A Grand Plan / Parkway Museums District

The Parkway was first suggested in 1871 as an avenue connecting Center City to Fairmount Park, and over the next five decades numerous plans proposed different combinations of commercial and public buildings and open space. Construction began in 1907, the roadway opened in 1918, and the first new public building, the Free Library of Philadelphia, opened in 1927, followed by the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Rodin Museum, and The Franklin Institute. More than 1,300 houses, factories, and other structures were demolished to create the Parkway, yet many planned new buildings were never built because the Great Depression and World War II diverted attention and funds from the boulevard. Its design evolved through proposals such as James Windrim's 1892 tree-lined route, guidance from Paul Cret, Horace Trumbauer, Clarence Zantzinger, and Charles Borie, and later changes by French landscape architect Jacques Gréber that added abundant open space. The district that grew along and around the Parkway includes major cultural, educational, civic, and historic institutions such as Boathouse Row, Fairmount Water Works, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Eastern State Penitentiary, the Rodin Museum, The Barnes Foundation, the Free Library of Philadelphia, the Franklin Institute Science Museum, Moore College of Art and Design, the Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University, the Cathedral Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul, Friends Select School, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, the Masonic Temple, the Pennsylvania Convention Center, City Hall, and Dilworth Park.

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania · United States