132 Best Sights in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

The Contributionship, the nation's oldest fire insurance company, was founded by Benjamin Franklin in 1752; the present Greek Revival building with fluted marble Corinthian columns dates from 1836 and has some magnificently elegant salons (particularly the boardroom, where a seating plan on the wall lists Benjamin Franklin as the first incumbent of seat Number One). The architect, Thomas U. Walter, was also responsible for the dome and House and Senate wings of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. This is still an active business, but a small museum is open to the public by appointment.

This site commemorates the location of the home to U.S. presidents George Washington and John Adams from 1790 to 1800, as well as nine enslaved Africans who worked as household staff. The outdoor monument, which is open 24 hours a day, shows video clips that bring the house's history alive. Inside, take note of the bow window, which is thought to have inspired the shape of the Oval Office at the White House, as well as the remains of a passage torn down in 1832 that connected the main house to the slave quarters.

The first U.S. mint was built in Philadelphia at 16th and Spring Garden streets in 1792, when the Bank of North America adopted dollars and cents instead of shillings and pence as standard currency; the current mint was built in 1971. During a self-guided tour you can see blank disks being melted, cast, and pressed into coins, which are then inspected, counted, and bagged. Historic artifacts such as the Key to the First Mint and the gold medal awarded to General Anthony Wayne for his capture of Stony Point during the Revolutionary War are displayed. Seven Tiffany glass tile mosaics depict coin making in ancient Rome. A shop in the lobby sells special coins and medals—in mint condition.

Rare treasures from the deepest jungles and ancient tombs make this one of the finest archaeological and anthropological museums in the world. The collection of about 1 million objects includes the world's third-largest sphinx from Egypt, a crystal ball once owned by China's Dowager Empress, some of the world's oldest writing—Sumerian cuneiform clay tablets—and the 4,500-year-old golden jewels from the royal tombs at the ancient site of Ur (in modern-day Iraq). The museum's Worlds Intertwined galleries presents its Greek, Roman, and Etruscan collections. Children run to see the Egyptian mummies and to exhibits such as "Imagine Africa."

You can tour this 307-foot-long "guppy class" submarine, which was commissioned in 1944 and conducted search-and-destroy missions in the South Pacific. The guides—some of whom are World War II vets—tell amazing stories of what life was like for a crew of 88 men, at sea for months at a time, in these claustrophobic quarters. Then you can step through the narrow walkways, climb the ladders, and glimpse the torpedoes in their firing chambers. Children love it, and it's fascinating for adults, too. Tickets must be purchased at the Independence Seaport Museum and include admission to the museum and the USS Olympia.

Commodore George Dewey's flagship at the Battle of Manila in the Spanish-American War is the only remaining ship from that war. Dewey entered Manila Harbor after midnight on May 1, 1898. At 5:40 am he told his captain, "You may fire when ready, Gridley," and the battle began. By 12:30 the Americans had destroyed the entire Spanish fleet. The Olympia was the last ship of the "New Navy" of the 1880s and 1890s, the beginning of the era of steel ships. You can tour the entire restored ship, including the officers' staterooms, galley, gun batteries, and pilothouse, while "behind the scenes" tours are offered the first Saturday of the month from April through November. Tickets must be purchased at the Independence Seaport Museum and include admission to the USS Becuna and the museum.

This leafy area resembling a London park has been through numerous incarnations since it was set aside by William Penn. From 1705 until after the Revolution, the square was lined on three sides by houses and on the fourth by the Walnut Street Prison. The latter was home to Robert Morris, who went to debtors' prison after he helped finance the Revolution. The square served as a burial ground for victims of the 1793 yellow fever epidemic and for 2,600 British and American soldiers who perished during the Revolution. The square holds a Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, erected to the memory of unknown Revolutionary War soldiers. By the 1840s the square had gained prestige as the center of the city's most fashionable neighborhood. It later became the city's publishing center.

A scale model of the Penn statue that tops City Hall sits on a 60-foot-long map of Penn's Philadelphia, carved in the pavement of Welcome Park. (The Welcome was the ship that transported Penn to America.) The wall surrounding the park displays a time line of William Penn's life, with information about his philosophy and quotations from his writings. The park was the site of the slate-roof house where Penn lived briefly and where he granted the Charter of Privileges in 1701. Written by Penn, the Charter of Privileges served as Pennsylvania's constitutional framework until 1776; the Liberty Bell was commissioned to commemorate the charter's 50th anniversary. The City Tavern, across the street, marks the site where George Washington once dined. It's still open for historically accurate lunches and dinners.

The Naomi Wood collection of antique household goods, including Colonial furniture, unusual clocks, and English delftware, and designated her "colonial household gear" in her will, can be seen on guided tours in this fine Georgian mansion, a National Historic Landmark built about 1756.

This modest-sized museum has trouble drawing a crowd due to its location halfway down the other side of the hill from Chestnut Hill's shops and restaurants. You can spend a pleasant half hour here, however, taking in the varied modern, 20th-century, and 19th-century art from artists mostly based in the region. Perhaps the best collection is of mid-1900s woodcut and other prints, and the museum has been doing a good job of rotating exhibits and bringing in special exhibitions. There are also some interesting 19th-century Pennsylvania landscapes. The grounds have varied modern outdoor sculpture.

Between the 1690s and 1973, Wyck sheltered nine generations of the Wistar-Haines family. Their accumulated furnishings are on display, along with ceramics, children's needlework, dolls, and artifacts generally contemporary with the mid-1800s. On one side is the oldest rose garden of in the United States, dating to the 1820s, which blooms in late May, as well as a magnolia tree from that time. Out back are a large lawn, where you can picnic, and a vegetable garden—the land has been continuously farmed since 1690. Known as the oldest house in Germantown, Wyck was used as a British field hospital after the Battle of Germantown. The home's current form dates to 1824, when William Strickland made alterations. Tours are offered and should be scheduled in advance, but the grounds are open for wandering, and there is a farmers' market offering fruits and produce grown on the grounds on Friday afternoons from May to November.