Having witnessed plague in London in 1665 and the famously calamitous fire of 1666, Penn wanted his Philadelphia to be ‘a greene countrie towne, which will never be burnt, and allways be wholsome.’ The way he proposed to achieve this was by planning the city so that it was ordered and regulated.   Orderly space, Penn believed, would shape an orderly society. Penn set aside roughly two square miles for his ‘great towne.‘ He then subdivided this space into a regular squares.  Streets ran straight, north and south, east and west, intersecting at right angles. The two widest streets — now called Market and Broad — were wider and grander that any street in seventeenth-century London.

Rational space would create rational people. Rectilinear geometry would be Penn’s way of keeping the city’s density low, thus avoiding the uncontrollable fires that had destroyed London and spread of disease.  The plan embodied Penn’s vision of “brotherly love” and did not include a wall or any other fortifications. In most cities, protective walls were regarded as a necessity but in the American frontier, Penn believed he could build a city of peace.  Philadelphia was founded as an “open city.”

Most new ideas for city planning in the 17th and 18th centuries attempted to organize space for grand displays of power. When L’Enfant designed Washington, D.C., he laid out overwide diagonal boulevards cutting through its rectilinear grid.  It is a very baroque design with great artistry and is surely a “grand European design” that displays American power but is also very inefficient. There is nothing baroque about Penn’s grid.  Its simple, egalitarian, and efficient.

It is not surprising that when you go to the American West, the design that you see almost universally is Penn’s simple gridiron.  As railroads laid out towns or towns developed along the river, a series of simple evenly spaced “city blocks” were laid out.  Penn’s novel experiment became the blueprint for all modern American cities.

Want to have the
Regimental Brewmeister
at your site or event?

You can hire me.

https://colonialbrewer.com/yes-you-can-hire-me-for-your-event-or-site/

Published by Michael Carver

My goal is to bring history alive through interactive portrayal of ordinary American life in the late 18th Century (1750—1799) My persona are: Journeyman Brewer; Cordwainer (leather tradesman but not cobbler), Statesman and Orator; Chandler (candle and soap maker); Gentleman Scientist; and, Soldier in either the British Regular Army, the Centennial Army, or one of the various Militia. Let me help you experience history 1st hand!