Know Your Neighborhood: Franklin Bridge North (& Old City & Callowhill)

Know Your Neighborhood: Christ Church Burial Grounds & Ben Franklin's Grave

In 1719 the burial ground next to Christ Church was becoming full, and the neighboring lands were too marshy to be useful for burials. So land was purchased along Fifth Street "in the suburbs" from a Mr. James Steel. In 1719, the city of Philadelphia was only 37 years old and Fifth Street, only about three blocks from Christ Church, was considered the "suburbs" or outskirts of the city at the time.

The site had been open to the street until about 1740, when a wooden fence was added to contain grazing animals used to control overgrowth. That fence was replaced with a seven-foot brick wall in 1772.

The burial ground was a church amenity, but probably not a pleasant one. Americans in the 18th century were widely indifferent to burial places. “In Philadelphia until the 1820s,” wrote historian David E. Stannard in his book, Death in America, “sites for graveyards were simply temporarily vacant lots to serve the needs of the day which were soon obliterated by the expanding city as if they had never existed.”

Interred at Christ Church Burial Ground are hundreds of Colonial, Revolutionary and Post-Revolutionary notables. The most famous of whom is Benjamin Franklin. Four other signers of the Declaration of Independence are buried here, Dr. Benjamin Rush, Francis Hopkinson, Joseph Hewes and George Ross. Two more signers (James Wilson and Robert Morris) are buried at Christ Church just a few blocks away.

Other notables include John Dunlap (1742-1812), printer of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution., Major William Jackson (1759-1828), who served as Secretary to the Constitutional Convention, Philip Syng (1703-1789), maker of the ink stand used for the signing of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, Thomas Willing (1731-1821), Mayor of Philadelphia, delegate to the Continental Congress and President of the First Bank of the United States, Dr. William Camac: Prominent Philadelphia Physician who founded the Philadelphia Zoo, America's first Zoo,

Dr. Philip Syng Physick: Known as the Father of Modern Surgery, Dr. Thomas Bond: Physician, founded the first hospital, Pennsylvania Hospital, and many others.

When Benjamin Franklin died in 1790, he was buried along with his wife Deborah and their two children, Francis and Sarah, in a family plot in the northwest corner of the grounds. For years, popular belief held that in 1858, Franklin’s descendants requested that an opening be placed in the brick wall surrounding the cemetery so the public could see Franklin’s grave day or night. The installation of a metal fence made it much easier for Franklin’s many admirers to toss a penny onto his family plot in honor of his famous words, “A penny saved is a penny earned.”

In a 2017 article, Mark E. Dixon attributes the metal fence to Philadelphia’s leaders, not the Franklin family. Dixon’s narrative traces the project, “a 19th century public relations campaign” to the publishing community and preservationists who, among others, sought to ground Franklin’s legacy in Philadelphia.

The earliest tombstone dates from 1720, the burial ground has 1,400 markers, 4000 graves on it's two acres
Reopened to the public on April 26, 2003, after being closed for 25 years.