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This illustration by William Birch shows the first city court house and, to the north on Second Street, Christ Church.

Market Street was the site of some of the city’s earliest civic institutions. From there, it continued westward as Route 3 into Delaware and Chester Counties. Once called “America’s most historic highway,” over time Market Street extended nearly seven miles from Front Street to the city’s western boundary at Cobbs Creek. Penn’s knowledge of plague and a devastating conflagration in 1660s London prompted the width of the street, which was intended to minimize the spread of disease and fire but also predetermined its central roles in Philadelphia’s geography, economy, and social fabric.

Market Street, one of Philadelphia’s primary east-west thoroughfares, originated in the 1682 city plan devised by William Penn (1644-1718) and Thomas Holme (1624-95) as High Street, one hundred feet wide and located at the longitudinal center of the city.