia got the flag we have today: there was a guy – a smart, nice guy – the Reverend Doctor Henry C. McCook. In October 1894, he had an idea – that Philadelphia should have a city flag. So, he wrote a letter to the Mayor and included his idea for a civic flag – the city seal on golden yellow and azure blue. I’m sure he was a well-connected man and did some lobbying, and sure enough, by March of next year, City Council passed an ordinance, and presto – Philadelphia had a flag. That design has served as the city flag for the intervening 118 years, but now is the time to ask if we can do better.Michael Burlando Michael Burlando is a designer, builder, photographer, and lover of all things Philadelphia. While earning his Master of Architecture at the University of Pennsylvania, Michael restored an 1870’s Victorian rowhouse. After graduation he spent two years at the Chicago office of Skidmore, Owings, and Merill before returning to Philadelphia with his wife in 2010. He now manages construction projects for Columbus Construction, lives in Graduate Hospital, runs the revived Philly Skinny, and blogs at brlndoblog.blogspot.com.No one can argue with McCook’s motives for suggesting a flag. In his letter to the mayor, he wrote that, “the display and constant use of a Philadelphia Civic Flag would act towards the strengthening of civic pride, precisely as similar use of the National Flag tends to foster a spirit of national loyalty.”He’s exactly right. Flying a flag is among the easiest ways to identify yourself as part of a group. It’s a way of saying, “I am a part of this thing – this city, this country. I fly this flag to recognize the history and the values of this place and to tell others that I am of it.” A flag can be an incredibly powerful object, and McCook’s was an incredibly powerful idea.To me, the flag has a design problem. The flags that are successes as design objects don’t need a marketing campaign. They get into people’s minds. They start showing up on t-shirts and bags, people start flying them on their porches. They become the icon of the city. People might not know all of their flag’s history and symbolism, but it doesn’t matter – all they need to know is that the flag means they belong to their place. The best ones are mutable and open to remixing, becoming a touchstone for people to relate themselves to both the city and a culture within it. These are the qualities that make for a successful flag, not just what we have on hand and a well-planned PR push.

At the time of your scheduled or requested rotation, we will; travel to you, remove your tattered flag, and respectfully hoist your fresh repaired flag. Your tattered flag is then brought to our facility where it is delicately repaired by our team, and placed in your specially designated bin, awaiting another rotation.

Even with proper care, no flag lasts forever, when the time comes to replace your flag, we provide retirement services that will dispose of your flag with the same care and respect you gave it while it flew proudly.

Our Rotations Program offers you and your flag individual attention from our highly experienced flag experts. Once your flag is purchased, our experienced flag experts will carefully store one repaired flag in a bin, specially designated to you, in our facility. We store one flag for each flag you are flying that is associated with your account.Our Historic Philadelphia Light Horse Flag has brilliant color, is authentic in design and is made in the USA with true craftsmanship. Representing an important part of U.S. History, you can be proud to display this revered standard.

The Outdoor Grade Nylon Philadelphia Light Horse Flag will fly beautifully in the slightest breeze while being a truly durable all-weather flag. This flag is expertly crafted from 100% heavyweight 200-Denier Nylon, specially treated to resist fading and deterioration.

Our high-quality flag mounting hardware is designed for durability and ease of use, ensuring that your flag is securely displayed and looking its best.

We are one of the most respected flag and flagpole companies in the United States. We are proud of our great flag, the greatest single symbol of what our country stands for, and take pride in providing you with your flag, flagpole, and flag accessories. From planning, to customizing, to installation, we are confident that we can please you with quality, service and experience.Here’s the best part! When your flag has aged to the point at which it is beyond repair, we will hoist a beautifully and carefully made replacement flag on your flagpole at the time of your next rotation.

The Philadelphia Light Horse was the first flag to feature the Thirteen Stripes, each representing a colony. The Philadelphia City Cavalry, the first American armed force and established alongside the Continental Congress, fought under this banner at the Battles of Trenton, Princeton, Brandywine, and Germantown.Our highly experienced flag expert can skillfully repair your flag. Just drop your flag off, have us pick it up, or even ship it to us. No matter the flag, we can repair wind-tattered ends, damaged headers and even replace missing grommets.

Light Weight Polyester flags are printed on a lighter, richly colored indoor quality material. These flags can be flown outdoors for short periods of time. They’re perfect for pictures or as a souvenir of a special trip.Our Polyester flags are a heavyweight fabric that looks and feels like cotton. This material is used with higher wind speeds in mind. This means higher durability is accounted for. This material is meant to be flown at great heights and in heavier wind conditions, making this material the best choice for tall flagpoles or high wind areas.

This file contains additional information such as Exif metadata which may have been added by the digital camera, scanner, or software program used to create or digitize it. If the file has been modified from its original state, some details such as the timestamp may not fully reflect those of the original file. The timestamp is only as accurate as the clock in the camera, and it may be completely wrong.I was tired of buying flags from companies that sold confederate flags and the like. So In mid-2020, I decided to start a flag company that I would want to buy from—one that made good quality flags that only promote progressive messages and donate a portion to world-changing causes.

Others say the black stripe represents the river Amstel and the Xs denote three specific places along the river. Other cities along the Amstel river use black to represent it in their shields this could be possible.Now I’ve quit my day job, have an office with three other awesome people, and run this crazy small business full-time. A flag nerd’s dream come true! 🏴‍☠️Amsterdam’s flag is derived from the city’s Coat of Arms, just turned 90 degrees into a horizontal format. Thus, the flag has a red field with a black bar splicing it through the middle horizontally and within that center black stripe, three white St. Andrew’s crosses (more commonly known as just white “X”s).

Most likely, the Xs (or St. Andrew’s Crosses) come from the family crest of the Persjin family, who were prominent land owners in the area in the middle ages. Jan Persijn was even “lord” of Amsterdam for two years from 1280 to 1282. The Persijn family also owned two other villages near Amsterdam and their flags also feature St. Andrew’s Crosses, so signs point to this being the actual origin.There are many legends around the meaning of the three Xs on the flag of Amsterdam. One says they are meant to ward off fire, floods and the black plague; however these symbols predate the black plague so it’s obviously false.

Submit your flag design. If you’re happy with your new Philly city flag, enter it below. We’ll be sharing some of our favorite designs later this month. Include your name and email address so we can give you credit for your design.

“There’s an argument to be made that people feel better about a place when a place has good symbols,” Ted Kaye, the creator of the guide to flag design known as “Good Flag, Bad Flag,” told me recently. “I think a great city deserves a great flag.”The city adopted the blue and yellow flag in 1895 to honor Philadelphia’s colonization by the Swedish in 1638. But the Philly we know today has little to do with Sweden.

If you would like, add a cross, chevron, or canton. These are optional but can add more detail and meaning to your flag. For example, a nordic cross seen on Denmark’s and other Scandinavian flags represents Christianity.The turtle represents one of the clans of the Lenape in our area. Chief Tamanend, who signed the peace treaty with William Penn, was a member of the clan of the turtle, which symbolizes Mother Earth. We consulted representatives of the Lenape before including the turtle in our list of symbols.

I shouldn’t be saying this, because supposedly one of my ancestors — Henry Christopher McCook — designed it. (I don’t have anything official to attest to that, but how many McCooks from the Philly area do you know?)If you would like, choose a symbol to adorn your flag. While some flags leave the symbolism just to their pattern, some flag designs opt for a simple, more immediate emblem. Like the Ghanaian flag, which features the symbol of the black star, to represent the emancipation of Africa.

Feeling limited by the options above? Design your own and send it to [email protected]. Alternatively, share it on Instagram and Twitter with the hashtag #NewPhillyFlag.

With 18 four-year universities and colleges, Philadelphia is one of the nation’s leading centers for higher education and academic research. 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. The Philadelphia skyline, which includes several globally renowned commercial skyscrapers, is expanding, primarily with new residential high-rise condominiums. Philadelphia and the Delaware Valley are a biotechnology hub. 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. The Philadelphia Stock Exchange, owned by Nasdaq since 2008, is the nation’s oldest stock exchange and a global leader in options trading. 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, including Philadelphia International Airport, the PhilaPort seaport, freight rail infrastructure, roadway traffic capacity, and warehouse storage space, are all expanding. 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.

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 21, 1949, and a city ordinance of June 15, 1949. The existing city council received a proposed draft on February 14, 1951, and the electors approved it in an election held April 17, 1951. The first elections under the new Home Rule Charter were held in November 1951, and the newly elected officials took office in January 1952.Philadelphia’s first professional sports team was baseball’s Athletics, organized in 1860. 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. 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). The Phillies, formed in 1883 as the Quakers and renamed in 1884, are the oldest team continuously playing under the same name in the same city in the history of American professional sports.

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. 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.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. 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.

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.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. 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.

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. 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.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. The Philadelphia area has many establishments that serve cheesesteaks, including restaurants, taverns, delicatessens and pizza parlors. 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, across the intersection of 9th Street and Passyunk Avenue in the Italian Market of South Philadelphia.

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 km), of which 134.18 square miles (347.52 km) is land and 8.53 square miles (22.09 km), or 6%, is water. Natural bodies of water include the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers, lakes in Franklin Delano Roosevelt Park, a
nd Cobbs, Wissahickon, and Pennypack creeks. The largest artificial body of water is East Park Reservoir in Fairmount Park.

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. In 1952, WFIL (renamed WPVI) premiered the television show Bandstand, which later became the nationally broadcast American Bandstand hosted by Dick Clark.According to a 2014 study by the Pew Research Center, 68% of the population of the city identified themselves as Christian. 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.

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. Financial activities account for the largest economic sector of the metropolitan area, which is also 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. 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.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.

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. The Superior Court of Pennsylvania and the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania also sit in Philadelphia several times a year. Judges for these courts are elected at large. The state Supreme Court and Superior Court have deputy prothonotary offices in Philadelphia.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. 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. The MLU was suspended indefinitely by its investors in December 2016. As of 2018, the Philadelphia Phoenix continue to play in the AUDL. Areas such as South Street and Old 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. The Wilma Theatre and the Philadelphia Theatre Company at the Suzanne Roberts Theatre produce a variety of new plays. Several blocks to the east are the Lantern Theater Company at St. Stephens Episcopal Church; 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. In May 2019, the Walnut Street Theatre announced a major expansion to begin in 2020. New Freedom Theatre, which is Pennsylvania’s oldest African-American theatre, sits on North Broad Street. 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). 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). Fairmount Park, when combined with Wissahickon Valley Park, is one of the largest contiguous urban park areas in the U.S. 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. The city contains many art museums, such as 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 major 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). 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 km) of Center City to the roughly 134 square miles (350 km) of Philadelphia County. 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. 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. In 1774, as resentment of British colonial practices and support for independence was burgeoning in the colonies, Philadelphia hosted the First Continental Congress.The highest recorded temperature was 106 °F (41 °C) on August 7, 1918, but temperatures at or above 100 °F (38 °C) are not common, with the last occurrence of such a temperature was July 21, 2019. The lowest officially recorded temperature was −11 °F (−24 °C) on February 9, 1934. Temperatures at or below 0 °F (−18 °C) are rare with the last such occurrence being January 19, 1994. The record low maximum is 5 °F (−15 °C) on February 10, 1899, and December 30, 1880, while the record high minimum is 83 °F (28 °C) on July 23, 2011, and July 24, 2010.

“Green Cities, Clean Water” is an environmental policy initiative based in Philadelphia that has shown promising results in mitigating the effects of climate change. 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”. 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.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). Philadelphia has been home to one vice president, George M. Dallas, 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. In May 2019, former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden chose Philadelphia to be his 2020 U.S. presidential campaign headquarters. 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. 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. Penn planned the creation of five public parks in the city which were renamed in 1824 (new names in parentheses): Centre Square (Penn Square), Northeast Square (Franklin Square), Southeast Square (Washington Square), Southwest Square (Rittenhouse Square), and Northwest Square (Logan Circle/Square). 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. Philadelphia International Airport is undergoing a $900 million infrastructural expansion to increase passenger capacity and augment passenger experience; 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. 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.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. 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. Puerto Rican and Dominican populations reside in North Philadelphia and the Northeast, and Mexican and Central American populations exist in South Philadelphia. South American migrants were being transported by bus from Texas to Philadelphia beginning in 2022. 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 also 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. The court also has a family division with 25 judges and an orphans’ court with three judges. From 1775 to 1781, Philadelphia hosted the Second Continental Congress, which adopted the Declaration of Independence in what was then called the Pennsylvania State House and now is called Independence Hall. Historian Joseph Ellis, in 2007, described the Declaration of Independence as “the most potent and consequential words in American history,” 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.

According to a 2015 report by the 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.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. 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.

Southeastern Pennsylvania was assigned the 215 area code i
n 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. Area code 445 was implemented as an overlay for area codes 215 and 267 starting on February 3, 2018.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. 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.

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, and their historical territory was along the Delaware River watershed, western Long Island, and the Lower Hudson Valley. Most Lenape were pushed out of their Delaware homeland during the 18th century by expanding European colonies, exacerbated by losses from intertribal conflicts. 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.

Philadelphia’s Asian American population includes those of Chinese, Indians, Vietnamese, South Koreans, and Filipinos. Over 35,000 Chinese Americans lived in the city in 2015, including a Fuzhounese population. Center City hosts a Chinatown that is served by Chinese-owned bus lines that provides transport to and from Chinatown in New York City, 95 miles (153 km) to the north. 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 Cambodian Americans, Vietnamese-Americans, Thai Americans, and Chinese communities.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.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. 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.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. 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. 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. Homicides increased dramatically in the late 2010s/early 2020s, reaching 499 homicides in 2020 and surpassing the 1990 “record” in 2021, with 501st murder on November 27 and 510 by the end of the month.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.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. Philadelphia is located on the Atlantic Seaboard Fall Line that separates the Atlantic Plain from the Piedmont. The Schuylkill River’s rapids at East Falls were inundated by completion of the dam at Fairmount Water Works.

According to the 2020 U.S. Census Bureau’s tabulation, there were 1,603,797 people residing in Philadelphia, representing a 1.2% increase from the 2019 census estimate. 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. 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. 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”. 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. In 2014, Philadelphia enacted an ordinance decriminalizing the possession of less than 30 grams of marijuana or 8 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. Philadelphia was at the time the largest city to decriminalize the possession of marijuana. From 2013 to 2018, marijuana arrests in the city dropped by more than 85%. The purchase or sale of marijuana remains a criminal offense in Philadelphia.

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.In 2006, Philadelphia’s homicide rate of 27.7 per 100,000 people was the highest of the country’s 10 most populous cities. 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. 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. Philadelphia has more public art than any other American city. 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. In 1959, lobbying by the Artists Equity Association helped create the Percent for Art ordinance, the first for a U.S. city. 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. The city also 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.

The Greyhound terminal is at 1001 Filbert Street (at 10th Street) in Center City, southeast of the Pennsylvania Convention Center and south of Chinatown. Several other bus operators provide service at the Greyhound terminal including Fullington Trailways, Martz Trailways, Peter Pan Bus Lines, and NJ Transit buses.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. 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. As a result of the previously declining population in the city and state, Philadelphia has only three congressional districts of the 18 districts in Pennsylvania, based on the 2010 census apportionment: the 2nd district, represented by Brendan Boyle; the 3rd, represented by Dwight Evans; and the 5th, represented by Mary Gay Scanlon. All three representatives are Democrats though Republicans still have some support in the city, primarily in the Northeast. Sam Katz ran competitive mayoral races as the Republican nominee in 1999 and 2003, losing to Democrat John Street both times. Irish, Italian, German, Polish, English, Russian, Ukrainian, and French ancestries constitute the largest European ethnic groups in the city. 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.

Pennsylvania’s longest-serving Senator, Arlen Specter, was an alumnus of the University of Pennsylvania who opened his first law practice in Philadelphia. 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. He had also been assistant counsel on the Warren Commission in 1964 and the city’s district attorney from 1966 to 1974.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 being one of the country’s 22 UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Independence Hall, where the Declaration of Independence was signed, and the Liberty Bell are the city’s most famous attractions. Other national historic sites include the homes of Edgar Allan Poe and Thaddeus Kosciuszko, early government buildings like the First and the Second Bank of the United States, Fort Mifflin, and the Gloria Dei (Old Swedes’) Church. Philadelphia alone has 67 National Historic Landmarks, the third most of any city in the country.

After George Washington’s defeat at the Battle of Brandywine in Chadds Ford Township, Pennsylvania, 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. Two Revolutionary War battles, the Siege of Fort Mifflin (September 26 to November 16, 1777) and the Battle of Germantown (October 4, 1777), were both fought within Philadelphia’s city limits.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.