Benjamin Franklin Parkway, commonly abbreviated to Ben Franklin Parkway and colloquially called the Parkway, is a boulevard that runs through the cultural heart of

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, largest city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the List of United States cities by population, sixth-largest city i ...

. Named for founding father

Benjamin Franklin Benjamin Franklin ( April 17, 1790) was an American polymath who was active as a writer, scientist, inventor, statesman, diplomat, printer, publisher, and political philosopher. Encyclopædia Britannica, Wood, 2021 Among the leading inte ...

, the mile-long Parkway cuts diagonally across the grid plan pattern of Center City's northwest quadrant. It starts at

Philadelphia City Hall Philadelphia City Hall is the seat of the municipal government of the City of Philadelphia. Built in the ornate Second Empire style, City Hall houses the chambers of the Philadelphia City Council and the offices of the Mayor of Philadelphia. ...

, curves around Logan Circle, and ends before the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Attractions

The Parkway is the spine of Philadelphia's Museum District. Some of the city's most famous sights are here: Cathedral Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul;

Swann Memorial Fountain The ''Swann Memorial Fountain'' (also known as the ''Fountain of the Three Rivers'') is an art deco fountain sculpture located in the center of Logan Circle in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States.Hayes, Margaret Calder, ''Three Alexander C ...

;

Parkway Central Library Parkway Central Library also known as Free Library or Central Library is the main public library building and administrative headquarters of the Free Library of Philadelphia system. It is the largest library, and only research library, of 54 lib ...

, the

Family Court Building The Philadelphia Family Court Building also known as Juvenile and Domestic Branches of the Municipal Court, is a historic building registered under National Park Service's, National Register of Historic Places. The building was constructed betwee ...

, the

Franklin Institute The Franklin Institute is a science museum and the center of science education and research in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is named after the American scientist and statesman Benjamin Franklin. It houses the Benjamin Franklin National Memori ...

, Moore College of Art and Design, the

Academy of Natural Sciences The Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University, formerly the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, is the oldest natural science research institution and museum in the Americas. It was founded in 1812, by many of the leading natura ...

, the

Rodin Museum The Rodin Museum is an art museum located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania that contains one of the largest collections of sculptor Auguste Rodin's works outside Paris. Opened in 1929, the museum is administered by the Philadelphia Museum of Art. T ...

Eakins Oval Eakins Oval is a traffic circle in Philadelphia. It forms the northwest end of the Benjamin Franklin Parkway just in front of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, with a central array of fountains and monuments, and a network of pedestrian walkways. ...

, the

Barnes Foundation The Barnes Foundation is an art collection and educational institution promoting the appreciation of art and horticulture. Originally in Merion, the art collection moved in 2012 to a new building on Benjamin Franklin Parkway in Philadelphia, Penn ...

and the Philadelphia Museum of Art. From its northern end, the Parkway provides access to Fairmount Park through Kelly Drive (formerly East River Drive), Martin Luther King Drive (formerly West River Drive), the

Schuylkill River Trail The Schuylkill River Trail ( , ) is a multi-use trail along the banks of the Schuylkill River in southeastern Pennsylvania. Partially complete as of 2018, the trail is ultimately planned to run about from the river's headwaters in Schuylkill Co ...

, and the

Schuylkill Expressway The Schuylkill Expressway , locally known as "the Schuylkill", is a freeway through southern Montgomery County and the city of Philadelphia in Philadelphia County, and the easternmost segment of Interstate 76 (I-76) in the U.S. state of Pennsyl ...

(

I-76 Interstate 76 may refer to: Interstate Highways in the United States * Interstate 76 (Colorado–Nebraska) * Interstate 76 (Ohio–New Jersey), running through Pennsylvania Video gaming * ''Interstate '76 ''Interstate '76'' is a vehicular ...

). The Parkway also is an outdoor sculpture garden. Works include: ''

The Thinker ''The Thinker'' (french: Le Penseur) is a bronze sculpture by Auguste Rodin, usually placed on a stone pedestal. The work depicts a nude male figure of heroic size sitting on a rock. He is seen leaning over, his right elbow placed on his left t ...

'' by Auguste Rodin; ''

Gates of Hell ''The Gates of Hell'' (french: La Porte de l'Enfer) is a monumental bronze sculptural group work by French artist Auguste Rodin that depicts a scene from the ''Inferno'', the first section of Dante Alighieri's ''Divine Comedy''. It stands at ...

'' also by Rodin; ''

LOVE Love encompasses a range of strong and positive emotional and mental states, from the most sublime virtue or good habit, the deepest interpersonal affection, to the simplest pleasure. An example of this range of meanings is that the love o ...

'' by Robert Indiana; ''The Ideal Scout'' by Robert Tait McKenzie; ''Three-Way Piece'' by Henry Moore; the three River figures in the

Alexander Stirling Calder Alexander Stirling Calder (January 11, 1870 – January 7, 1945) was an American sculptor and teacher. He was the son of sculptor Alexander Milne Calder and the father of sculptor Alexander (Sandy) Calder. His best-known works are ''George Washi ...

; ''Shakespeare Memorial'' also by Calder; The ''Monument to Six Million Jewish Martyrs'' by

Nathan Rapoport Nathan Rapoport (1911–1987) was a Warsaw-born Jewish sculptor and painter, later a resident of Israel and then the United States. Biography Natan Yaakov Rapoport was born in Warsaw, Poland. In 1936, he won a scholarship to study in France and ...

at the

Horwitz-Wasserman Holocaust Memorial Plaza The Horwitz-Wasserman Holocaust Memorial Plaza is a Holocaust memorial park located at the intersection of the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, 16th Street and Arch Street in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The plaza includes the Monument to the Six Millio ...

; ''Joseph Leidy'' by Samuel Murray; '' Aero Memorial'' by

Paul Manship Paul Howard Manship (December 24, 1885 – January 28, 1966) was an American sculptor. He consistently created mythological pieces in a classical style, and was a major force in the Art Deco movement. He is well known for his large public com ...

; ''General Galusha Pennypacker'' by

Charles Grafly Charles Allan Grafly, Jr. (December 3, 1862May 5, 1929) was an American sculptor, and teacher. Instructor of Sculpture at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts for 37 years, his students included Paul Manship, Albin Polasek, and Walker Hanc ...

and

Albert Laessle Albert Laessle (March 28, 1877 – September 4, 1954) was an American sculptor and educator. He taught at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts for more than twenty years and is best remembered as an animalier. He won the 1918 Widener Gold ...

; ''Jesus Breaking Bread'' by Walter Erlebacher, ''All Wars Colored Soldiers and Sailors Memorial'' by

J. Otto Schweizer Jakob Otto Schweizer (March 27, 1863, Zurich - 1955) was a Swiss-American sculptor noted for his work on war memorials. Biography Born in Zurich, Switzerland, Schweizer enrolled in that city's Industrial Art School in 1879. In 1882, he enter ...

; ''Thaddeus Kosciuszko'' by Robert Aitken; ''Civil War Soldiers and Sailors Memorial'' by

Hermon Atkins MacNeil Hermon Atkins MacNeil (February 27, 1866 – October 2, 1947) was an American sculptor born in Everett, Massachusetts. He is known for designing the ''Standing Liberty'' quarter, struck by the Mint from 1916-1930; and for sculpting ''Justi ...

; ''Kopernik'' by Dudley Vaill Talcott; ''Joan of Arc'' by

Emmanuel Fremiet Immanuel ( he, עִמָּנוּאֵל, 'Īmmānū'ēl, meaning, "God is with us"; also romanized: , ; and or in Koine Greek of the New Testament) is a Hebrew name that appears in the Book of Isaiah (7:14) as a sign that God will protect the ...

;

Washington Monument The Washington Monument is an obelisk shaped building within the National Mall in Washington, D.C., built to commemorate George Washington, once commander-in-chief of the Continental Army (1775–1784) in the American Revolutionary War and th ...

Rudolf Siemering Rudolph Siemering (10 August 1835, Königsberg - 23 January 1905, Berlin) was a German sculptor, known for his works in both Germany and the United States. Biography He attended the art academy in Königsberg and then became the pupil of Gusta ...

; and the ''

Rocky ''Rocky'' is a 1976 American sports drama film directed by John G. Avildsen and written by and starring Sylvester Stallone. It is the first installment in the ''Rocky'' franchise and stars Talia Shire, Burt Young, Carl Weathers, and Burge ...

'' statue by

A. Thomas Schomberg A. Thomas Schomberg is a sculptor who resides in Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as ...

Urban renewal

In a city famous for its urban planning, the Parkway represents one of the earliest examples of urban renewal in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

. The road was constructed to ease heavy industrial congestion in Center City and to restore Philadelphia's natural and artistic beauty, as part of the City Beautiful movement. The vision for a grand parkway came from retail pioneer John Wanamaker. Preliminary proposals for the Parkway had been produced and added to the City Plan by 1906, but the first comprehensive plan for the Parkway was commissioned in 1907 by the Fairmount Park Art Association (now the Association for Public Art). The Association commissioned architects

Horace Trumbauer Horace Trumbauer (December 28, 1868 – September 18, 1938) was a prominent American architect of the Gilded Age, known for designing residential manors for the wealthy. Later in his career he also designed hotels, office buildings, and much of ...

, Clarence Zantzinger, and

Paul Philippe Cret Paul Philippe Cret (October 23, 1876 – September 8, 1945) was a French-born Philadelphia architect and industrial designer. For more than thirty years, he taught at a design studio in the Department of Architecture at the University of Pennsylv ...

, who created a detailed parkway design that was formally added to the City Plan in 1909. Construction on the Parkway did not begin until 1917, when French landscape architect

Jacques Gréber Jacques-Henri-Auguste Gréber (10 September 1882 – 5 June 1962) was a French architect specializing in landscape architecture and urban design. He was a strong proponent of the Beaux-Arts style and a contributor to the City Beautiful movemen ...

submitted a revised plan to the Commissioners of Fairmount Park. Gréber designed the Parkway in 1917 to emulate the

Champs-Élysées The Avenue des Champs-Élysées (, ; ) is an avenue in the 8th arrondissement of Paris, France, long and wide, running between the Place de la Concorde in the east and the Place Charles de Gaulle in the west, where the Arc de Triomphe is l ...

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

. The route was determined by an axis drawn from City Hall Tower to a fixed point on the hill that

William Penn William Penn ( – ) was an English writer and religious thinker belonging to the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), and founder of the Province of Pennsylvania, a North American colony of England. He was an early advocate of democracy a ...

called "Fairmount", now the site of the Philadelphia Museum of Art.Outline History of the Benjamin Franklin Parkway 1871-1935.
/ref> The Champs-Élysées terminates at the Arc de Triomphe, and the Parkway's terminating at the Art Museum gives the notion of "a slice of Paris in Philadelphia." The Parkway contains flags of countries from around the world. The traffic rotary on the western end of the Parkway, at the foot of the Art Museum's

Rocky Steps The 72 stone steps leading up to the entrance of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, have become known as the "Rocky Steps" as a result of a scene from the 1976 film ''Rocky''. Tourists often mimic Rocky's famous climb ...

, is named

after Philadelphia painter

Thomas Eakins Thomas Cowperthwait Eakins (; July 25, 1844 – June 25, 1916) was an American realist painter, photographer, sculptor, and fine arts educator. He is widely acknowledged to be one of the most important American artists. For the length ...

. The traffic lanes around Eakins Oval originally formed a regular oval; this pattern was modified in the early 1960s to its present elongated circular shape, with the truncated lanes serving as staging areas for various events. Because of its central location, the Parkway is the site for many concerts and parades. On July 2, 2005, the steps of the museum played host to the Philadelphia venue of

Live 8 Live 8 was a string of benefit concerts that took place on 2 July 2005, in the G8 states and in South Africa. They were timed to precede the G8 conference and summit held at the Gleneagles Hotel in Auchterarder, Scotland, from 6–8 July 200 ...

, where artists such as

Dave Matthews Band Dave Matthews Band (also known by the initials DMB) is an American rock band formed in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 1991. The band's founding members were singer-songwriter and guitarist Dave Matthews, bassist Stefan Lessard, drummer and bac ...

, Linkin Park and Maroon 5 performed. The Parkway was also the site of Jay-Z's Made in America Festival on September 1–2, 2012 featuring Jay-Z, Pearl Jam,

Skrillex Sonny John Moore (born January 15, 1988), known professionally as Skrillex, is an American DJ and music producer. Growing up in Northeast Los Angeles and Northern California, he joined the post-hardcore band From First to Last as the lead si ...

and Calvin Harris, among others; the Parkway has been used for several subsequent editions of the Made in America Festival. On September 26 and 27, 2015,

Pope Francis Pope Francis ( la, Franciscus; it, Francesco; es, link=, Francisco; born Jorge Mario Bergoglio, 17 December 1936) is the head of the Catholic Church. He has been the bishop of Rome and sovereign of the Vatican City State since 13 March 2013. ...

visited Philadelphia for that year's

World Meeting of Families The World Meeting of Families is a gathering of the Roman Catholic Church that has occurred every three years since 1994. It is organized by the Dicastery for Laity, Family and Life, which "promotes the pastoral care of families, protects their r ...

; the Parkway was flooded with over a million visitors both weekend days, a Celebration of Families on Saturday, and a Holy Mass on Sunday. In recent years, there has been concern that the original plan of a wide, multi-sectioned, multi-laned, tree-lined boulevard, while beautiful to travel on, is not very engaging for pedestrian or other public use. Traffic along the Parkway has decreased considerably because of the completion of

Interstate 676 Interstate 676 (I-676) is an Interstate Highway that serves as a major thoroughfare through Center City Philadelphia, where it is known as the Vine Street Expressway, and Camden, New Jersey, where it is known as the northern segment of the ...

(Vine Street Expressway), linking the Schuylkill Expressway with the

Benjamin Franklin Bridge The Benjamin Franklin Bridge, originally named the Delaware River Bridge and known locally as the Ben Franklin Bridge, is a suspension bridge across the Delaware River connecting Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and Camden, New Jersey. Owned and ...

. In response, the roadway has been narrowed somewhat and the sidewalks expanded around Logan Circle. Various plans for the rest of the Parkway, some of which would insert shops and other smaller structures into the long stretches between museums, have been proposed, but none so far have been thought feasible or financially sound. A new museum for the

collection of Impressionist art on the site between the Free Library and the

opened in Spring 2012.

Gallery

File:Philadelphia5580.JPG, ''

'' by Robert Indiana, in

LOVE Park LOVE Park, officially known as John F. Kennedy Plaza, is a public park located in Center City, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The park is nicknamed LOVE Park for its reproduction of Robert Indiana's 1970 ''LOVE'' sculpture which overlooks the pla ...

Image:Cathedral Basilica of Sts. Peter and Paul.jpg, Cathedral Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul File:Logan Square.JPG,

(left), and Family Court of Philadelphia (right) File:ShakespeareMemorialASC.jpg, ''Shakespeare Memorial'' by

(1926) File:Galusha Pennypacker statue offset.jpg, ''General Galusha Pennypacker'' by

and

(1934) File:Swann Fountain-27527.jpg, Swann Fountain, at the center of Logan Circle File:"Civil_War_Soldiers_and_Sailors"_Memorial,_by_Hermon_Atkins_MacNeil_(1921)_(2).jpg, ''Civil War Sailors Memorial'' by

(1921) File:"Civil_War_Soldiers_and_Sailors"_Memorial,_by_Hermon_Atkins_MacNeil_(1921).jpg, ''Civil War Soldiers Memorial'' by

(1921) File:Steps from Moore.jpg,

(1934) File:Marksscoutcenter.png, Former Boy Scout Building, (1929) File:Rodin Museum Entry Philadelphia.jpg, ''

'' in front of the

(1926) File:JoanEquPhilly9.jpg, ''

Joan of Arc Joan of Arc (french: link=yes, Jeanne d'Arc, translit= �an daʁk} ; 1412 – 30 May 1431) is a patron saint of France, honored as a defender of the French nation for her role in the siege of Orléans and her insistence on the coronat ...

'' by

Emmanuel Frémiet Emmanuel Frémiet (6 December 182410 September 1910) was a French sculptor. He is famous for his 1874 sculpture of Joan of Arc in Paris (and its "sister" statues in Philadelphia and Portland, Oregon) and the monument to Ferdinand de Lesseps in S ...

(1890) File:Washington Monument-Philadelphia-27527.jpg, ''

'' by

(1897) File:Philadelphia Museum of Art Pennsylvania USA.jpg, Philadelphia Museum of Art (1928)

References

External links

Parkway Museums DistrictBen Franklin Parkway rehabilitation project (National Park Service)

The Philadelphia Museum of Art

Center City Parks District
- supports parks along the Parkway {{authority control Streets in Philadelphia Parkways in the United States Transport infrastructure completed in 1917 Municipal parks in Philadelphia Arts districts Center City, Philadelphia 1917 establishments in Pennsylvania

Attractions

Urban renewal

Gallery

See also

References

Further reading

External links