Philadelphia is Always First

November 1, 2025|Rick Juliusson

The only thing I knew about Philadelphia growing up in the 70's was that the Broad Street Bullies were the toughest hockey team ever. A Canuck fan once held up a sign saying “Dave Schultz is a baby” and I was so scared that Schultz would jump into the stands and pulverize him.

An unplanned 3-week stay in "The City of Brotherly Love" has given us a more nuanced and surprisingly positive impression. It’s too big and loud and American - and people honk their horns much too bombastically - for me to want to live here, but I can at least see why some people do.

It All Started Here

Every block - and not just in the Liberty Bell area - there’s a “First (something)” sign. Site of the first insurance company, first urban worker’s strike, first methodist church, first Phili cheesesteak, first urban cemetery (which has the first Ginko tree, sporting its fruit with a smell somewhere between rotting flesh and vomit). One can feel the whole nation bursting optimistically (if not fragrantly) from this one tiny inspired seed.

Corn Exchange National Bank

First Mutual Life Insurance Headquarters

I did visit the historic (1803) Arch Street Quaker Meeting House, but we chose to worship at this much newer (1856) Race Street Meeting House

Dr. Martin Luther King addressed a crowd of 10,000 here during his 1965 "Freedom Now" tour.

First Nation of Islam place of worship. Malcolm X was a teacher/administrator here.

City Hall was the world's tallest occupied building in 1901

Our AirBnB is in the first highschool in West Philadelphia. Once a bustling home to 5,500 students for exactly 100 years (from 1912 to 2011), we now get to enjoy the huge windows and loft apartments, working out in the old gymnasium and wandering the wide hallways still decorated with students’ original paintings.

Our workouts are inspired by records set in 1921

I'm guessing Zekiah and Zarina aren't the first students to discover the school's romantic rooftop

Putting the Penance in Penitentiary

We visit America’s first penitentiary, where we Quakers had the well-intentioned but ultimately cruel idea to house every prisoner in solitary confinement in order to get back in touch with their better selves. Displays at the end question the high incarceration rates, racial inequity, cost, and ineffectiveness of the US prison system. Interestingly all the displays stop a decade ago when public and government were leaning towards alternatives to imprisonment, avoiding any analysis of current policy direction. Certainly the idea of a penitentiary being a place for penance (showing remorse and atoning for a wrongdoing) instead of punishment has been lost these days.

Long rows of solitary confinement cells

Is the US any safer after 50 years of increased incarceration?

Arresting Architecture

From the historic Birthplace of a Nation buildings to the endless rows of rowhouses, Philadelphia is a fabulous place to discover. Architecture is varied, adorned, and splattered generously throughout disparate neighbourhoods.

Together with the old, character, historic buiilding there are, of course, the areas of old, delapidated poverty - equally powerful in their tragic inequity.

Once Again, Murals

I’ve devoted enough energy to celebrating the murals of Albania, so it would be unfair not to recognize it here. Philadelphia is alive with creativity. Dr. Google credits the Mural Arts Philadelphia program, “which is now the nation's largest public art program. The murals serve multiple purposes, including replacing graffiti with art, creating community conversations about difficult topics, providing a sense of identity and purpose for artists, and revitalizing neighborhoods.”