ALL TYPES OF TREASURES
Philadelphia, Franklin style

It was as if he were leading the way

Author: By Betty Lowry, Globe Correspondent

Date: SUNDAY, April 26, 1998

Page: M15

Section: Travel

``Born, yes. Buried, no.'' He waved as a tourist zoomed in for a picture. ``The names are confusing,'' he said kindly overlooking my ignorance about who's interred in Boston's Granary Burial Ground. ``That Ben Franklin was my uncle. I was named for him, so the misidentification is to be expected.''

We were in the heart of historic Philadelphia, standing outside City Tavern which he assured me was an excellent choice for lunch. ``You must try the pepperpot soup, the turnkey pot pie and the peach cobbler,'' he said. ``Pepperpot saved the country, you know. When the men were starving at Valley Forge, the cook had nothing left but pepper. Desertion was rampant . . .''

He was interrupted by a surge of tourists, and my friends pulled me into the tavern where we had a reservation. They were amazed when I ordered without looking at the menu. ``Someone told me,'' I said archly.

We were not exactly doing a Ben Franklin tour of Philadelphia, but after lunch we proceeded as if the jolly man in knee britches were leading the way. In a way he was. William Penn may have founded, supervised its plan and named the town, but Ben Franklin brought it to life.

Although his influence spilled way beyond Independence National Historic Park (locally touted as ``America's most historic square mile''), we began with Independence Hall where the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were adopted. Franklin was the only man who signed not only these but also the other two documents key to United States history -- the Treaty of Alliance with France and the Treaty of Peace with Great Britain. As state agent before Independence and United States ambassador afterward, he was our greatest diplomat ever.

Across the green is the Liberty Bell Pavilion, constructed for the bicentennial and open 365 days a year. The bell hung in Independence Hall when it was the Pennsylvania State House and called the Assembly to meetings. It was uncracked in Ben's day and hasn't rung since 1846.

Franklin Court (between 3d, 4th, Chestnut and Market streets) is on two levels: above ground and below. Underground is a theater and museum of Franklin's Philadelphia (1722-90) with live demonstrators of such items as the glass harmonica he invented and both originals and replicas of his favorite things: a music stand, a chair that converted to a library-step ladder, the red armchair he purchased in London, for examples.

Upstairs on the sunny brick courtyard are corner posts and roof frames painted white to form a ``ghost house'' on the spot where Ben's own residence once stood. It was, alas, demolished by uncaring descendents.

Quotes of homey admonition are engraved on plaques set in the terrace. ``Have you moved everything, and put all my papers and books in my room, and do you keep it locked?'' he wrote his wife, Deborah, from London in 1765. Her patient replies are recorded too. Of course she had.

Also in the complex are five houses he owned, their exteriors reconstructed to show them as they were at the time. There's a working reproduction of a 1785 printing press, a newspaper office (he published America's first political cartoon, and his Pennsylvania Gazette later became The Saturday Evening Post), an archeological exhibit and a post office.

The Free Franklin Post Office and Museum at 316 Market St. is the only operating post office that does not fly the American flag, but you can mail letters here and get the special cancellation. Franklin used the word ``Free'' as a tribute to the new and hard-won independence of the country not the price of postage.

Ben and Deborah Franklin rented pew 70 in Christ Church a few rows back from George and Martha Washington, and Ben subscribed 10 pounds for the steeple. Betsy Ross prayed here too, though William Penn, a Quaker, never entered the place. The Franklins are buried in the burial ground at 5th and Arch, their graves visible from the street. It's said 20,000 people attended his funeral in 1790.

Though not a native Bostonian myself (nor, apparently, proper history addict), I have cherished the idea that everything worth remembering started in the capital city of Massachusetts. Wasn't our motto a few years ago ``Boston: Where it all Began''?

Well, apparently not the first public subscription library (1731); the first volunter fire company (1736); first fire insurance company (1752) nor the first public hospital (1755) and medical school. The hospital, like the forerunner of the University of Pennsylvania (1740) where the teams play in Franklin Stadium, were the combined effort of Franklin and friends.

He wrote books and treatises. And goodness knows where we would be without all those wise admonishments from ``Poor Richard's Almanac'': ``Haste makes waste;'' ``Forewarn'd, forearm'd;'' ``God helps them that help themselves'' among others.

Franklin was born on Milk Street in Boston in 1706 and baptized in Old South Church across the street. At 10 he was pulled out of school to help his father make soap and candles then became apprenticed to his half-brother, a printer. At 17, following a quarrel, he left for Philadelphia -- the largest town in the Colonies -- where he made his fortune in printing and publishing, retiring at 42. From then on it was public service all the way. As a leading rebel (``we must all hang together or assuredly we shall all hang separetely'') he stood fast, charmed and negotiated.

In between civic responsibilities he proved lightning is electricity, invented everything from an efficient stove to daylight savings time to the ``busy-body,'' a reflective device which enabled him to see what was happening on the street without being seen. He invented the lightning rod (``An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure'') and bifocals. He studied the Gulf Stream and discovered sailors could calm a sea by pouring oil on it.

The first Continental Congress met in Carpenters' Hall in 1774. It's still owned by members of the building trade and open to the public. Franklin is considered the father of the International Typographers Union (ITU), oldest trade union in the United States as well as the American Philosophical Society.

He willed 1,000 pounds ($5,000) each to the cities of Boston and Philadelphia with stipulations that assured its investment for the next 200 years. In Boston, the fund founded Franklin Technical Institute, a two-year technical college and, in Philly, Franklin Institute Science Museum.

Franklin Institute Science Museum and Futures Center, which is situated on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, is devoted to bringing the sciences into hands-on focus for us all. Its computerized exhibits, planetarium and Omniverse Theatre (``why didn't I think of that?'' we imagine him murmuring) are crowded with school children. It's also the national memorial to Franklin and contains a reconstruction of his printing shop with his own presses.

Not all the good things about Philadelphia were in place during Franklin's time here. He would never have experienced the potato pancakes or bagels and lox at the Famous Fourth Street Delicatessen. Though sandwiches, pizza, hoagies and cheese steaks had not been dreamed up, he could have happily stayed with the fresh fruits, vegetables, soups and cold platters at Reading Market.

The Afro-American Historical and Cultural Museum on 7th and Arch would have pleased the man who, in 1788, was elected president of America's first antislavery society. His last public act was to sign an appeal to Congress calling for speedy abolition of slavery.

Ben enjoyed plays (actresses adored him) and undoubtedly would have been enthusiasttic over the combination of world premiers and repertory of the Arden Theatre Company. Undoubtedly he would love old Broad Street now Avenue of the Arts with its theaters, restaurants and concert hall. As sometime-composer, player of the harp and violin and inventor of the armonica, he would have thrilled to the gas-lighted Academy of Music, its 19th-century ambiance only slightly after his time. This is the home of the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Pennsylvania Ballet and the Philly Pops.

Could he have stopped in at the Museum of American Art (America's first art museum) he would have seen portraits and statues of his contemporaries. At the Rodin Museum, he would have instantly comprehended and nodded approval at ``The Thinker'' and chortled at the 19th-century minds shocked by ``The Kiss.''

Although we crossed the Delaware on the Benjamin Franklin Bridge, visited the museums and Fairmount Park along the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, even stayed at thge Wyndam Franklin Plaza Hotel on -- where else but -- Franklin Plaza, the street most likely to be familiar to him is Elfreth's Alley between Front and 2d streets, oldest continously occupied residential street in America. Here he would see his ``busy-body'' looking device at work; the Federal-style doorways that were the last word after the Revolution. Deborah Franklin might well have ordered one or more of those loose fitting gowns called mantuas from the two dressmakers whose house is now a museum.

In Philadelphia, busts of Franklin are as plentiful as flowering trees in spring. There is, in fact, more than one Ben Franklin on the streets of the historic district today. The Ben I encountered handed me the business card of actor Ralph Archbold who posed for the postcard showing him embellishing a giant pretzel with mustard.

I am not without follow-up questions. ``If you invented bifocals, Mr. Franklin, why do your glasses slip to the end of your nose?'' and ``If it's true you arrived in Philadelphia with a loaf of bread under each arm and eating a third -- how did you do that?''

So I looked for Mr. Franklin again, but without success, perhaps because the day was over. Wealthy and wise, he may have gone early to bed. Makes sense to me.

For more information, call the Philadelphia Visitors Bureau at 800-537-7676.

Where to stay: Wyndam Franklin Plaza Hotel, 17th & Race streets, telephone (215) 448-2000. Shippen Way Inn, 416-418 Brainbridge St., telephone (215) 627-7266, a 1750 bed-and-breakfast; Thomas Bond House, 129 S. 2d St., telephone (215) 923-8523 or (800) 845-BOND, a guesthouse in Independence National Historical Park, owned by National Park Service.

Where to dine: City Tavern, 138 S. 2d St., telephone (215) 413-1443, Colonial food; White Dog Cafe, 3420 Sansom St., telephone (215) 386-9224, contemporary food; Reading Terminal Market, 12th & Arch; Tony Clark's 121 S. Broad St., telephone (215) 772-9238; Famous 4th St. Delicatessen, 4th & Bainbridge, telephone (215) 922-3274, worth a special trip.

More Information: Philadelphia Visitors Bureau, (800) 537-7676.