 Benjamin Franklin Parkway from the top of the steps of thePhiladelphia Museum of Art | |
 "Plan for the Fairmount Parkway", published in 1917 byJacques Gréber | |
| Namesake | Benjamin Franklin |
|---|---|
| Maintained by | City of Philadelphia |
| Length | 1.0 mi (1.6 km)[1] |
| Location | Philadelphia,Pennsylvania, U.S. |
| West end | Eakins Oval inFairmount Park |
| East end | 16th andArch Streets inLogan Square |
Benjamin Franklin Parkway, commonly abbreviated toBen Franklin Parkway and colloquially calledthe Parkway, is a boulevard that runs through the cultural heart ofPhiladelphia, the nation's sixth-largest city as of 2020.
The parkway is named forBenjamin Franklin, aFounding Father greatly affiliated with the city and the successfulAmerican Revolution, which led to American independence.
The mile-long parkway cuts diagonally across thegrid plan pattern ofCenter City's northwest quadrant, starting atPhiladelphia City Hall, curving aroundLogan Circle, and ending before thePhiladelphia Museum of Art.
In a cityfamous for its urban planning, the Parkway represents one of the earliest examples ofurban renewal in the United States. The road was constructed to ease heavy industrial congestion inCenter City and to restore Philadelphia's natural and artistic beauty, as part of theCity Beautiful movement.
The vision for a grand parkway came from retail pioneerJohn Wanamaker. Preliminary proposals for the Parkway had been produced and added to the City Plan by 1906, but the first comprehensive plan for the Parkway was commissioned in 1907 by the Fairmount Park Art Association, now theAssociation for Public Art. The Association commissioned architectsHorace Trumbauer, Clarence Zantzinger, andPaul Philippe Cret, who created a detailed parkway design that was formally added to the City Plan in 1909. Construction on the Parkway did not begin until 1917, when French landscape architectJacques Gréber submitted a revised plan to the Commissioners of Fairmount Park.[2]
Gréber designed the Parkway in 1917 to emulate theChamps-Élysées inParis, France. The route was determined by an axis drawn fromPhiladelphia City Hall to a fixed point on the hill thatWilliam Penn called"Fairmount", now the site of thePhiladelphia Museum of Art.[3] The Champs-Élysées terminates at theArc de Triomphe, and the Parkway's terminating at the Art Museum gives the notion of "a slice of Paris in Philadelphia." The Parkway contains flags of countries from around the world.
The trafficrotary on the western end of the Parkway, at the foot of the Art Museum'sRocky Steps, is namedEakins Oval after Philadelphia painterThomas Eakins. The traffic lanes around Eakins Oval originally formed a regular oval; this pattern was modified in the early 1960s to its present elongated circular shape, with the truncated lanes serving as staging areas for various events.
On July 2, 2005, the steps of the museum played host to the Philadelphia venue ofLive 8, where artists such asDave Matthews Band,Linkin Park andMaroon 5 performed.
In Spring 2012, a new museum for theBarnes Foundation's collection ofImpressionist art on the site between theFree Library and theRodin Museum opened in Spring 2012.
The Parkway has been used for several subsequent editions of the Made in America Festival. The Parkway was also the site ofJay-Z'sMade in America Festival on September 1–2, 2012, featuring Jay-Z,Pearl Jam,Skrillex,Calvin Harris, and others.
On September 26 and 27, 2015,Pope Francis visited Philadelphia for that year'sWorld Meeting of Families; the Parkway was flooded with over a million visitors both weekend days, a Celebration of Families on Saturday, and a Holy Mass on Sunday.[citation needed]
There has been concern that the original plan of a wide, multi-sectioned, multi-lane, tree-lined boulevard, while beautiful to travel on, is not very engaging for pedestrian or other public use. Traffic along the Parkway has decreased considerably because of the completion ofInterstate 676 (Vine Street Expressway), linking the Schuylkill Expressway with theBenjamin Franklin Bridge. The roadway was since narrowed somewhat and the sidewalks expanded aroundLogan Circle. A plan for a greener, more walkable Parkway was released by the city in 2023.[4]
As of 2023, the Parkway is part of Philadelphia'sHigh Injury Network, the small fraction of streets on which the majority of traffic deaths and serious injuries occur.[5]
The Parkway is the spine of Philadelphia's Museum District.
Some of the city's most famous sights are located here:Cathedral Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul;Swann Memorial Fountain;Parkway Central Library, theFamily Court Building, theFranklin Institute,Moore College of Art and Design, theAcademy of Natural Sciences, theRodin Museum,Eakins Oval, theBarnes Foundation, and thePhiladelphia Museum of Art. From its northern end, the Parkway provides access toFairmount Park through Kelly Drive (formerly East River Drive), Martin Luther King Drive (formerly West River Drive), theSchuylkill River Trail, and the Schuylkill Expressway (I-76).
The Parkway also is an outdoor sculpture garden. Works include:The Thinker byAuguste Rodin,The Gates of Hell also by Rodin,LOVE byRobert Indiana,The Ideal Scout byRobert Tait McKenzie,Three-Way Piece byHenry Moore, the three River figures in theSwann Memorial Fountain byAlexander Stirling Calder,Shakespeare Memorial also by Calder,Monument to Six Million Jewish Martyrs byNathan Rapoport at theHorwitz-Wasserman Holocaust Memorial Plaza,Joseph Leidy bySamuel Murray,Aero Memorial byPaul Manship,General Galusha Pennypacker byCharles Grafly andAlbert Laessle,Jesus Breaking Bread byWalter Erlebacher,All Wars Colored Soldiers and Sailors Memorial byJ. Otto Schweizer,Thaddeus Kosciuszko byRobert Aitken,Civil War Soldiers and Sailors Memorial byHermon Atkins MacNeil,Kopernik byDudley Vaill Talcott,Joan of Arc byEmmanuel Fremiet,Washington Monument byRudolf Siemering, and theRocky statue byA. Thomas Schomberg.
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39°57′49″N75°10′43″W / 39.9637°N 75.1787°W /39.9637; -75.1787
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