Philadelphia is the sixth most populous city in the United States and largest city in the state of Pennsylvania. Philadelphia was the original capital of the nation and was laid out by William Penn Jr. in 1682 on a grid system that was to provide the pattern for most American cities.

First settled by Quakers, Philadelphia prospered quickly on the back of trade and commerce, and by the 1750s had become the second largest city in the British Empire. The city served as the capital during the War of Independence (except for nine months under British occupation in 1777–78). It also was the US capital until 1800, while Washington, DC was being built. The Declaration of Independence was written, signed and first publicly read in Philadelphia in 1776, as was the United States Constitution ten years later. Philadelphia was also a incubator of new ideas in the arts and sciences, as represented by the scientist, philosopher, statesman, inventor and printer Benjamin Franklin.

History

Prior to the arrival of Europeans, the Philadelphia area was the location of the Lenape Indian village Shackamaxon.

In the early 1600s Europeans arrived in the Delaware Valley, with the first settlements founded by the Dutch, British and Swedish. The Swedes took control of land on the west side of the Delaware River from just below the Schuylkill River: today's Philadelphia, southeast Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Maryland.

In 1681, in partial repayment of a debt, Charles II of England granted William Penn a charter for what would later become the Pennsylvania colony. Despite the royal charter, Penn bought the land from the local Lenape to be on good terms with the Native Americans and ensure peace for his colony. As a Quaker, Penn had experienced religious persecution and wanted his colony to be a place where everyone could enjoy religious freedoms. Penn named the city Philadelphia, which is Greek for brotherly love; philos means "love" or "friendship," and adelphos translates to "brother".

Philadelphia's importance and central location in the colonies made it the ideal place for America's revolutionaries. The city hosted the First Continental Congress before the American Revolutionary war; the Second Continental Congress, which signed the United States Declaration of Independence, during the war; and the Constitutional Convention after the war. Several battles were fought in and near Philadelphia as well. In the 1790s Philadelphia served as the new United States' capital.

The state government left Philadelphia in 1799 and the federal government left soon after in 1800. However, the city remained the nation's largest and a financial and cultural center. New York City soon surpassed Philadelphia in population, but construction of roads, canals, and railroads helped turn Philadelphia into the United States' first major industrial city.

Philadelphia's architectural history dates back to Colonial times and includes a variety of styles. The earliest structures were constructed with logs, but brick structures became common by 1700. During the 1700s, the cityscape was dominated by Georgian architecture, including Independence Hall.