Blthon 24.48 Billy Penn for Dragon
In the last post, Dragon, who will be an interview subject later by the way, asked who Billy Penn was. Thanks to Dragon, I have another post now.
William Penn was the founder of Pennsylvania. He was the leader of the Quaker religion, who were the first settlers in what would be formed into Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania is in fact named after his father, after the King of England wanted to show his gratidude to his Penn's father Admiral Penn. He is a founding father of the United States and one of the only that was the sole controlling power until 1776
Billy Penn is a statue on top of City Hall. There was an handshake agreement between the city's founders and the citys planner, Kevin Bacon's father I do believe, that no skyscraper would go above the top of the statues hat so that Billy would still be able to watch over what he created.
In the mid 1980's Liberty One and Liberty Two were built and they dwarfed the Billy Penn Statue. They were soon joined by more and more skyscrapers. Since that time, none of the major sports teams has one a championship in there selected sport. While the Wings and Phantoms have won titles, the Flyers, Phillies, Eagles and Sixers have all fallen short of there championship goals since the mid 80's The curse of Billy Penn was born.
3 comments:
For most of his life, Penn didn't live here. All he did was "found" a state - like nobody else could have done that.
That handshake agreement handcuffed the development of the city for a long time, until somebody (probably Rouse) had the foresight to challenge that ridiculous notion and build two world-class buildings in the heart of the city.
Now, Comcast is building one, and you can count the stories on it, which are equal to the number of cable channels.
Thanks! As a Canadian, my American history knowledge is sadly lacking.
I was in Philadelphia at the Trocadero in mid-April and enjoyed my brief stay there for a VNV Nation concert.
I may want to go back, but I would need a pretty good reason.. and a good dare to walk around in all my Penguins gear. ;)
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