{"id":18419,"date":"2026-05-10T14:23:56","date_gmt":"2026-05-10T18:23:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.statutesandstories.com\/blog_html\/?p=18419"},"modified":"2026-05-11T09:00:34","modified_gmt":"2026-05-11T13:00:34","slug":"ben-franklin-historic-marker-application","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.statutesandstories.com\/blog_html\/ben-franklin-historic-marker-application\/","title":{"rendered":"Ben Franklin historic marker application"},"content":{"rendered":"

Benjamin Franklin Historic Marker Application<\/span><\/strong>\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Visitors to Philadelphia are well aware of the \u201cFranklin Court,\u201d one of the most beloved historic sites in \u201cAmerica\u2019s Most Historic Square Mile.\u201d The archaeological remains of Benjamin Franklin\u2019s famous home near Third and Market Street are memorialized today as an iconic \u201cghost reconstruction\u201d and adjoining museum within Independence National Historical Park. The celebrated Franklin Court complex was built as part of America\u2019s Bicentennial in 1976. Yet, it is not immediately evident to visitors that Benjamin Franklin had already retired from his career as a printer when he moved to this location.[1]<\/a><\/p>\n

A substantially larger percentage of Franklin\u2019s adult life was spent elsewhere.[2]<\/a> For decades Franklin and his family resided two blocks closer to the Delaware River on Market Street between Front and Second Street. It is time to recognize the largely forgotten location where Franklin and his family lived on the 100 block of Market Street during the formative years of his career as a printer, entrepreneur, philanthropist and inventor (hereinafter the \u201cFranklin Press\u201d location).<\/p>\n

As described below, beginning in 1728 Franklin lived alongside his print shop at several locations on the 100 block of Market Street. The purpose of this narrative summary is to evidence the robust historic record and widespread community support for the pending application for the \u201cFranklin Press\u201d marker (PHMC application PGJS1EQ7GS17).<\/p>\n

Edgell and Grace properties on the 100 block of Market Street<\/em><\/p>\n

Unlike Franklin\u2019s final home at Franklin Court, Franklin never owned the rental properties on the 100 block of Market where he established his printshop and raised his family. Perhaps this is the reason why the \u201cFranklin Press\u201d location has been ignored for so long. Fortunately, however, the Franklin Press location where Franklin lived on the 100 block of Market Street near his printshop from 1728 until 1751 is well documented.[3]<\/a><\/p>\n

As illustrated by Exhibit 1 below, from his arrival in 1723 at the age of 17, Franklin can be connected to over a dozen different locations in Philadelphia.[4]<\/a> When he wasn\u2019t living in London or Paris, Franklin made his home in Philadelphia from 1723 to 1790. The only surviving building where Franklin lived is 36 Craven Street in London, now known as the Benjamin Franklin House.[5]<\/a> While Philadelphia lacks any surviving Franklin residences, the \u201cFranklin Press\u201d location should nonetheless be recognized as the most important site of his long publishing career.\"\"<\/a>Biographers commonly divide Franklin\u2019s remarkable story into different phases of his life. During his youth and apprenticeship Franklin lived in Boston where he was born, Philadelphia, New Jersey, and London. After learning the printing trade, at the age of 23, Franklin and Hugh Meredith rented a small house from Simon Edgell in June of 1728 at what is now 139 Market Street (the \u201cEdgell property\u201d).[6]<\/a> At this location, in October of 1729, Franklin and Meredith began publishing what would become the most successful newspaper of its day, the Pennsylvania Gazette<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Franklin remained at 139 Market for a decade until January of 1738 when he relocated a few doors down the block to 131 Market Street.[7]<\/a> From 1738 to 1748 Franklin lived at and operated his printshop from the 131 Market location owned by Robert Grace (the \u201cGrace property\u201d). It was at these Market Street locations where Franklin prospered as a printer, entrepreneur, inventor and philanthropist. This is the reason why these properties on the 100 block of Market should be recognized by a historic marker honoring Franklin and the \u201cFranklin Press.\u201d<\/p>\n

By contrast, during the period when he lived in London from 1757 to 1775 (with a break from 1762-1764) he was the colonial agent for several colonies and primary intermediary between the colonies and Great Britain. During the final period of his life, 1775 through his death in 1790, \u201cFranklin was an elder statesman and diplomat\u201d who lived briefly at the Franklin Court from 1775-1776 and 1785-1790.[8]<\/a><\/p>\n

Franklin Press chronology and exhibits<\/em><\/p>\n

Franklin and Meredith worked together for Samuel Keimer, the publisher of The Universal Instructor in all Arts and Sciences: and Pennsylvania Gazette<\/em>. The two co-workers decided to go into business together in the spring of 1728 when Meredith\u2019s indenture with Keimer expired. The two partners began renting the Edgell property (139 Market)[9]<\/a> in June 1728. They ordered a press and type from London with the financial backing of Meredith\u2019s father.[10]<\/a><\/p>\n

At the 139 Market location Franklin wrote his first Busy-Body<\/em> column which was printed in the American Weekly Mercury<\/em>.[11]<\/a> Franklin also published one of his most important early works, A Modest Enquiry into the Nature and Necessity of a Paper Currency<\/em> at the Edgell property.[12]<\/a> In July of 1729 Franklin and Meredith acquired Keimer\u2019s struggling newspaper and press. Beginning on 2 October 1729 Franklin and Meredith began publishing the newly renamed Pennsylvania Gazette<\/em>. As described by Franklin, they purchased Keimer\u2019s operation \u201cfor a trifle.\u201d Franklin later observed that \u201c[i]t prov\u2019d in a few years extremely profitable to me.\u201d[13]<\/a><\/p>\n

Pictured below is Keimer\u2019s masthead (Exhibit 2), along with the first edition of the newly acquired paper by Franklin and Meredith (Exhibit 3). At the bottom of the 2 October 1729 Gazette<\/em> (Exhibit 4), Franklin and Meredith identified themselves as the new owners, operating at the \u201cNew Printing-Office near the Market.\u201d[14]<\/a> For the balance of his career, Franklin would continue to cite this location of his printing office, as evidenced by the imprint at the bottom of the 24 October 1765 Gazette <\/em>(Exhibits 5 & 6).<\/p>\n

Exhibit 2 (Pennsylvania Gazette<\/em> masthead, published by Samuel Keimer, 7 July 1729)<\/p>\n

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Exhibit 3 (Pennsylvania Gazette<\/em> masthead, published by Franklin, 2 October 1729)<\/p>\n

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Exhibit 4 (Franklin’s imprint on 2 October 1729)<\/p>\n

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Exhibit 5 (Pennsylvania Gazette <\/em>masthead, 24 October 1765)<\/p>\n

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Exhibit 6 (Franklin & Hall imprint, 24 October 1765)<\/p>\n

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Although Franklin was proudly hard working, driven and thrifty, Meredith was \u201cno compositor, a poor pressman and seldom sober.\u201d[15]<\/a> Franklin and Meredith dissolved their partnership in April of 1730, with Franklin assuming all unpaid debts.[16]<\/a> During Franklin\u2019s decades of operation of the Pennsylvania Gazette<\/em>, the paper featured his pseudonymous writings including his celebrated \u201cJoin, or Die\u201d political cartoon.<\/p>\n

Franklin also raised his family at the 139 Market location. Franklin\u2019s son, William, was born in 1730.[17]<\/a> Franklin married Deborah Read in September of 1730. Their son, Francis (Franky) Folger, was born in October of 1732. In January of 1733 Franklin published his first edition of Poor Richard\u2019s Almanack<\/em>. Written by Franklin using his Richard Saunders penname, the annual almanac would become enormously successful with new editions until 1757.[18]<\/a> Franklin operated his printshop and the Gazette<\/em> at the Edgell property for over a decade.<\/p>\n

Among other notable accomplishments while living at the 139 Market Street location, Franklin organized his Junto in 1727,[19]<\/a> helped establish the Library Company in 1731, published the first German-language newspaper in America in 1732,[20]<\/a> and co-founded the Union Fire Company in 1736.[21]<\/a> Franklin also became the postmaster of Philadelphia in October of 1737 while living at the 139 Market Street address.[22]<\/a> Exhibit 7, a notification published by Franklin in the Gazette,<\/em> announced that \u201cthe Post-Office of Philadelphia is now kept at B. Franklin\u2019s in Market-Street.\u201d<\/p>\n

Exhibit 7 (Notice published in PA Gazette<\/em> on 27 October 1737)<\/p>\n

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Additional evidence of Franklin\u2019s residence in the 139 Market Street property owned by Edgell are ledger entries for house repairs incurred by Franklin. As the house was originally built circa 1717, the need for periodic maintenance is not surprising. For example, over the years Franklin charged Edgell for approximately a dozen repairs, including repairs to the plaster, yard gate, and the stairs.[23]<\/a> Exhibit 8 illustrates repairs to the Edgell home recorded in Franklin\u2019s Ledger A from the early 1730s.<\/p>\n

Exhibit 8 (Franklin ledger entries)<\/p>\n

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In January of 1739 Franklin and his family \u201cremoved from the House he lately dwelt in, four Doors nearer the River, on the same side of the Street.\u201d[24]<\/a> Pictured below as Exhibit 9 is the notification that Franklin and his printing office relocated to what would now be the 131 Market Street address owned by Robert Grace. Franklin would live at the Grace property until January of 1748.<\/p>\n

Exhibit 9 (Notice of Franklin’s move to 311 Market Street, PA Gazette<\/em>, 11 January 1739)<\/p>\n

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Exhibit 10 is the \u201cindenture\u201d between Franklin and Grace, whereby Franklin leased the 131 Market Street property for more than a decade.[25]<\/a> \u00a0StatutesandStories.com thanks Sarah Horowitz, the Curator of Rare Books and Manuscripts at Haverford College, for providing high resolution images of the beautifully preserved manuscript. The lease described the Grace property as follows:<\/p>\n

[the lot, with all buildings and other improvements thereon] Beginning at John Jones\u2019s lot on the north side of Market St., running eastward 17 ft. to the Widow Read\u2019s lot, then northward 164 ft. to Jones Alley, westward 34 ft. to Thomas Shute\u2019s lot, southward 62 ft., then eastward by John Jones\u2019s lot 17 ft., and then southward 102 ft. to Market St. Franklin is to pay \u00a355 lawful money of Pennsylvania annually, in equal installments on July 1 and January 1, with a right to Grace to enter and distrain in case of default\u2026<\/p>\n

It is also useful to note that the Grace property bordered Jones Alley, which was also known as Pewter Platter Alley (located between Second and Third Streets).[26]<\/a> Today the alley is Church Street.<\/p>\n

Exhibit 10 (Lease for Grace house at 311 Market)<\/p>\n

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Property description
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Daughter Sarah (Sally) Franklin was born in September 1743 and resided here. Franklin\u2019s accomplishments while living in the Grace property on 131 Market Street, included:<\/p>\n