50 Fun Facts About Philadelphia

Philadelphia's name is Greek for what?

William Penn chose it as a Quaker; several ancient cities carried the same name, including one mentioned in the Book of Revelation.

In which year did the city's Quaker founder establish Philadelphia?

Legend has Penn making a treaty with Lenape chief Tammany under an elm at Shackamaxon, now Fishtown.

Philadelphia served as capital of the United States on how many separate occasions between 1776 and 1800?

It gave way to Washington, D.C. in 1800, and lost its title as the nation's largest city to New York in 1790.

Which Native American people lived at Shackamaxon on the site of Philadelphia?

They were also called the Delaware Indians, after the river along which they lived.

The Liberty Bell was cast in 1752 by a London firm later renamed what?

It cracked on its first test ring in Philadelphia and was recast twice by local workmen John Pass and John Stow, whose names are on it.

Which movement first gave the State House Bell the name 'Liberty Bell', adopting it as a symbol?

That happened in the 1830s; the bell's link to the Revolution was not made until 1847.

The Liberty Bell's inscription begins 'Proclaim LIBERTY throughout all the Land unto all the' what?

The bell also spells the colony 'Pensylvania', an accepted spelling at the time that Alexander Hamilton later used on the Constitution.

Independence Hall was originally built as what?

Completed in 1753, it hosted both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitutional Convention in its Assembly Room.

Independence Hall has appeared on the back of which US banknote since 1928?

Its Assembly Room, from John Trumbull's painting, is on the back of the $2 bill.

When its tower was finished in 1894, Philadelphia City Hall held what world record?

It kept the title until the Singer Building rose in New York in 1908, and it is still the world's largest free-standing masonry building.

Whose 37-foot bronze statue stands on top of City Hall?

Sculptor Alexander Milne Calder made it and more than 250 other sculptures on the building; the statue weighs over 53,000 pounds.

The 'Curse of Billy Penn' was blamed on which 1987 event?

The city then went a quarter century without a title in any major sport, until the Phillies won the 2008 World Series.

Which building, completed in 2018, is the tallest in the US outside Manhattan and Chicago?

It rises 1,121 feet, more than double City Hall's 548.

Which two hot-dog-stand brothers are credited with inventing the cheesesteak?

The first sandwiches had no cheese at all; that was added at Pat's Ridge Avenue shop by a manager nicknamed 'Cocky Joe' in 1951.

Which rival cheesesteak shop, founded in 1966, sits directly across the street from Pat's?

The soft, slightly salted Amoroso roll is the classic base for both.

Per a popular account, 'hoagie' comes from Italian-American workers at a WWI shipyard known as what?

Mayor Ed Rendell later declared the hoagie the official sandwich of Philadelphia.

Which snack-cake company, maker of the Butterscotch Krimpet, was founded in Philadelphia in 1914?

Kandy Kakes became its best-seller, with nearly half a million baked every day.

The convenience chain Wawa is named after a Pennsylvania town whose name comes from an Ojibwe word for what?

The first Wawa Food Market opened in Folsom in 1964, though the logo shows a Canada goose rather than a snow goose.

Reading Terminal Market opened in 1893 under what?

The city wanted street markets moved indoors for safety and sanitation; the Pennsylvania Dutch merchants there still close on Sundays.

How many steps make up the famous 'Rocky Steps' at the Philadelphia Museum of Art?

Stallone originally wanted Rocky to carry his bull mastiff Butkus up them, but the dog was too heavy.

The bronze statue of Stallone's boxer at the museum steps was originally commissioned for which movie?

Sculptor A. Thomas Schomberg cast three 2-ton copies; the first bounced between the museum, the Spectrum and the bottom of the steps.

Philadelphia's museum parkway was designed in 1917 by Jacques Greber to emulate which famous boulevard?

The Art Museum stands in for the Arc de Triomphe at its far end, giving 'a slice of Paris in Philadelphia'.

The Mummers Parade, held every New Year's Day, first officially marched in which year?

It is the longest-running continuous folk parade in the US, and its theme song is 'Oh, Dem Golden Slippers'.

Which is NOT one of the five competitive divisions of the Mummers Parade?

The five are Comics, Wench Brigades, Fancies, String Bands and Fancy Brigades, based in clubhouses along 'Two Street' in Pennsport.

What delayed the opening of Philadelphia's zoo, chartered in 1859, until 1874?

It opened with 1,000 animals and 25-cent admission.

Pennsylvania Hospital, the nation's first, was founded in 1751 by Thomas Bond and whom?

It housed America's first surgical amphitheatre and first medical library.

Which polymath established the Library Company of Philadelphia, the nation's first, in 1731?

Franklin also founded the city's first fire company.

The Philadelphia bourse, owned by Nasdaq since 2008, holds what distinction?

Founded in 1790, it is now a global leader in options trading.

The 1793 epidemic that killed roughly ten percent of Philadelphia's population was an outbreak of what?

It was the largest yellow fever epidemic in US history, killing 4,000 to 5,000 people.

Which invention was exhibited at the 1876 Centennial Exposition in Fairmount Park, the first official US World's Fair?

More than nine million people visited between May and November.

On which radical group's headquarters did Philadelphia police drop a bomb in 1985, killing eleven?

The fire destroyed 61 homes on Osage Avenue in one of the only cases of a US city bombing its own residents.

The 1854 Act of Consolidation did what to the city?

The city grew from the 2 square miles of Center City to roughly 134 square miles overnight.

Which notorious gangster was once held at Eastern State Penitentiary?

The prison's wagon-wheel design and 'separate system' were copied by more than 300 prisons worldwide; today it runs a haunted house at Halloween.

Eastern State Penitentiary was operational from 1829 until which year?

At its completion it was the largest and most expensive public structure ever built in the US.

Betsy Ross, credited by her family with sewing the first US flag, worked in which trade?

The story only surfaced in the 1870s through her grandson, and historians have never found evidence for it.

Which street alongside Philadelphia's Boathouse Row is named for a local oarsman?

John B. Kelly Jr. was the brother of actress Grace Kelly; the row's clubs form the Schuylkill Navy, founded in 1858.

Which club is the oldest continuously operating pro sports team under the same name in the same city?

They formed in 1883 as the Quakers and took their current name in 1884.

In the 'Philly Special' trick play at Super Bowl LII, who caught the touchdown pass?

Foles, the quarterback, became the first player to both throw and catch a touchdown pass in a Super Bowl, and the Eagles beat the Patriots 41-33.

Which five universities make up Philadelphia's 'Big 5' college basketball rivalry?

Drexel is the city's sixth Division I school; La Salle won the NCAA title in 1954 and Villanova in 1985, 2016 and 2018.

Which teen dance show was produced in Philadelphia and hosted by Dick Clark before moving to LA in 1964?

It began locally as Bandstand in 1952 with host Bob Horn and launched teen idols like Frankie Avalon and Bobby Rydell.

Thanks to a program begun in 1984, Philadelphia has more of what public artwork than any US city?

The Mural Arts Program has funded more than 2,800 of them, partly as an outlet for graffiti artists.

Which pop-art image by Robert Indiana gives its name to a Center City park?

The design started as a Christmas card in 1964 and later became a US postage stamp unveiled at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Philadelphia's typical home for most of its history, once called a 'Philadelphia row', is what?

The style was introduced to the US through Philadelphia in the early 19th century.

Philadelphia's first professional sports team, the Athletics, founded in 1860, played which sport?

The Athletics helped found the National League in 1876, now the longest continuously operating league in world sport.

In the 2020 census, Philadelphia's 1.6 million people made it which most-populous US city?

The metro area, known as the Delaware Valley, had about 6.33 million residents, among the ten largest in the nation.

Which two rivers frame Philadelphia?

The Dutch built Fort Beversreede on the Delaware near the Schuylkill's mouth in 1648, before Penn ever arrived.

Which Philadelphia rail hub is the third-busiest in the Amtrak system?

Only Penn Station in Manhattan and Union Station in Washington handle more passengers.

Philadelphia's biotech scene has earned the city which nickname?

It reflects the region's central role in developing cancer immunotherapies.

In 1835 some 20,000 Philadelphia workers staged the first general strike in North America, winning what?

The strike also brought a wage increase; the city was then an industrial powerhouse of textiles, locomotives and shipbuilding.

Independence National Historical Park is one of how many UNESCO World Heritage Sites in the US?

The city also has 67 National Historic Landmarks, including Independence Hall itself.