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Eastern Pennsylvania » Philadelphia County » The Downtown of the Eighteenth-Century City » Independence National Historical Park

Independence National Historical Park

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1732–present. Bounded by 6th, Race, 5th, Chestnut, 2nd, and Walnut sts.
  • (Photograph by Matthew Aungst)
  • (Photograph by Matthew Aungst)
  • (Photograph by Matthew Aungst)
  • (Photograph by Matthew Aungst)
  • (Photograph by Matthew Aungst)
  • (Photograph by Matthew Aungst)
  • (Photograph by Matthew Aungst)
  • (Photograph by Matthew Aungst)
  • Right foreground (Photograph by Karen Kingsley)

The National Park Service intends its tours to begin at the new Visitors’ Center at the northwest corner of N. 6th and Market streets. Designed by Kallmann McKinnell and Wood of Boston and completed in 2001, its bloated volumes and impenetrable N. 6th Street wall negate its pallid Flemish bond contextualism. At best it represents sad vestiges of ideas by Venturi and Scott Brown that were intended to revitalize the park. Unfortunately, it is the site to pick up tickets for the principal buildings of the park—so pick up tickets and escape to the real buildings.

Writing Credits

Author: 
George E. Thomas
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Data

What's Nearby

Independence Mall
Free Quaker Meetinghouse
Atwater Kent Museum (Franklin Institute)
The Bourse
Mellon Center (Lit Brothers’ Department Store)

Citation

George E. Thomas, "Independence National Historical Park", [Philadelphia, Pennsylvania], SAH Archipedia, eds. Gabrielle Esperdy and Karen Kingsley, Charlottesville: UVaP, 2012—, http://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/PA-02-PH12.

Print Source

Cover: Buildings of PA vol 2

Buildings of Pennsylvania: Philadelphia and Eastern Pennsylvania, George E. Thomas, with Patricia Likos Ricci, Richard J. Webster, Lawrence M. Newman, Robert Janosov, and Bruce Thomas. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2012, 55-55.

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