Pennsylvania
Foster Township, McKean County, Pennsylvania
Marker Inscription
Founded 1681 by William Penn as a Quaker Commonwealth. Birthplace of THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE and THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES.
Erected by Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission
The Story
This keystone marker salutes the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania itself, founded in 1681 when William Penn received his charter and launched a Quaker "holy experiment" grounded in religious tolerance and representative government. A century later, Pennsylvania stood at the center of the nation's birth, hosting in Philadelphia both the signing of the Declaration of Independence in 1776 and the framing of the United States Constitution in 1787. Few places carry so much of the American founding.
Why it matters
Pennsylvania was the cradle of the Declaration and the Constitution, the twin charters at the foundation of the American republic.
Plan your visit
NearbyMake a day of it — museums, food, and places to stay near this marker.
Food & drink
- Randy's Up The River8.7 mi away · 3767 Nine Mile Road, Allegany, NY
- The Other Place9.0 mi away
- Mangia's 2.09.0 mi away · 71 West Main Street, Allegany, NY
- The Burton9.0 mi away · 1 East Main Street, Allegany, NY
- The Hickey Tavern9.0 mi away · 96 West Main Street, Allegany, NY
- Dunkin'9.2 mi away · 3242 NY-417, Olean, NY
Places to stay
- Microtel Inn & Suites by Wyndham Olean/Allegany9.2 mi away · 3234 West State Street, Olean, NY
- Fairfield Inn & Suites Olean9.2 mi away · 3270 West State Street, Olean, NY
- Best Western Plus University Inn9.5 mi away · 3057 Route 417, Olean, NY
- Hampton Inn & Suites10.8 mi away · 110 Jack Murphy Boulevard, Olean, NY
- Old Library Inn B&B11.1 mi away · 120 South Union Street
- Holiday Inn Express11.6 mi away · 101 Main Street, Olean, NY
Places data © OpenStreetMap contributors. Hours and details change — call ahead.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · William Penn
Related events
- · Declaration of Independence
- · Constitutional Convention
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Buckaloons
Brokenstraw Township, PA · est. 1947
Buckaloons stood at the meeting of Brokenstraw Creek and the Allegheny River, a site so long inhabited that excavated burial mounds attest to its deep antiquity. In 1749 the French officer Céloron de Blainville passed through on his expedition to claim the Ohio Valley, and in 1779 the village was destroyed during Colonel Daniel Brodhead's Revolutionary War campaign against the Seneca. Its story spans centuries of Native life along these rivers.
Thompson's Island
Pleasant Township, PA · est. 1947
During Colonel Daniel Brodhead's 1779 expedition against the Seneca, an advance party clashed here with thirty or forty Native warriors in a brief but sharp skirmish. It was the only fighting of the entire campaign and, by the marker's reckoning, the sole Revolutionary War engagement in northwestern Pennsylvania. The rest of Brodhead's march met little resistance as it moved through the Allegheny country.
Major Moses Van Campen
Town of Caneadea, NY
In 1782, as the Revolutionary War's frontier violence dragged on in western New York, the American soldier Major Moses Van Campen was taken captive by the Senecas — the "keepers of the Western Door" of the Iroquois Confederacy. At their village along the Genesee River near Caneadea, he was forced to run the gauntlet, a customary ordeal, racing some thirty rods to the Seneca council house. That council house survived and was later relocated and preserved in Letchworth State Park, a tangible link to this dramatic moment.
Pennsylvania
Genesee Township, PA · est. 1949
In 1681 King Charles II granted William Penn a sweeping American territory, which Penn shaped into a Quaker commonwealth built on religious freedom and representative government. That founding ethos helped make the colony the setting for the drafting of both the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution. This marker welcomes travelers into Pennsylvania with a reminder of that legacy.