June 3, 2008 - Philadelphia, PA

Today was the day for our Philadelphia tour. The owner of the KOA conducted the tour in his 14 passenger van. Needless to say, I was in the very back of the van and Larry was in the front with the driver. We left the campground at 8:00 a.m. and drove into the big city. He told us that William Penn’s family was owed money from the King and asked that it be settled. The King gave him a land grant which was Pennsylvania. Penn offered people land if they would come and grow crops. Penn then took a percentage of the profits. The beds back then were made of a wooden frame with ropes stretched across each direction. Then a mattress that was stuffed with straw was put on top of the ropes. Thus the saying, Sleep tight (tighten the ropes) and don’t let the bugs bite (shake out the mattress to get the bugs out of the straw).

Once we arrived downtown, he dropped us off in front of the Independence Living History Center. He gave us our 12:45 p.m. tickets for Independence Hall and asked us to meet him at 1:15 p.m. We went inside the Living History Center and saw tables covered with broken pieces of pottery. The staff’s job was to put these various pieces together some how to form a pot. It reminded us of working a jigsaw puzzle.

We walked from there to Franklin Court. This is the location where Benjamin Franklin built his home. In his later years, Franklin also built three houses on Market street, a Print Shop for his printer-publisher grandson, Benjamin Franklin Bache.

Franklin first saw the site at 17, while lodging with the family of his future wife, Deborah Read, in a small house at the front of this lot. Once together, Benjamin and Deborah inherited and acquired the neighboring properties. By the early 1760’s, Franklin met with a master carpenter, Robert Smith, to build a large house to stand in a quiet garden deep in the middle of the block.

Franklin left for England while the house was under construction during 1763-65. Tragically, before Benjamin’s return to his new home, Deborah had died. Fortunately, his daughter, Sarah and husband, Richard Bache, had moved into the house, filling it with grandchildren. Returning in 1775, Franklin decided the house was too small; at the age of 81, he added and extension.
One of the outer buildings was a post office that still exists today. It was the first Post Office and didn’t fly the U.S. Flag because at that time we were not a country yet. Every piece of mail is hand stamped. The other buildings were used to print Franklin’s newspaper, the Aurura. The sign out front has his signature: B.FreeFranklin on it.

We went to the Carpenter’s Hall next. It was a small building erected in 1770 and 1774 by the Carpenter’s Company of Philadelphia, a guild dedicated to the improvement of its members’ skills. The First Continental Congress met here in 1774.

After we walked about a block we came to the Supreme Court Chamber in Old City Hall that met from 1791 to 1800.. Then we moved on to the Liberty Bell Center. The Liberty Bell is an international symbol of freedom. Hung in the State House in 1753. The Bell cracked sometime between 1817 and 1846; exactly when remains a mystery.

We walked over to the Bourst Building to have lunch at food court. After lunch we walked a couple of blocks to the Congressional Hall. We had a guided tour through the hall. They first took us into the House and then upstairs to the Senate which was much fancier. The U.S. Congress met in Congress Hall from 1790 to 1800.

Our final building was Independence Hall. Delegates meeting in the Assembly Room of the Pennsylvania State House, now called Independence Hall, created the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. We had a tour guide for this portion of the tour. It was an amazing feeling to be standing right in the room where the Declaration was discussed and approved.

We left Independence Hall and got back into the van. Our guide to us to Elfreth’s Alley which is the oldest continually occupied street in America. It was very narrow and there were houses on both sides. On the outside of some of the homes was a plaque signifying the fire insurance company that insured the home. Only fire fighters of that particular company could put out that fire otherwise it burned to the ground.

Then we went to Christ Church where several of the men who participated in the creation of our country worshiped. After that we went to Betsy Ross House. We walked through her house which was shared with another family. She was asked to make the U.S. Flag and if she had been caught, she could have been tried for treason. She also did furniture covers and upholstery.

Our last stop was Valley Forge. This is where George Washington wintered the troops for a spring offensive against the British. We saw the house that he and his wife lived and also the huts where the men stayed. It was a very cold winter and many of the men lacked supplies, clothing and shoes.

It was very interesting and we learned a great deal.