Philadelphia
The robbery at Carpenters’ Hall, Ona Judge at the President’s House, the Mütter Museum and Kosciuszko’s room.
13 places
Boathouse Row: the bricklayer
Henley refused his entry. That summer he beat its champion at the Olympics.
Carpenters' Hall robbery
The locksmith went to jail. The thief paid the money into the bank.
Cope's head on the wrong end
One printed mistake fed a feud that ran for decades.
Duchamp's secret door
Twenty years of secret work, seen through two holes in a door.
Girard College wall
The Supreme Court ruled against the school. A local court replaced its board, and the ban stayed.
Grip, Dickens's raven
Charles Dickens's dead pet is in a Philadelphia library, stuffed.
Kosciuszko House
He left Thomas Jefferson one job. The court record says Jefferson refused it.
LOVE Park and the planner on a skateboard
The man who drew this plaza broke its rules at ninety-two.
Octavius Catto
He organised Black voters in Philadelphia. On Election Day 1871 he paid for it.
Pennsylvania Hall site
The mayor locked the doors, took the keys and left the hall to the crowd.
President's House and Ona Judge
A sitting President used his Treasury to chase one woman, and failed.
The President's tumor
A reporter got it right in 1893. It took until 1917 for a surgeon to say so.
Washington Square and the 1793 fever
They were told the fever would spare them. Then they were accused of profiting from it.