A Brief While still in London in 1681, William just below the southwest border of Historical Penn developed an idealistic conception present -day Philadelphia . Other concentrations Review of for a utopian settlement of considerable of settlers began to form at Architecture size to be placed in his newly won proprietoryUpland (now Chester ) and Kingsessing , and province in the New World. As and , although Swedish rule ended in an initial step to raise the necessary Planning in 1655 , the people remained and continued money he planned to sell 100 shares, to thrive , extending over a fair portion Philadelphia each representing 5000 acres of country of the region . By the late 1670s land. Two percent of this property English Quakers had also begun moving would be in the " Greene Country into the area, principally on the eastern Towne," or " Liberties," laid out in such side of the Delaware River , where they a manner that in its original conception established the town of Burlington (New it would have had to extend in a milewide Jersey ) in 1677 . strip fifteen miles along the Delaware Upon this primitive but surprisingly River. Here, in the " great town ," well settled area , Penn had intended to the settlers would build their principal apply the grand conception of his Holy homes, each having accessto navigable Experiment . But the original plans water. Central to the Liberties, at a convenientclearly could not fit . When his emissaries harbor, was to be a small commercialarrived to layout Philadelphia around settlement with its area (set at the nucleus of the port at Upland , they 200 acres) apportioned to owners and discovered that most of the land they renters of larger tracts. would need was already occupied , and But the settlement of the Delaware they eventually settled on the current Valley had begun over forty years previouslylocation . Centered around the small with the founding of a Swedish cove at what became known as Dock trading post at Fort Christina (now Creek , the land was held by several owners Wilmington ) in 1638. Five years later will ing to sell and had large adjoining Governor Johan Printz established a unsettled acreage inland where the post farther up the Delaware at Tinicum , liberties could be placed . Facing what was regarded as a hostile environment , [ 1] the participants in the venture pressed Although rather conservative compared Swedish and for a more urban development than with contemporary English and French Early English Work Penn had planned . Following Penn's Baroque schemes, more than any other arrival in late autumn of 1682 and a community on the eastern seaboard it series of compromises and quick improvisationswas a reflection of the ideals of the Age , the settlement began . Those of Reason. Even with the further compromises who were ready to build received land that were to follow , Philadel- along the Delaware , so that the city ph ia' s senseof order and established might assume an established appearance matrix of growth contrasted significantly ; investors who did not settle were with other communities' random given lots on land Penn bought along collection of narrow, angled streets haphazardly the Schuylkill . Construction was placed. Part of the compromise energetically pursued to the point that had involved enlargement of the city , when Penn returned to London in making it , rather than the Liberties , the 1684 he reported that some 357 houses principal settlement. Still Holme's plan, had al ready been erected . while distinctly urban in its system, The 1682 plan of the city appears to attempted to retain the character of the have been closely patterned after Richard country town Penn considered so important Newcourt 's 1666 proposal for the , with free-standing housesset rebuilding of London after the Great on ample lots, gardensand yards surrounding Fire of the same year , the chief elements each. But even this remnant of which - a grand central square at the soon succumbed to economic and social intersection of axial streets (to be called pressures. An increasing number of " High " and " Broad " ), symmetrically small, narrow houseswere erected adjoining placed subordinate squares , and a grid each other along the streets, and pattern of streets - were taken up in the before 1700 the generousblocks themselves proposal for Philadelphia by Penn ' s surveyor were subdivided by alleys where , Thomas Holme . I f not especially smaller houseswere often built . original (it also had similarities to nearby Burlington ) or the first planned city in the country (for example , New Haven in 1638 and Charleston ca . 1670 ), it was of a size (two square miles ) and scope that made it unique in the English colonies . [2] The buildings of the Swedes consisted that time , possibly reflecting the emigration of simple one - and two -room structures from london of a number of carpenters constructed from stones and logs. The no longer employed in the log cabin was introduced to the New rebuilding after the Great Fire . The majority World here by them . While it has of the rural buildings were far less achieved a certain legendary status , after advanced , dwellings acting more as a initial settlement it did not remain prominent fortress from the elements than as a in this region , and only a very few focus for the cultivation of them (for examples of these early log buildings example , the William Brinton House , survive {for example , in Delaware 1704 , near Dilworthtown ). The notable County }. The Swedes ' church es are a exception was Penn 's own country place cultural legacy , but as all extant were in Bucks County , " Pennsbury " (1692 ), erected after 1698 , they represent an which was , if the reconstruction bears al most complete assimilation of any similarities in character to the original English principles of design (see SP I 3 ). , un question ably one of the most The English initially also built wooden splendid houses in the Colonies . laid structures often following the Swedish out in a manner more I ike later Georgian model . However , the soil proved to be plantations in Virginia and South excellent for brickmaking , and eventually Carolina , it establish es a sense of order this form of masonry construction and dominance over the terrain in a became the dominant building method . manner suggestive of Penn 's attitude The early buildings were unsurprisingly toward planning and , indeed , his philos - small and simple in adornment . Aside ophy of civilization itself . from their somewhat awkward proportions , with steep roofs , and such variant details as diamond -paned windows and clustered chimneys , the general character of these houses was far more Renaissance than medieval . As such they were consider ably more advanced than most urban dwellings erected elsewhere at [3] The Georgian By the 1720s Philadelphia was emerging (CC II 7 and 8 ) and the Powel House Period as one of the Colonies ' most substantial (1765 ) (see CC II 3 ) give some indication urban areas and was clearly the of the magnificence achieved . most sophisticated . As much a center of It is interesting that no one figure comparable commerce as of science and the arts , the with William Buckland or Peter city had grown by mid -century to be Harrison appears to have been responsible the second largest in the British Empire . for the major local eighteenth - The values of the divergent and often century structures . This could , in part , conflicting elements , which are responsible be due to the guildlike Carpenters ' Company for any metropolitan growth , , which apparently control led virtually began to coalesce into two major and all building that was conducted in distinct , if interrelated , architectural the city . Robert Smith in his ecclesiastical attitudes . On the one hand , there was a work is the only master builder splendid ornate Georgian , inevitably who attained a significant reputation . reminiscent of London and frequently Gentlemen amateurs sketched out a few more sumptuous in its details than could edifices such as the State House , but the be found elsewhere in the colonies . On carpenter still determined the final form the other hand , there was the conservative of the building . and studied austerity of the buildings of the Quakers . Christ Church (see CC I 20 ) (begun 1727 ) and the Greater Meeting House (1755 ), which once stood a block to the south , illustrate the differences at an extreme . In form as well as detail , the Georgian buildings in the city were among the most sophisticated to be found along the Eastern Seaboard . So venturesome a structure as the State House (see CC I 1 ) (begun ca . 1730 ) was then unique as a civic expression , but visually not an isolated anomaly . Domestic architecture in scale and interior embellishment was often of similar pretension ; while much of it has disappeared , the Neave and Abercrombie Houses (after 1758 ) [4] Juxtaposed with the individual architecturalgreat houses were erected there , often monuments was an equally distinct as elaborate as civic and ecclesiastical sameness fostered by the simplicity design in the city . While all traces of of the Quaker architecture , in keeping these have long since disappeared along both with their religious philosophy and the Delaware , Fairmount Park has preserved the building traditions they had known many that were built along the in England . Somewhat varied , house-by - Schuylkill . Farther into the country house , but with a prevailing unity of these formal structures were the exception basic materials and small scale, Philadelphia . Rural areas began to develop an had many aspects of astraightened - important indigenous architecture essentially out , intensified , block -on - block Buck - Quaker in character , the finest inghamshire village . The unvarying lines results of which appeared in the stone of the streets , with the regularity of farmhouses that have characterized the their intersections , helped secure an impressionregion and have provided a continued of the routine , subduing individual influence on its architecture .