132 Best Sights in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Begun in 1728 by the pioneering botanist John Bartram (1699–1777), this is America's oldest surviving botanical garden. Bartram, with his son William, introduced into cultivation more than 200 native plants from species up and down the East Coast. John became the royal botanist for King George III, and made a fortune selling plants to England. Today the 10-acre historical site along the river has lots of flowering shrubs and trees, including various azaleas, rhododendrons, and magnolias, and the Franklinia, a tree from south Georgia that became extinct in its native habitat and survived only because Bartram gathered it. Although there is almost always something flowering, the best time to come is in May and June, when the gardens are fragrant and filled with the lively chatter of birds. The original 1728 farmhouse still stands, and you can take a tour through its rooms, which have various exhibits, including Native American artifacts from the property dating back 3,000 years. Prince Charles's former gardener David Howard has taken on Bartram's garden as a pet project of sorts. A garden shop is open 10–4 Friday through Sunday. It's tucked down a driveway in an impoverished neighborhood of Southwest Philadelphia; drive or take a cab.

Belmont Plateau has a view from 243 feet above river level, which will literally be the high point of a tour of Fairmount Park. In front of you are the park, the Schuylkill River winding down to the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and, 4 miles away, the Philadelphia skyline.

When the bridge opened in 1926, its 1,750-foot main span made it the longest suspension bridge in the world. Paul Cret, architect of the Rodin Museum, was the designer. The bridge has been having some rust problems of late, but a massive, multiyear project has restored its glorious blue paint job. The bridge is most impressive when it's lighted at night. Start the 1¾-mile walk (one way) from either the Philadelphia side, two blocks north of the U.S. Mint, or the Camden, New Jersey, side.

It's easy to find this little brick house with the gabled roof: just look for the 13-star flag displayed from its second-floor window. Whether Betsy Ross, also known as Elizabeth Griscom Ross Ashbourn Claypoole (1752–1836) actually lived here and whether she really made the first Stars and Stripes is debatable. Nonetheless, the house, built around 1740, is a splendid example of a Colonial Philadelphia home and is fun to visit. Owned by the city and maintained by the nonprofit Historic Philadelphia Inc., the eight-room house overflows with artifacts such as a family Bible and Betsy Ross's chest of drawers and reading glasses. The small rooms hold period pieces that reflect the life of this hardworking Quaker (who died at the age of 84, outliving three husbands). You may have to wait in line, as this is one of the city's most popular attractions. The house, with its winding narrow stairs, is not accessible to people with disabilities. Alongside the house is a courtyard with a fountain, as well as the graves of Betsy Ross and her third husband, John Claypoole. Visitors can meet Betsy in her upholstery shop (the only working Colonial upholstery shop in the country) and enjoy free, interactive historical programming in the courtyard from May to September.

Three of the Victorian brownstones on a stretch of 3rd Street near Spruce Street, often called Bouvier's Row, were once owned by the late Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis's ancestors. Michel Bouvier, her great-great-grandfather—the first of the family to come from France—and many of his descendants lie in the family vault at Old St. Mary's Church, a few blocks away on 4th Street.

Located adjacent to the Adventure Aquarium on the Camden waterfront, this delightful 4-acre garden is an interactive horticultural playground with theme exhibits. You can smell, hear, touch, and even taste some of the elements in the Dinosaur, Cityscapes, Picnic, and Storybook exhibits, as well as in the gardens and the Butterfly House. Other attractions include Amaze, Carousel, Train Ride, Tree House, and more. To get here, drive or take the ferry from Penn's Landing.

This handsome, patterned red-and-black brick building dating from 1770 was the headquarters of the Carpenters' Company, a guild founded to support carpenters, who were both builders and architects in this era, and to aid their families. In September 1774 the First Continental Congress convened here and addressed a declaration of rights and grievances to King George III. Today re-creations of Colonial settings include original Windsor chairs and candle sconces and displays of 18th-century carpentry tools. The Carpenters' Company still owns and operates the building.

The basilica of the archdiocese of Philadelphia is the spiritual center for the Philadelphia area's 1.4 million Roman Catholics. Topped by a huge copper dome, it was built between 1846 and 1864 in the Italian Renaissance style. Many of the interior decorations are by Constantino Brumidi, who painted the dome of the U.S. Capitol. Several Philadelphia bishops and archbishops are buried beneath the altar.

Five styles of furniture—Jacobean, William and Mary, Queen Anne, Chippendale, and Federal—reflect the accumulations of five generations of the Paschall-Morris family; additions and changes to the house itself, built 1748–50, reveal changing tastes. The stone house stood in Frankford, in northeastern Philadelphia, before being moved to this location in 1927.

The Anglicans of the Church of England built a wooden church on this site in 1697. When they outgrew it, they erected a new church, the most sumptuous in the colonies, probably designed by Dr. John Kearsley and modeled on the work of famed English architect Sir Christopher Wren. The symmetrical, classical facade with arched windows, completed in 1754, is a fine example of Georgian architecture; the church is one of the city's treasures. The congregation included 15 signers of the Declaration of Independence. The bells and the soaring 196-foot steeple, the tallest in the colonies, were financed by lotteries run by Benjamin Franklin. Brass plaques mark the pews of George and Martha Washington, John and Abigail Adams, Betsy Ross, and others. Two blocks west of the church is Christ Church Burial Ground. Guided tours are available throughout the day.

Weathered gravestones fill the resting place of five signers of the Declaration of Independence and other Colonial patriots. The best known is Benjamin Franklin; he lies alongside his wife, Deborah, and their son, Francis, who died at age four. According to local legend, throwing a penny onto Franklin's grave will bring you good luck. The burial ground is open to the public—except in December, January, and February—for regular visits.

Claes Oldenburg's 45-foot-high, 10-ton steel sculpture stands in front of the Center Square Building, above one of the entrances to SEPTA's City Hall subway station. Lauded by some and scorned by others, this pop-art piece contrasts with the traditional statuary so common in Philadelphia.

Congress Hall was the meeting place of the U.S. Congress from 1790 to 1800, one of the most important decades in our nation's history. Here the Bill of Rights was added to the Constitution; Alexander Hamilton's proposals for a mint and a national bank were enacted; and Vermont, Kentucky, and Tennessee became the first new states after the original colonies. On the first floor you can find the House of Representatives, where President John Adams was inaugurated in 1797. On the second floor is the Senate chamber, where in 1793 George Washington was inaugurated for his second term. Both chambers have been authentically restored.

The lobby of the Curtis Publishing Company building has a great treasure: a 15-by-50-foot glass mosaic mural, The Dream Garden, based on a Maxfield Parrish painting. It was executed by the Louis C. Tiffany Studios in 1916. The work's 260 colors and 100,000 pieces of opalescent hand-fired glass laced with gold leaf make it perhaps the finest Tiffany mural in the world. The mural was also designated a "historic object" by the Philadelphia Historical Commission after its owner, the estate of a local art patron, put it up for sale for $9 million in 1998; the designation, the first in the city's history, stopped the sale and the mural remains in public view, under the auspices of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.

Graduates of this tuition-free school for outstanding students include Leonard Bernstein, Samuel Barber, Ned Rorem, and Anna Moffo. The school occupies four former private homes; the main building is in the mansion that belonged to banker George W. Childs Drexel. Built in 1893 by the distinguished Boston firm of Peabody and Stearns, it's notable for Romanesque and Renaissance architectural details. Free student and faculty concerts are given from October through May, usually at 8 pm on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.

In a second-floor room that he had rented from bricklayer Jacob Graff, Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) drafted the Declaration of Independence in June 1776. The home was reconstructed for the Bicentennial celebration; the bedroom and parlor in which Jefferson lived that summer were re-created with period furnishings. The first floor has a Jefferson exhibition. The display on the Declaration of Independence shows some of the changes Jefferson made while writing it. You can see Jefferson's original version—which would have abolished slavery had the passage not been stricken by the committee that included Benjamin Franklin and John Adams.

Cypress Street, north of Delancey Place, and Panama Street (especially the 1900 block, one block south of Delancey) are two of the many intimate streets lined with trees and town houses characteristic of the area. At No. 2010 is the Rosenbach Museum and Library.

Built in 1775 by John Dilworth, Todd House has been restored to its 1790s appearance, when its best-known resident, Dolley Payne Todd (1768–1849), lived here. She lost her husband, the Quaker lawyer John Todd, to yellow fever in 1793. The widow later married James Madison, our fourth president. Her time as a hostess in the White House was quite a contrast to her years in this simple home. There's an 18th-century garden next to Todd House.

Open by tour only; free tickets available at the Independence Visitor Center in advance.

Designed by John Haviland and built in 1829, Eastern State was at the time the most expensive building in America; this massive structure influenced international penal design and was the model for some 300 prisons from China to South America. Its system of solitary confinement (to encourage reflection and penitence) and firm discipline was ultimately recognized as flawed. Before it closed in 1971, the now-crumbling, atmospheric prison was home to Al Capone, Willie Sutton, and Pep the Dog, who allegedly killed the cat that belonged to a governor's wife. The excellent audio tour of the prison features narration by actor Steve Buscemi, and some thoughtful exhibits examine issues relating to criminal justice reform. You can also take a guided tour; check online in advance. The penitentiary, just a half mile north of the Rodin Museum, hosts changing art installations and Terror Behind the Walls, a very popular group of haunted house experiences, around Halloween. At this writing, work was beginning on a new visitor center, but the site is still open. Also, most areas you visit are unheated, so bundle up well in winter.

Philadelphia's only mid-19th-century house-museum is a Victorian Gothic extravaganza of elongated windows and arches. This gorgeous 1859 suburban villa is used to illustrate the way Victorian social mores were reflected through its decoration. The downstairs highlights the Rococo Revival (circa 1860), the upstairs is fashioned after the Renaissance Revival (1880s), and the difference is striking, especially the Art Deco–like wall details you may not associate with the time. Also striking is the chamber pot in the dining room that the men used after the ladies retired to the parlor. What makes this house particularly interesting is that it was home to middle-upper-class residents, and so much of the decoration represents the norm of what people in that class strove to be. The house is two blocks from the Tulpehocken stop on SEPTA's Chestnut Hill West line.

One of America's most original writers, Edgar Allan Poe (1809–49), lived here from 1843 to 1844; it's the only one of his Philadelphia residences still standing. During that time some of his best-known short stories were published: "The Telltale Heart," "The Black Cat," and "The Gold Bug." You can tour the three-story brick house; to evoke the spirit of Poe, the National Park Service displays first-edition manuscripts and other rare books and offers interactive exhibits as well. An adjoining house has exhibits on Poe and his family, his work habits, and his literary contemporaries; there's also an eight-minute film and a small Poe library and reading room. A statue of a raven helps set the mood. The site, easily reached from the African American Museum, is five blocks north of Market Street. SEPTA bus 47 travels on 7th Street to Green Street, where you should disembark.

Bronze and granite sculptures by 16 artists stand in a series of tableaux and groupings on riverside terraces. Portraying American themes and traits, they include The Quaker, by Harry Rosen; Birth of a Nation, by Henry Kreis; and Spirit of Enterprise, by Jacques Lipchitz.

Designed by Frederick Graff, this National Historic Landmark completed in 1815 was the first steam-pumping station of its kind in the country, and the notable assemblage of Greek Revival buildings is one of the city's most beautiful sights. The buildings, just behind the Philadelphia Museum of Art, include an interpretive center with some original features on display and kid-friendly exhibits about the region's water and the history of the water works; there's also a short film. Nearby paths provide good views of it and the Art Museum.

Housed in an authentic 1876 firehouse, this museum traces the history of firefighting, from the volunteer company founded in Philadelphia by Benjamin Franklin in 1736 to the professional departments of the 20th century. The collection includes early hand- and horse-drawn fire engines, such as an 1796 hand pumper, an 1857 steamer, and a 1907 three-horse Metropolitan steamer; fire marks (18th-century building signs marking them as insured for fire); uniforms; other memorabilia; and a 9/11 memorial. There is also a gift shop on-site and online.

One of the finest examples remaining of the work of Philadelphia architect Frank Furness, this was the most innovative library building in the country when it opened in 1891. It was the first library to separate the reading room and the stacks. Peek into the reading room, dominated by a huge fireplace, and with study alcoves lit from skylights above. The unusual exterior stirred controversy when it was built: note the terra-cotta panels, short heavy columns, and gargoyles on the north end. The mottoes inscribed on many of the surviving leaded-glass windows were chosen by Horace Howard Furness, Frank's older brother and a Shakespeare scholar on the Penn faculty. Energetic visitors should consider making the long, Victorian climb up the main staircase to see the upper half of the tower. The less-energetic can take the modern elevator to the 4th floor.

One of five squares William Penn placed in his original design, this park is now a family-friendly destination. There are two modern playgrounds (for younger and older kids) open year-round. From April through December the square also features a carousel; a food stand with burgers, salads, shakes, and ice cream operated by famed local restaurateur Stephen Starr; and an 18-hole miniature-golf course, whose holes boast scale models of Independence Hall, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Ben Franklin Bridge, and other local landmarks. While the park remains open year-round, the attractions are closed in January and February.

Philadelphia calls its vast public-library system the Fabulous Freebie. Founded in 1891, the central library has more than 1 million volumes. With its grand entrance hall, sweeping marble staircase, and enormous reading rooms, this Greek Revival building looks the way libraries should. It's also the site of regular author readings and other book-related fairs and events. With more than 12,000 musical scores, the Edwin S. Fleisher collection is the largest of its kind in the world. The department of social science and history has nearly 100,000 charts, maps, and guidebooks. The rare-book department is a beautiful suite housing first editions of Dickens, ancient Sumerian clay tablets, illuminated medieval manuscripts, and more modern manuscripts, including the only known handwritten copy of Poe's "The Raven." The children's department houses the city's largest collection of children's books in a made-for-kids setting. The library is in the midst of renovations in preparation for a 130,000-square-foot addition designed by acclaimed architect Moshe Safdie that will house a new children's department, an area for teens, a self-publishing center, exhibition galleries, and a 550-seat auditorium.