Christ Church Burial Ground

Christ Church was established in 1695 as the first Anglican congregation in Pennsylvania, built to serve the English settlers of William Penn’s colony. The current building, completed in 1744, was designed in the English Baroque style by Dr. John Kearsley and is among the finest Georgian church buildings in America. Its 196-foot steeple made it the tallest structure in the colonies for much of the eighteenth century. George Washington, John Adams, Betsy Ross, and Robert Morris all worshipped here; fifteen signers of the Declaration of Independence were members of the congregation.

The church’s box pews, wine-glass pulpit, and Palladian window behind the altar survive largely intact from the colonial period. Washington’s pew, marked with a small plaque, sits near the front on the right side of the nave. The church continues as an active Episcopal congregation and offers tours alongside its regular services.

Christ Church Burial Ground, located two blocks away at Fifth and Arch Streets, opened in 1719 as the church’s overflow cemetery when the churchyard became full. Benjamin Franklin and his wife Deborah are buried here beneath a flat marble slab in the southeast corner of the ground, visible through an iron fence from the street. Franklin’s grave has become a Philadelphia tradition: visitors toss pennies onto the stone, honoring the man who coined “a penny saved is a penny earned.” Also buried here are four other signers of the Declaration — Francis Hopkinson, Joseph Hewes, George Ross, and Benjamin Rush — as well as numerous Revolutionary War officers.