Philadelphia – Downtown and Ben Franklin Parkway
Downtown Philadelphia offers a different experience from Old City to the east. It's the downtown of a classic American city with towering skyscrapers, bustling streets, and an intense atmosphere. Heading west, you'll find Benjamin Franklin Parkway's quality museum row, featuring some of the best museums in the USA. To the south lies Penn State's University District, where you can experience the quintessential American campus.
How much time do you need to explore Downtown Philadelphia and the museums of Logan Square?
To explore Downtown Philadelphia, the museum row to the west, and Fairmount Park, you should dedicate at least one full day. It's worth adding another half-day to visit the Old City's sites.
10 Must-See and Do Things in Logan Square and Downtown Philadelphia
- Wave your hands like Rocky Balboa as you ascend the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art
- See the greatest works of top artists at the museum itself
- The stunning bell tower of City Hall
- Eat a Philly cheesesteak at Reading Terminal Market
- Discover the world around us at Drexel University's Academy of Natural Sciences
- Learn about science at the Franklin Institute
- Let the kids touch and explore at the Please Touch Museum
- The vast Renoir collection at the Barnes Foundation Museum
- The Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology and the University of Pennsylvania campus
- Rock or classical concert at the Mann Center for the Performing Arts in Fairmount Park
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Planning a Tour Route in Downtown Philadelphia and Ben Franklin Parkway
- The Philadelphia City Hall area is situated in the heart of downtown. Since there are whole parts you might want to skip, it's best to focus your trip on Market Street and City Hall only, and of course, grab a Philly cheesesteak at Reading Terminal Market.
- Market Street leads toward the Old City, the historical center of Philadelphia and the place where the United States declared its independence.
- From the City Hall begins Philadelphia's cultural boulevard – the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, lined with some of the most important cultural treasures in all of eastern USA.
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On the axis of Benjamin Franklin Parkway lies Logan Square. This expansive square is home to several key institutions, including the Franklin Institute Science Museum, and the superb Drexel University Museum of Natural Sciences. You can also find the private collection of the Barnes Foundation Museum there. This wonderful museum is just an appetizer for the Philadelphia Museum of Art further along the way, one of the largest and most important art museums in the USA.
- Behind the grand museum, whose steps became iconic with the movie Rocky, is Fairmount Park, which hosts a lot of attractions as well.
- Within this vast park, you'll find the fantastic city zoo and the ‘Please Touch' Museum, one of the most innovative children's museums in the United States.
- South of the park is the University District, known as University City.
- At the Penn State campus, you can sense the American academic world, including a visit to the university museum with its significant archaeological and ethnological collection.
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Map of Downtown Philadelphia and the Museum Strip
Philadelphia City Hall Area
Philadelphia City Hall Building
The Philadelphia City Hall building is one of the most impressive structures in the city. Located right in the heart of downtown's urban planning, its magnificent bell tower successfully competes with the glittering skyscrapers surrounding it.
The building is situated in the heart of downtown's grid design, occupying an entire city block at the intersection of the city's two main avenues – Broad Street and Market Street. From the north-western corner of City Hall, adjacent to the JFK Plaza block (Love Park), Benjamin Franklin Pkwy runs diagonally, the city's stunning museum corridor ending at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
The city hall was completed in 1901 and was intentionally constructed to be the tallest building in the world. The clock tower rises 167 meters, with a statue of William Penn, the founder of Pennsylvania, standing at its top. Until 1908, it was indeed the tallest structure, although both the Washington Monument and the Eiffel Tower surpassed it as towers. It remains one of the most impressive skyscrapers in the USA, with a charming vintage flair reminiscent of New York's old skyscrapers like the Empire State Building or the Chrysler Building.
The city hall contains about 700 rooms and is still considered the largest municipal building in the USA. You can climb to the observation deck of the bell tower at a height of 150 meters.
Address: John F Kennedy Blvd. 1400, Philadelphia
Market Street and Downtown Philadelphia
The main axis of Philadelphia is Market Street, running from west to east. This lively and central street connects the City Hall with the Old City of Philadelphia and continues to the banks of the Delaware River. Downtown Philadelphia is laid out in a grid pattern. Near Market Street and City Hall, you'll find numerous shops, restaurants, hotels, bars, and more, including the popular Reading Terminal Market. In these streets, you can also indulge in the city's famous dish – the Philly Cheesesteak.
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Reading Terminal Market
The indoor food market in downtown Philadelphia is located two blocks east of City Hall. The food market opened in 1893 as part of the North 11th Street train station. Originally, the purpose of the market was to clear the streets of street food stalls, thus allowing for the taxation of these stalls and ensuring sanitary conditions. As with any city center, it suffered from decline during the 1950s and 1960s, but only in the 1980s did it receive a strong boost, and today it is a very popular hangout spot.
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Today, the food market is a must-visit site brimming with tourists and locals alike. You can find the city's magnificent food lineup, including Philly cheesesteaks, soft Dutch pretzels, giant hoagie sandwiches, and of course, plenty of Italian food, befitting a city with a significant Italian population. At the market, you can also purchase fresh produce and even some quite exotic items.
Address: 136 Arch St., Philadelphia
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Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts
The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts is one of the earliest art education institutions in all of the USA. This prestigious establishment was founded in 1805 in the heart of Philadelphia (then on its outskirts), in a stunning building that blends Renaissance and Gothic styles. The academy building is located on Broad Street, just two blocks north of City Hall.
This renowned institution has educated some of America's great artists including the Impressionist Mary Cassatt, the eccentric filmmaker David Lynch, and Don Martin, the house cartoonist for Mad Magazine. The academy's gallery features some interesting art pieces by American painters.
Address: 118-128 N Broad St., Philadelphia
Logan Square and Benjamin Franklin Parkway
Logan Square is the cultural hub of Philadelphia and one of the most impressive squares along the entire Atlantic coast. It's located at the heart of the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, Philadelphia's cultural boulevard connecting City Hall with the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
Around the square, you'll find some of the city's important museum institutions, such as Drexel University's Natural History Museum, the significant Franklin Institute, and the Barnes Foundation collection, one of the most important private art museums in the USA. At the center of the well-designed square, there's a large round fountain surrounded by paths with trees and grass.
The Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University
America's oldest natural history museum, the Drexel University museum, combines the impressive show of an American natural history museum with the important research capabilities of the academic institution. Drexel University's campus is currently located across the Schuylkill River, on the eastern side of University City, the massive Penn State campus west of the river.
Founded in 1812, the museum has since displayed a wealth of natural items such as minerals, fossils, and more. Within the museum is a 13-meter reconstruction of a Tylosaurus skeleton, one of the ancient giant ancestors of lizards. The museum is a charming place for a walk with kids, just keep in mind it's more conservative in nature than other natural museums in the U.S., and its orientation is entirely research-based.
Address: Benjamin Franklin Pkwy. 1900, Philadelphia
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The Franklin Institute
The Franklin Institute's Science Museum in Philadelphia is considered one of the best science museums in the USA. It was one of the first museums in the United States dedicated to the sciences, inspired by the work of Benjamin Franklin, who, in addition to being a skilled politician, also devoted his life to science.
The museum was founded in 1824 and has been showcasing the most up-to-date science ever since. The museum features a plethora of interactive exhibits related to scientific experiments in a wide range of fields. It includes sections on aeronautics, chemistry, life sciences, medicine, and more. The museum also has an observatory where you can learn a lot about the universe.
Address: Benjamin Franklin Pkwy. 1900, Philadelphia
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Barnes Foundation Museum
The Barnes Foundation Museum is located at the northwest end of Logan Square on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway. It's one of the most impressive art museums displaying a private collection. The museum features a stunning display from the collection of Albert C. Barnes, an art collector and chemist by trade, who had a keen eye for acquiring contemporary art.
Barnes' collection holds an incredibly impressive number of display pieces, including about 900 high-quality paintings. The museum's exhibit presents a fascinating mix of precious decorative objects hung together, next to, above, or below the paintings. Barnes acquired a huge number of paintings by specific artists, including no fewer than 181!!! paintings by Pierre-Auguste Renoir, some of which are the most famous of the French Impressionist giant. The collection also includes 69 paintings by post-impressionist Paul Cezanne, 59 paintings by Henri Matisse, and 46 paintings by Pablo Picasso.
The most important items in the Barnes Foundation collection are:
- “After the Bath”, one of Renoir's well-known paintings
- The painting “Woman with White Stockings”, one of the most famous erotic masterpieces by the French giant Gustave Courbet
- “The Card Players”, one of Cézanne's most recognized paintings, as well as his renowned “Mont Sainte-Victoire” paintings from the post-impressionist giant
- The painting “Acrobat with Young Harlequin”, the great piece by Pablo Picasso
- “Jeanne Hébuterne” by Amedeo Modigliani
- One of the paintings of “The Postman (Joseph Etienne Roulin)” by Vincent van Gogh
- The collection also includes a large variety of paintings, including quite a few paintings by Chaim Soutine, Edgar Degas, Paul Gauguin, and more
Address: Benjamin Franklin Pkwy. 2025, Philadelphia
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Rodin Museum
The next grand institution after the Barnes Foundation heading towards the Philadelphia Museum of Art is the small Rodin Museum. This museum serves as the sculpture annex of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, housed in a charming building with an enormous sculpture garden. The museum opened in 1929 and boasts no fewer than 150 art pieces by the great French sculptor.
This is the largest Rodin collection outside of Paris. Among the museum's collection is one of the replicas of “The Thinker,” standing at the heart of the garden facing the neo-classical entrance gate. The museum contains replicas of all of Rodin's famous sculptures (as he sculpted in molds, allowing multiple copies of each piece), including “The Burghers of Calais” and the famous “The Gates of Hell” sculpture, which also features another copy of The Thinker.
Address: Benjamin Franklin Pkwy. 2151, Philadelphia
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Philadelphia Museum of Art
The Philadelphia Museum institution is one of the most magnificent in the entire United States. This museum complements all the goodness of the Ben Franklin Parkway, which has become one of the most cultured avenues in the whole USA. The museum opened in 1876 in a neo-classical building built on a hill. To reach the hill, one must climb the 72 steps leading to the entrance gate. In 1976, the movie Rocky was released, and since then, the steps have become a much more popular site than the museum itself.
The museum itself is of high quality and has a simply wonderful collection for art enthusiasts. It includes no less than a quarter of a million different items, most of which are art and crafts from Europe, but also an impressive collection from the Far East. Two separate wings of the museum are the nearby Rodin Museum and the wing in the Ruth and Raymond G. Perelman Building across the street. This building houses a vast collection of photographs, illustrations, and prints.
In the museum's collection are some of the most famous pieces of European art, including:
- The painting “The Visions” by Hieronymus Bosch
- “The Pieta” by El Greco
- “Prometheus and the Eagle” by Peter Paul Rubens
- The famous painting “The Bathers” by Pierre-Auguste Renoir
- The even more famous painting “The Bathers” by Paul Cézanne
- “Sunflowers at Arles” by Vincent van Gogh
- “Poplar Trees in Autumn in Giverny” by Claude Monet
- In addition to a wide range of paintings by art giants like Pablo Picasso, Marc Chagall, William Turner, Édouard Manet, and more
Address: Benjamin Franklin Pkwy. 2600, Philadelphia
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Rocky Steps
The Philadelphia Museum of Art is a fascinating institution in its own right, but its entrance has become legendary. The steps leading to the museum's doors have turned into an American icon due to Rocky Balboa's famous run up the stairs in the 1976 film ‘Rocky.' When Rocky, portrayed by Sylvester Stallone, reaches the top of the 72 steps leading to the museum, he triumphantly raises his hands and jumps.
This scene made the museum one of Philadelphia’s most popular attractions, regardless of the Renaissance and Baroque giants displayed in its collection. Anyone visiting Philadelphia makes a special trip to climb the steps and, of course, take a jumping selfie with raised hands like Rocky.
Opposite the steps is the elegant Oval Park, where in the direction of the museum steps, there are three charming fountains. The central one is the Washington Monument Fountain, featuring a statue of the first president on horseback. At his feet are the god Poseidon and several reclining buffalo.
University City
University of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania, or Penn State, is one of the most important and leading academic institutions in the USA. The university's campus is located in University City, on the western bank of the Schuylkill River. Penn State was founded in 1855 and has since grown to become one of the largest universities in the USA. About 45,000 students study at the campus in Philadelphia, and almost 100,000 students are enrolled across all campuses in eastern Pennsylvania each academic year.
Adjacent to it is the campus of the private Drexel University. The heart of Penn State's campus is College Hall, next to the impressive Irvine Auditorium and the large building of the Fisher Fine Arts Library.
Penn Museum: University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology
The research museum collection of the University of Pennsylvania is located next to Penn State's large football field, Franklin Field. The museum opened in 1887 and showcases the archaeological and anthropological findings of the faculties of humanities and social sciences. The museum's collection includes artifacts from all ancient cultures, both European and from across Asia and South America. The museum is characterized by a very high academic level, with the items themselves having undergone thorough academic research.
Address: South St. 3260, Philadelphia
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Fairmount Park
Fairmount Park is located along the banks of the Schuylkill River north of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, in the Centennial District. This charming park is Philadelphia's green lung, technically starting from the Rodin Museum. As you head north along the river, the park becomes more expansive. In addition to the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the park features several main attractions, including the city's zoo and the Please Touch Museum.
Beneath the hill of the museum are some old houses by the riverbank, including the old mill house and the Fairmount Water Works. Another popular site in the park is The Cliffs, the ruins of a house covered in graffiti.
Philadelphia Zoo
Like everything in Philadelphia, the city's zoo is also one of the earliest in the USA. It opened in 1874. It's a classic American zoo, with lots of educational information, activities for children, and almost museum-like attention to detail. In keeping with the spirit of the times, the zoo is committed to conservation and sustainability values, including an impressive program of rescuing and breeding rare animals. The zoo is packed with attractions such as the petting area KidZooU or a hot-air balloon from which you can view animal homes, like the stunning giraffe safari.
Address: 3400 W Girard Ave, Philadelphia
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Please Touch Museum
Philadelphia's popular children's museum is nestled in the heart of the park, not far from the Mann Center for the Performing Arts. This museum combines all the fun of natural and science museums with one big difference—kids are invited to touch and experience everything. It's very child-friendly and offers the atmosphere of a gigantic and fascinating playground, but with educational facilities and a lot of thought about developmental and learning values.
The museum opened in Memorial Hall in 1976. Since then, it has grown and evolved into one of the well-known children's museums in the USA, celebrated as an interactive favorite.
Address: Avenue of the Republic, 4231, Philadelphia
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The Mann Center for the Performing Arts
The Mann Center for the Performing Arts is the place to catch a show when visiting Philadelphia. The center operates on the facilities of the Robin Hood Dell outdoor amphitheater, which was built in 1935. Today, it hosts a diverse range of performances, including grand classical music concerts and legendary rock and roll shows.
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