The governor had already determined the plan of the city. There were to
be two large streets,--one fronting the Delaware on the east, the other
fronting the Schuylkill on the west; a third avenue, to be called High
Street (now Market), was to run from river to river, east and west; and
a fourth, called Broad Street, was to cross it at right angles, north
and south. Twenty streets were to lie parallel with Broad, and to be
named First Street, Second Street, and so on in order, in the plain
Quaker fashion which had thus entitled the days of the week and the
months of the year. Eight were to lie parallel with High, and to be
called after the trees of the forest,--Spruce, Chestnut, Pine. In the
midst of the city, at the crossing of High and Broad Streets, was to be
a square of ten acres, to contain the public offices; and in each
quarter of the city was to be a similar open space for walks. The
founder intended to allow no house to be built on the river banks,
keeping them open and beautiful. Could he have foreseen the future, he
would have made the streets wider. He had in mind, however, only a
country town. "Let every house be placed," he directed, "if the person
pleases, in the middle of its plot, as to the breadth way of it, that so
there may be ground on each side for gardens or orchards or fields, that
it may be a green country town, which will never be burnt and always
wholesome."
Among those houses was his own, a modest structure made of brick,
standing "on Front Street south of the present Market Street," and still
preserved in Fairmont Park. He afterwards gave it to his daughter
Letitia, and it was called Letitia House, from her ownership.
In the mean time, he was making his famous treaty with the Indians. Penn
recognized the Indians as the actual owners of the land. He bought it of
them as he needed it. The transfer of property thus made was a natural
occasion of mutual promises. As there were several such meetings between
the Quakers and the Indians, it is difficult to fix a date to mark the
fact. One meeting took place, it is said, under a spreading elm at
Shackamaxon. The commonly accepted date is the 23d of June, 1683. The
elm was blown down in 1810. There is a persistent tradition to the
effect that William was distinguished from his fellow Quakers in this
transaction by wearing a sky-blue sash of silk network. But of this, as
of most other details of ceremony in connection with the matter, we know
nothing.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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