WELCOME PARK: THE STORY OF A STORIED PHILADELPHIA PLACE

By Harry Kyriakodis Many Philadelphians know that Welcome Park was once the location of "The Slate Roof House," where William Penn lived during his second stay in Philadelphia. This short history of that plot of ground is a necessary prologue to a separate account on one of Philadelphia's two Indian reservations, both allegedly established long ago and now quite forgotten. One of these places was a spot adjacent to where Welcome Park came to be.

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Welcome Park is the only place in the original part Philadelphia that is dedicated to commemorating the life and contributions of William Penn. Located on the east side of Second Street by Sansom Walkway, this open area presents a recreation of Thomas Holme's famous 1682 map of Philadelphia, with the city's street grid laid in marble. A miniature version of the statue of Penn that crowns Philadelphia's City Hall stands on a large pedestal in the middle of the square. Penn's plans and promotions for Philadelphia are illustrated on a wall enclosing the park, as is a timeline of Penn's life. His farewell address to the city is on the back of the pedestal.

The plaza was emplaced by the Friends of Independence National Historical Park in 1982 to celebrate the 300th anniversary of William Penn's founding of Pennsylvania. Designed by the renowned architectural firm Venturi, Rauch and Scott Brown, the park was named after Welcome, the ship that first brought William Penn to America in 1682. But Welcome Park was also meant to "welcome" visitors to Independence National Historical Park and Philadelphia generally.

But why chose this particular spot for a memorial to William Penn and his work? Well, this was once the location of "The Slate Roof House," the large dwelling in which Penn resided during his second visit to America, 1699 to 1701. The mansion was erected as early as 1687 on Second Street between Chestnut and Walnut Streets. It was built by James Porteus, one of the founders of the Carpenters' Company of Philadelphia.

The owner was Samuel Carpenter (1649-1714), a Quaker merchant from Barbados. Carpenter was a friend and partner of William Penn, as well as a deputy Governor of colonial Pennsylvania and later its Treasurer. Upon arriving in the nascent city, Carpenter acquired a lot along the Delaware River and constructed the first wharf built in Philadelphia. "Carpenter's Wharf" was expanded over the years and was joined by numerous adjacent warehouses. Samuel Carpenter had also built a small house near his wharf, but sought a more stately residence after becoming wealthy due to his business activities.

An image of the Slate Roof House by illustrator William L. Breton, who painted several watercolors of the dwelling in the 1830s.

Situated on high ground near the heart of the colonial city, the Slate Roof House commanded a fine view of the Delaware River. It occupied the southeast corner of Second and Sansom Street (formerly Gothic Street and before that, Norris Alley). The most splendid house in Philadelphia, it received its moniker due to the rarity of slate roofs in early Philadelphia. The building featured a facade of two projecting corner rooms that flanked a recessed central entryway. A fine garden extended eastwards nearly to Front Street and southwards nearly to Walnut Street. City Tavern was later built just about across the street on the west side of Second Street.

William Penn rented the mansion for 80 pounds a year as a city residence while maintaining his country house at Pennsbury Manor, well north of Philadelphia. He lived in the Slate Roof House with his second wife, Hannah Callowhill, and his daughter Letitia. Penn's son John, nicknamed "the American," was born there on January 29, 1700. It was in the Slate Roof House that William Penn, as Proprietor of Pennsylvania, penned the regulations for city and state government. And it was there that he promulgated the Charter of Privileges, which guaranteed civil and religious liberty to the inhabitants of "Penn's Woods."

The house had a luminous existence during the 18th century. Penn's secretary, James Logan, lived in the Slate Roof House from 1701 to 1704 and administered the colony of Pennsylvania from there. William Trent, the founder of Trenton, New Jersey, owned the house from 1704 to 1709. British General John Forbes, second in command and afterwards successor to General Edward Braddock in the French and Indian War, died in the house in 1759. As a boarding house, the place served as the temporary abode of John Adams, John Hancock, and many other members of the First Continental Congress. Both John Dickinson and Caesar Rodney, two other famous men of the American Revolution, owned the property for a while around that time.

The decrepit Slate Roof House, just before being demolished in 1867.

Besides a boarding house, the Slate Roof House had several other uses over time, including a boarding school, an inn, and a used clothing shop. But slowly yet surely, the building became dilapidated by the mid-19th century. The house lost all traces of its former elegance as the neighborhood turned commercial over time. The slate roof that was its distinguishing feature had long disappeared, replaced on the ancient rafters by wooden shingles. Meanwhile, the surrounding garden had long been filled in with ramshackle wooden storefronts, as was the house's recessed front entrance.

John Fanning Watson, the Philadelphia historian and annalist, sought to preserve the browbeaten building as far back as 1830. In his Annals of Philadelphia, and Pennsylvania, in the Olden Time, he wrote:

Such a house should be rescued from its present forlorn neglect; it ought to be bought and consecrated to some lasting memorial of its former character by restoring its bastions and salient angles, &c. It would be to the credit of such Societies as the Historical and Penn Association, &c., to club their means to preserve it for their chambers, &c., as long as themselves and the city may endure!

His plea was unsuccessful; the Slate Roof House was torn down in 1867. Just before its demolition, the following was printed in the Friends' Intelligencer, vol. 23 (1867), page 651:

The old house, one of the only two still standing in which William Penn ever set foot in Philadelphia, "is tottering to its fall." It has long since outlived its usefulness, and it has stood in the way of the progress of the locality in which it stands, and whether rightfully or wrongfully, reverently or irreverently, its doom is sealed, and it must, within a few weeks, come down to make way for the nineteenth century...

At least Welcome Park contains a bronze model of the house at its appropriate spot on the miniature street city grid.

The Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce immediately built the Commercial Exchange Building on the site. This structure burned down a year after its completion, but it was rebuilt in 1870 and used by the Chamber of Commerce for some thirty years.

In 1901, the brick and brownstone French Empire edifice was sold to the Keystone Telephone Company and became known as the Keystone Telephone Building. The company opened its first exchange there on January 1, 1902, and later installed a huge fireproof vault on the premises to house critical telephone switching equipment.

Bell Telephone Company eventually came to own the building before selling it in 1944. The structure was abandoned in 1961 and demolishedin 1977-1978. Welcome Park was laid out a fewyears

later.

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This is all well and good, but here's the most interesting part: The southeastern edge of Right by Welcome Park is allegedly the location of a former Indian reservation!

The stories of Philadelphia's two reputed Native American sites will be told in two separate narratives, but suffice it to say that the Indian camp ground at one time next to today's Welcome Park was set aside in 1755 by John Penn (1729-1795), grandson of William Penn. Serving on the Pennsylvania Provincial Council at the time, the young Penn did not reside in the Slate Roof House, as it was too expensive for him to maintain—despite his political position. John Penn actually lived in a modest house at what today would be 145 South Second Street, immediately south of the mansion.

It was part of the backyard of this small house that Penn granted to a delegation of the Iroquois, also known as the Six Nations of Indians, for their exclusive use and perpetual ownership. He did this in appreciation of their friendliness and support for the British crown during the French and Indian War. Although Penn was acting as Proprietary Governor of Pennsylvania at the time, his legal right to make such a grant is doubtful.

Whatever the case, the plot of land in question was variously reported as "twelve by sixteen" or "fifteen by forty-seven" feet. A bit of this ground may still fall within the southeastern portion of Welcome Park, but most of the site has been covered, fairly recently, by a modern structure. More on all this in a separate piece: "The Wampum Lot: A Legendary Indian Camp Ground in Old City Philadelphia." Another article will follow on the first so-called Indian reservation in Philadelphia: "Marble Court: A Forgotten Indian Camp Ground in Center City Philadelphia?"

1875 Philadelphia Atlas (G. M. Hopkins) 1962 Land Use Map