Philadelphia has 67 National Historic Landmarks. Not three. Not a dozen. Sixty-seven Philadelphia National Historic Landmarks within the city limits that the National Park Service has designated as nationally significant — a concentration that puts Philadelphia among the most historically dense cities in the country. The Global Philadelphia Association has redesigned their free National Historic Landmarks Map to make all 67 accessible, organized by neighborhood, in time for the Semiquincentennial.

Philadelphia’s 67 National Historic Landmarks — Beyond Independence Hall

Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell are the names people reach for first. But Philadelphia’s National Historic Landmarks extend well into the city that dM readers already move through. The Academy of Music on Broad Street is on the list — the oldest continuously operating opera house in the country. So is Reading Terminal and its trainshed, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, the Wanamaker Building and its organ, and the PSFS Building on Market Street — now the Loews Philadelphia Hotel — which was the first International Style skyscraper built in the United States.

Eastern State Penitentiary in Fairmount carries the designation as the world’s first true penitentiary, a building whose radial design influenced prison architecture globally. The Walnut Street Theatre in Washington Square West is the oldest continuously operating theatre in the English-speaking world. The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts is the oldest art museum and school in the country. The Thomas Eakins House on Mount Vernon Street marks the home and studio of the painter who defined what American realism could be. These are not obscure sites — they are places Philadelphians pass through regularly without always knowing what they’re standing in.

The map is a project of the Global Philadelphia Association, the nonprofit that helped secure Philadelphia’s designation in 2015 as America’s first World Heritage City. The redesign organizes all 67 Philadelphia National Historic Landmarks by neighborhood — Center City, Society Hill, Germantown, West Philadelphia, and beyond — so that the history of a neighborhood becomes legible as a walking route rather than a textbook entry.

The Philadelphia National Historic Landmarks Map, and How to Use It

The Philadelphia National Historic Landmarks map is free and requires no signup. It is available at globalphiladelphia.org and as a flipbook version that is the cleaner format for browsing by neighborhood before a walk. The resource is designed for visitors, but residents are the more interesting audience: most Philadelphians have spent years inside National Historic Landmarks without knowing what they were standing in.

The Semiquincentennial is a reasonable occasion to look at Philadelphia with fresh eyes — to take the route you already walk and notice what it actually contains. The 67 landmarks are not relics behind velvet ropes. They are the Academy of Music before a show, Reading Terminal on a Saturday morning, Eastern State in October. They are the city as it already is. The map is how you go looking.

About Post Author

Allan Lane

Philadelphia born and bred, Allan Lane is the Publisher and Editor in Chief of digital magazines. He launched his first publication, SportBikes Inc Magazine in 2010, followed by dosage MAGAZINE in 2019. Recently, Allan launched his third online publication, Club For Man. As a journalist, Allan covers fashion, lifestyle, culture, art, and motorcycles.

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