Portal:Philadelphia

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The Philadelphia Portal

Philadelphia, colloquially Philly, is the largest city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania, and the sixth-most populous U.S. city with a 2019 estimated population of 1,584,064. Since 1854, the city has had the same geographic boundaries as Philadelphia County, the most populous county in Pennsylvania and the urban core of the eighth-largest U.S. metropolitan statistical area, with over 6 million residents . Philadelphia is also the economic and cultural anchor of the greater Delaware Valley, located along the lower Delaware and Schuylkill Rivers, within the Northeast megalopolis. The Delaware Valley's population of 7.2 million ranks it as the eighth-largest combined statistical area in the United States.

Philadelphia is one of the oldest municipalities in the United States. William Penn, an English Quaker, founded the city in 1682 to serve as capital of the Pennsylvania Colony. Philadelphia played an instrumental role in the American Revolution as a meeting place for the Founding Fathers of the United States, who signed the Declaration of Independence in 1776 at the Second Continental Congress, and the Constitution at the Philadelphia Convention of 1787. Several other key events occurred in Philadelphia during the Revolutionary War including the First Continental Congress, the preservation of the Liberty Bell, the Battle of Germantown, and the Siege of Fort Mifflin. Philadelphia remained the nation's largest city until being overtaken by New York City in 1790; the city was also one of the nation's capitals during the revolution, serving as temporary U.S. capital while Washington, D.C. was under construction. In the 19th century, Philadelphia became a major industrial center and a railroad hub. The city grew from an influx of European immigrants, most of whom came from Ireland, Italy and Germany—the three largest reported ancestry groups in the city . In the early 20th century, Philadelphia became a prime destination for African Americans during the Great Migration after the Civil War, as well as Puerto Ricans. The city's population doubled from one million to two million people between 1890 and 1950.

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Second Bank of the United States, 2007

The Second Bank of the United States was the second federally authorized Hamiltonian national bank. A private corporation with public duties, the bank handled all fiscal transactions for the U.S. Government, and was accountable to Congress and the U.S. Treasury. Modeled on Alexander Hamilton's First Bank of the United States, the Second Bank was chartered by President James Madison in 1816 and began operations at its main branch in Philadelphia on January 7, 1817 managing twenty-five branch offices nationwide by 1832. The building is part of Independence National Historical Park and serves as an art gallery housing a portrait collection of prominent early Americans painted by Charles Willson Peale and many others.

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The Earle Mack School of Law is the law school of Philadelphia's Drexel University. The school, which opened in Fall 2006, was the first new law school in the area in over thirty years, and is the newest school within Drexel. Serving both undergraduate and graduate students, the school offers Juris Doctor degrees and requires all students to take part in their cooperative education program. The 65,000-square-foot (6,000 m²) complex features a moot courtroom, a two-floor library, a two-story atrium for meetings and casual conversation, faculty/staff offices, and several rooms for students to meet and work; the building also shares the campus-wide wireless Internet access. The permanent location for the law school, on the corner of 33rd and Chestnut Streets, is projected to be completed and open in 2012. The inaugural class of the Earle Mack School of Law began classes on August 16, 2006.

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Benjamin Franklin was one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. Franklin was a renowned polymath and a leading author, printer, political theorist, politician, freemason, postmaster, scientist, inventor, humorist, civic activist, statesman, and diplomat. As a scientist, he was a major figure in the American Enlightenment and the history of physics for his discoveries and theories regarding electricity. As an inventor, he is known for the lightning rod, bifocals, and the Franklin stove. He facilitated many civic organizations, including Philadelphia's fire department and the University of Pennsylvania, an Ivy League institution. Franklin earned the title of "The First American" for his early and indefatigable campaigning for colonial unity, initially as an author and spokesman in London for several colonies. As the first United States Ambassador to France, he exemplified the emerging American nation.

In early adulthood, Franklin became a successful newspaper editor and printer in Philadelphia, the leading city in the colonies, publishing the Pennsylvania Gazette at the age of 23. He became wealthy publishing the Gazette and Poor Richard's Almanack. He was promoted to deputy postmaster-general for the British colonies in 1753, enabling him to establish the first national communications network. During the American Revolution, he became the first United States Postmaster General. From 1785 to 1788, he served as the sixth governor of Pennsylvania. He initially owned and dealt in slaves but, by the 1750s, he argued against slavery, becoming one of the most prominent abolitionists. His status as one of America's most influential Founding Fathers has seen Franklin honored on coinage, the $100 bill, and the names of many towns, counties, educational institutions, streets, warships, and corporations. In Philadelphia, the main sites named after Franklin include a suspension bridge crossing the Delaware River, a parkway, a science museum, an athletic field, a high school, an elementary school, and a city square.