John Penn - PLAQUE
Philadelphia, Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania
Marker Inscription
On this site was the home 1766-1771 of John Penn 1729-1795, last Colonial Governor of Pennsylvania. Son of Richard Penn and grandson of William Penn, the Founder. Also the home 1771-1810 of Benjamin Chew, 1722-1810, last Colonial Chief Justice of Pennsylvania.
Erected by Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission
The Story
This Philadelphia site was home to two of colonial Pennsylvania's last royal-era officials. John Penn — grandson of the colony's founder William Penn — lived here in the years before the Revolution as the province's final colonial governor. The same house later belonged to Benjamin Chew, the last colonial chief justice, whose long life bridged the transition from proprietary rule to independent statehood.
Why it matters
The site marks the twilight of proprietary and royal government in Pennsylvania, embodied in the founding Penn family and the colony's highest court on the eve of American independence.
Plan your visit
NearbyMake a day of it — museums, food, and places to stay near this marker.
Museums & culture
- Powel Housenearby · 244 South 3rd Street
- Merchants' Exchange Building0.1 mi away · 143 South 3rd Street, Philadelphia, PA
- Hill-Physick House0.1 mi away · 321 South 4th Street
- Independence Living History Center0.2 mi away
- Thaddeus Kosciuszko National Memorial0.2 mi away
- Museum of the American Revolution0.2 mi away · 101 South 3rd Street, Philadelphia, PA
Attractions
- City Tavern0.1 mi away · 138 South 2nd Street
- First Bank of the United States0.2 mi away · 120 South 3rd Street, Philadelphia, PA
- Carpenters' Hall0.2 mi away · 320 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, PA
- Second Bank of the United States0.2 mi away · 420 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, PA
- USS Becuna0.3 mi away · South Christopher Columbus Boulevard, Philadelphia, PA
- Liberty Bell0.3 mi away · 526 Market Street, Philadelphia, PA
Food & drink
- FRIEDAnearby · 320 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, PA
- Buddakan0.2 mi away · 325 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, PA
- Olivier Cafe0.2 mi away · 50 South 3rd Street, Philadelphia, PA
- Franklin Social0.2 mi away · 401 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, PA
- National Mechanics0.3 mi away · 22 South 3rd Street, Philadelphia
- Red Owl Tavern0.3 mi away · 433 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, PA
Places to stay
- Philadelphia Marriott Old City0.2 mi away · 1 Dock Street, Philadelphia, PA
- Thomas Bond House0.2 mi away · 129 South 2nd Street, Philadelphia
- Best Western Plus Independence Park Hotel0.2 mi away · 237 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, PA
- Apple Hostels Philadelphia0.2 mi away · 32 South Bank Street, Philadelphia, PA
- Apple Hostels0.2 mi away · 33 Bank Street, Philadelphia, PA
- Renaissance Philadelphia Downtown Hotel0.2 mi away · 401 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, PA
Places data © OpenStreetMap contributors. Hours and details change — call ahead.
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Related people
- · John Penn
- · Benjamin Chew
- · William Penn
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Old St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church
Philadelphia, PA · est. 2013
Founded in 1763, Old St. Mary's rose in a colonial city where anti-Catholic feeling still ran strong, standing as proof of the unusual tolerance William Penn had written into Pennsylvania's founding. As the first Roman Catholic cathedral in the colony, it welcomed worshippers at a time when their faith was suspect elsewhere in America. During the Revolution, members of the Continental Congress attended services here, honoring Catholic France and Spain, whose aid proved vital to the fight for independence.
Old St. Joseph's Roman Catholic Church
Philadelphia, PA · est. 2014
In 1729, Jesuit priest Joseph Greaton established the earliest Catholic foundation in Pennsylvania, and by 1733 a church stood here in a colony that granted rare tolerance to Catholics. Greaton was for a time the only Catholic priest in Philadelphia. From this parish, Jesuits went on to found frontier missions in Adams and Berks counties and the first Catholic churches in New Jersey and Delaware.
Holy Trinity Roman Catholic Church
Philadelphia, PA · est. 2023
Founded in 1787 by German-speaking Catholics who wanted to worship and pass on their traditions in their own language, Holy Trinity became the first German national parish in the United States. Its church rose in 1788–1789, and within a few years its congregation and cemetery included African Americans and refugees from the upheaval in Saint-Domingue, buried alongside parishioners of European descent. The model of the ethnic 'national parish' it pioneered would shape American Catholicism for generations before the parish finally closed in 2009.
Tomas Garrigue Masaryk (1850-1937)
Philadelphia, PA · est. 2002
As the First World War drew to a close in October 1918, the scholar-statesman Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk gathered delegates from a dozen Central and Eastern European peoples at Philadelphia's Independence Hall — the very birthplace of American independence — to proclaim a Declaration of Common Aims. Within weeks he would become the first president of a newly independent Czechoslovakia. Choosing Independence Hall was no accident: these emerging nations consciously drew on the American revolutionary example as they broke free from the collapsing empires of Europe.