William Penn

William Penn was an English Quaker, thrown out of Oxford for his religion, who in 1681 received a huge grant of land in America from King Charles II. He planned Philadelphia as a city of brotherly love on a regular grid with public squares, guaranteed freedom of worship, and was known for dealing fairly with the Lenape people who already lived there.

His bronze statue, 37 feet tall, stands on top of Philadelphia City Hall, one of about 250 sculptures on the building by Alexander Milne Calder. For most of the twentieth century a gentlemen's agreement kept every building in the city lower than his hat, until One Liberty Place went past it in the 1980s. The tower has an observation deck just below his feet; ask inside about the tour times.