Philadelphia 1776 — Revolutionary Capital

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Philadelphia 1776 — Revolutionary Capital

Period: 1776

Summary

Philadelphia in 1776 was the largest city in British North America (~30,000–40,000 people including suburbs) and the political center of the Revolution — the Continental Congress met at the State House (Independence Hall), where the Declaration of Independence was adopted on July 4, 1776. William Penn’s 1682 grid between the Delaware and Schuylkill Rivers made it the most systematically planned city of the colonies, though by 1776 development was still concentrated in a dense strip along the Delaware waterfront. The British occupied the city from September 1777 to June 1778.

Why this era is a TimeWalk priority: Philadelphia has the best parcel-level cartography of any American city for the Revolutionary period. The Reed Map (1774) is a true cadastral map — individual lots with owner names, city-wide — and the Hills Plan (1796) shows every building. Together they support full parcel + building reconstruction of the 1776 city.

Key Maps (5)

Key Sources

Reconstruction pipeline (proposed)

  1. Georeference Reed 1774 and Hills 1796 against the modern Penn street grid (highly stable since 1682).
  2. Digitize lot polygons from Reed; carry owner names as attributes.
  3. Cross-check building footprints and survivals against Hills 1796.
  4. Attribute individual buildings (materials, dimensions, owners) from the Contributionship surveys.
  5. Render the 1776 streetscape using Easburn 1776 and Clarkson & Biddle 1762 geometry.

Cross-references

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