The Franklin National Memorial / A Grand Cultural Boulevard

Benjamin Franklin, born in Boston, ran away to Philadelphia at age 17 and, except for a few extended stays in Europe, lived there for the rest of his life. Over the course of his remarkable life, he was a successful businessman, scientist, inventor, printer, writer, humorist, philosopher, and political leader who helped draft the Declaration of Independence and signed the Constitution at age 81. He created Philadelphia's first library and first fire company and helped found Pennsylvania Hospital, the first hospital in the colonies. In his honor, the Fairmount Parkway was renamed the Benjamin Franklin Parkway when The Franklin Institute opened in 1937, and his memorial stands in Memorial Hall just beyond the Institute's entrance. The parkway itself grew from a 1907 plan for a grand cultural boulevard, inspired by the Champs-Élysées in Paris and the boulevards of the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago, where art schools and museums would form the city's cultural center. Community leaders supported the vision, institutions agreed to relocate there, and private collectors pledged their collections, but World War I and the Great Depression slowed progress and forced plans to be scaled back. Over time, the Free Library, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Rodin Museum, and later The Franklin Institute took their places along the parkway. Among the planners was Paul Cret, a French-born architect educated at the École des Beaux Arts in Paris who came to Philadelphia in 1903, helped create the 1907 plan, and later designed the Rodin Museum and the Benjamin Franklin Bridge.

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania · United States