📍Franklin Court, 317 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, PA 19106, USA
1765 – 1790“I was born in Boston, the fifteenth of seventeen children of a candle and soap maker, and left school at ten. At seventeen I ran away to Philadelphia with little more than a few coins and bread rolls under my arms. I built a printing business on Market Street, founded a library, a fire company and a university, and flew a kite in a thunderstorm. After decades of renting, my wife Deborah and I built our own house on land behind our Market Street properties: three storeys, ten rooms, set back from the noise of the street in a quiet court. I was in London on public business for most of the years it was being finished, and Deborah oversaw it, sending me letters about every room; she died in 1774 while I was still abroad. I came home at last in 1785, enlarged the house for my books and grandchildren, and helped write the Constitution. The house was demolished in 1812, but today a steel ghost structure traces its outline in Franklin Court, above an underground museum and a working printing office.”
🗺️ Approximate location today
📍 Street view today