In 1812

In 1812, when Franklin's grandchildren no longer wished to maintain his house, it was torn down so a street could be developed with a row of modest rental houses on each side. Protected beneath that street bed afterward was a fragment of the house's north stone foundation wall, built in 1763. Such foundation walls, made of local Pennsylvania mica schist and laid with lime mortar, originally rose to just above ground level, where they supported the brick walls of the house's upper floors.

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania · United States