GPS City GuidePhiladelphiaChrist Church

Stop 5 of 37 · Philadelphia audio walking tour

Christ Church

Old City · 1744 · The Nation's Church

What you'll hear here: about a minute of narration about Christ Church, and how it fits Old City, written to be listened to on the spot rather than read at home.

Picture the founders worshipping in the pews around you. Christ Church was established in 1695 as the first Anglican church in Pennsylvania, and the current building was completed in 1744, its 196-foot steeple the tallest structure in colonial America. The congregation's pew register reads like the signers' list of the Declaration of Independence: George Washington, John Adams, Betsy Ross, Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, and Benjamin Franklin all worshipped here, though Franklin, a deist, was more of an occasional visitor who contributed money to the building fund.

The church contains the original baptismal font, brought from the Oxford parish church in England in 1697, in which William Penn was baptized. Seven signers of the Declaration of Independence are buried in the churchyard beside the church and in the nearby Christ Church Burial Ground two blocks away on Arch Street, where Benjamin Franklin and his wife Deborah are interred. By tradition, visitors throw pennies on Franklin's grave for good luck; the grave is covered in them.

Walk inside the church; the colonial interior is largely intact, including the wineglass pulpit and the Palladian window above the altar.

Where it is

Coordinates
39.95083, -75.14389
Area
Old City
Era
1744 · The Nation's Church
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Three stops free. No account needed. The audio plays itself as you walk.