After Thomas Holme

A Portraiture of the City of Philadelphia in the Province of Pennsylvania
Engraving from A Letter from William Penn Proprietary and Governour of Pennsylvania ... to the Committee of the Free Society

(London, 1683)

NYPL, Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs, Print Collection, The Phelps Stokes Collection

Unlike earlier colonial settlements, Philadelphia, founded in 1682, was completely planned out in advance by its founder, the Quaker William Penn, and his surveyor, Thomas Holme; Penn’s "greene countrie town" was to serve as the capital of the colony of Pennsylvania, which had been granted to Penn by King Charles II. This map, from a prospectus aimed at would-be purchasers, shows a well-organized, gridded rectangle, nestled between the Schuylkill and Delaware rivers and surrounded by farmland. House lots of uniform size feature room for individual gardens, a central square includes a marketplace and town hall, and there are four square public parks.

Penn envisioned a city free from disease and the threat of fire, and open to all religions. In a radical departure from other settlements in Europe and America, his plan incorporates wide, straight streets, and plenty of open space for gardens and orchards; it includes neither city walls nor a fortress. But despite rapid growth, the "City of Brotherly Love" did not fully live up to Penn’s ideals. Lots were subdivided by owners for more housing, and a network of narrow alleyways developed between them.

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