Public space in Philadelphia
Dilworth Park
is a public park and open space along the western side of
City Hall
in
Center City, Philadelphia
. The one-half-acre (0.20 ha) park opened to the public on September 4, 2014.
History
[
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]
Dilworth Park opened in September 2014. It is named in honor of
Richardson Dilworth
, who served as
mayor
of the city from 1956 to 1962. The current park was designed by
KieranTimberlake
, Urban Engineers and
OLIN
[2]
and replaced
Dilworth Plaza
, designed by
Vincent Kling
in 1972.
[3]
Centre Square
[
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]
City Hall is located in what was originally named
Centre Square
.
Centre Square
was one of the five original
public squares
planned by
William Penn
in 1682.
Centre Square
was the geographic heart of the city until 1854, when Philadelphia expanded its city boundaries with the
Act of Consolidation.
Centre Square
never became the social heart of the city as originally intended, but it remained in use until 1871, when construction of City Hall began.
[4]
Penn planned for
Centre Square
to be:
a central square or plaza of ten acres to be bordered by the principal public buildings, such as the Quaker meetinghouse, the state house, the market house, and the schoolhouse. Despite the two riverfronts [
Delaware
and
Schuylkill
, Penn's city had an inward-facing design, focusing on this central plaza.
[5]
However, the Delaware riverfront would remain the
de facto
economic and social heart of the city for more than a century.
[…] hardly anyone lived west of Fourth Street before 1703. Consequently Penn's design of a center square as the hub of his community had to be abandoned. The large Friends meeting house which was built in 1685 at the midpoint between the rivers was dismantled in 1702. Efforts to develop the Schuylkill waterfront likewise collapsed. Of the merchants, tradesmen, and craftsmen who can be identified as living in Philadelphia around 1690, 123 lived on the Delaware side of town and only 6 on the Schuylkill side. One of the latter, a tailor named William Boulding, complained that he had invested most of his capital in his Schuylkill lot, 'so that he cannot, as others have done, Remove from the same.' Not until the mid-nineteenth century, long after the city had spilled northward and southward in an arc along the Delaware miles beyond its original limits, was the Schuylkill waterfront fully developed. Nor was Centre Square restored as the heart of Philadelphia until the construction of City Hall began in 1871.
[5]
Features
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Dilworth Park contains:
[6]
[7]
- grass lawns and landscaping,
- two large sloped glass stair canopies,
- a fountain/ice skating rink
- a cafe
- restaurant
See also
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References
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]
External links
[
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]