• Philadelphia was the nation’s capital from 1790 to 1800.
• Presidents Washington and Adams governed here.
• Philadelphia is the City of Murals, with 3,800 Mural Arts Program creations throughout the city.
• Elfreth’s Alley is the oldest continuously inhabited street in the United States.
• The Barnes Foundation houses 181 works by Renoir—the largest single group of the artist’s paintings.
• Though there’s no official source, it is widely believed that Philadelphia has the most public art in the country.
• Philadelphia’s City Hall was the tallest occupied building in the world until 1909. It is still one of the tallest and largest all-masonry buildings.
• The first organized recurring U.S. protest for LGBT equality took place in front of Independence Hall on July 4, 1965.
• With an estimated 300 BYOBs to choose from, diners often bring their own alcohol to dinner—a result of Philadelphia’s Quaker-rooted liquor laws.
• The state name on the Liberty Bell is spelled “Pensylvania,” an accepted spelling at the time.
• The city has the second-largest Irish and Italian populations in the country, after only New York City.
• Philadelphia’s municipal park system is one of the biggest in the nation.
• The Rodin Museum houses the largest collection of Auguste Rodin sculptures outside France.
• William Penn planned Center City Philadelphia as a grid, with numbered streets running north and south and named streets (mostly tree names) running east and west.
• The Benjamin Franklin Parkway was inspired by Paris Champs-Élysées.
• The Mütter Museum of The College of Physicians of Philadelphia counts Albert Einstein’s brain as part of its collection of medical oddities.
• Philadelphia means “brotherly love” in Greek.
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