Alfred J. Reach (1840-1928)

Philadelphia, PA · est. 1998

John Wanamaker opened his first Philadelphia store in 1861 and, in 1876, unveiled a "new kind of store" that helped invent modern retailing. He pioneered the fixed one-price system and the money-back guarantee, treating customers with a fairness that reshaped how Americans shopped. As U.S. Postmaster General he championed rural free delivery and introduced the commemorative postage stamp.

Philadelphia, PA · est. 2006

Edmund N. Bacon led Philadelphia's city planning from 1949 to 1970, the postwar decades when American cities were remaking themselves for a new age. His vision reshaped the fabric of a colonial-era city, restoring the historic townhouses of Society Hill while opening modern civic spaces like Penn Center and the beloved LOVE Park. Time magazine put him on its cover as the face of a national urban-renewal movement.

Philadelphia, PA · est. 1999

When the Pennsylvania Railroad opened Broad Street Station in 1881 and enlarged it in 1893, it became for a time the world's largest railroad passenger terminal, its great arched train shed a marvel of the age. The long elevated stone viaduct feeding it—nicknamed the "Chinese Wall"—cut across the city until the station and its tracks were finally demolished in 1952–53.

Philadelphia, PA · est. 1994

In July 1903, the Irish-born labor organizer Mary Harris "Mother" Jones launched her famous March of the Mill Children from Philadelphia, leading textile workers and children maimed by factory machinery on a long walk to dramatize the toll of child labor. A fearless presence in the coal, steel, and textile struggles, she made the nation look at the young hands turning its looms. Her march helped push child-labor reform onto the American conscience.