Robert Morris' Ice House was one of the first icehouses in America, allowing for the storage of ice for many months, which was used for food preservation and in drinks. It was part of what eventually became the President's House in Philadelphia, the third U.S. Presidential Mansion, occupied by George Washington and John Adams. Stone remains of the icehouse were uncovered in 2000 during archeological excavations. They were later reburied and now lie beneath the floor of the Liberty Bell Center.

1: Robert Morris’ Ice House

In 2016 during the construction of a 25-unit residential housing complex at 218 Arch Street, human remains were uncovered. It was determined that this was a burial ground of the First Baptist Church of Philadelphia(founded 1698), and eventually about 500 remains were uncovered after a frantic excavation effort. The human remains recovered form "The Arch Street Project", a multi-institutional research effort led by Rutgers University Camden, the College of New Jersey, and the Mutter Research Institute.  The remains will be reburied in September 2023 at Mount Moriah cemetery, the First Baptist Church of Philadelphia plot where they were intended to go in 1860.

3: 1st Baptist Church of Philadelphia Burial Ground

Around 1720, a stone prison and workhouse opened on the corner of Third and High(Market) Streets. The prison portion of this facility housed debtors, runaway apprentices, and untried prisoners. The workhouse held those convicted of theft, vagrancy, and disorder. Overcrowding, corruption, violence, and bribery ran rampant in Philadelphia's early jails. Control of the jail rested with the local Sheriff, who extorted money from prisoners, sold liquor from a well-stocked bar, and withheld food and other necessary goods. Due to the significant overcrowding, the new Walnut Street Jail was opened in 1776 and the old stone jail closed in 1784 and was demolished the following year.

4: Old Stone Prison

The Jayne Building was a large 113-foot multi-story commercial building completed in 1850 and located on Chestnut Street. At eight stories, it was the tallest building in the city at the time and served as an early example of “modern” purpose built office buildings in the US which inspired future skyscrapers. It survived until it was acquired to be cleared for Independence National Historical Park and was demolished between 1957 and 1958. Today this site is part of the Museum of the American Revolution.

5: Jayne Building

Welcome Park was built by the Friends of Independence National Historical Park in 1982 to celebrate the 300th anniversary of the founding of Pennsylvania by William Penn in 1682 and is named for William Penn’s ship, the Welcome. The design is laid out as a giant map of the original grid street plan of Philadelphia and includes miniature representations of significant features related to Penn, like the City Hall statue and his original slate-roof house. The park is located on the former site of the Slate Roof House, Penn’s residence in Philadelphia from 1699-1701. Penn rented the home for 80 pounds a year during his second stay in Pennsylvania, his son John the future Proprietor of Pennsylvania, was born on this site and it was here that William Penn wrote the final Charter of Privileges. By the nineteenth century, the house had fallen into disrepair, and despite calls for its historic preservation, it was demolished in 1867.

6: Welcome Park

0: UnTour Introduction

James Dexter was a free African American man who lived on North 5th Street, halfway between Arch and Race Streets from 1790 until his death in 1799. Dexter was one of at least six, free, black heads-of-households who lived on the block where the National Constitution Center (NCC) sits today. A coachman and former slave, Dexter was considered an important member of the African community in Philadelphia. Today the site is part of the bus drop-off area for the NCC.

2: James Dexter Site

Society Hill is one of Philadelphia’s oldest neighborhoods, with more buildings surviving from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries than any other in the country. It evolved over the centuries as a diverse, complex residential and commercial neighborhood. Although deteriorated by the 1950s, it was reborn as a city historic district and attracted international attention for its innovative combination of urban renewal and preservation. Two examples of this are the Society Hill towers, three 30-story residential buildings which are an example of traditional urban renewal, and the historic Powel House which was saved from destruction and turned into a museum.

7: Society Hill

In the 19th century Philadelphia developed as an industrial powerhouse even gaining the nickname “workshop of the world,”. However, in the mid 20th-century industry began to decline in the city. Following WW2, industry began moving out into the Philly suburbs as well as into other states, especially into the south and west which lured manufacturers with cheap labor, low taxes, subsidized construction costs, and other inducements. The second phase of deindustrialization began in the 1970s and greatly accelerated in the 1980s and ’90s with many companies outsourcing their production to China and other countries in Southeast Asia. Philadelphia was heavily impacted by deindustrialization and has never fully recovered, remaining the poorest big city in America. Two such examples of industry that once was are the Stewart Distilling Company which was located at 256 South 3rd Street & the Abbotts Dairies Ice Cream Factory which occupied the 200 block of Lombard street. Now both replaced with luxury homes and without any trace of was there before

8: Industry - Stewart Distilling Co & Abbotts Dairies Ice Cream Factory

Head House Square is home to the Head House Market a historic street market on South 2nd Street between Pine and Lombard Streets in the Society Hill neighborhood of Philadelphia. With a history dating to 1745, it is one of the oldest surviving market buildings of its type in the nation. The market grew and by 1795, it covered the entire two-block distance between Pine and South Street with brick market stalls and a two-story brick Head House at the South Street end of the market, with a twin Head House constructed in 1805 at the Pine Street end. In the late 19th century, street markets began to decline in Philadelphia and the market fell into disrepair. After WW2, during the early days of urban renewal the market stalls between Lombard and South were demolished to create street parking. Today only the Pine Street head house and the stalls behind it remain.

9: Head House Square

The Untour of Philadelphia is a podcast and audio walking tour that explores the city’s history through lost and forgotten historic and archaeological sites. Listen to Philadelphia’s unfolding story and imagine the shock of finding 18th-century jail cells under an Old City retail shop. Visit the condo unit built on top of a 19th-century cemetery and hear from the archaeologists that excavated nearly 500 graves. The Untour reveals the hidden side of Philadelphia lost to time and buried under its streets.
Learn more at www.untour.org

The UnTour

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