Today living here are many of the maladies and miasmas associated with millennial urban living. Surrounded on two sides by well-traveled roads and expressways and located hard by the base of the Benjamin Franklin Bridge, many a rushing visitor likely does not know the park even exists. Franklin Square is generally shunned by all but the homeless. It is litter-strewn and dangerous, though it is across the street from Philadephia's police headquarters. Its once modest fountain has been still for years.
Trees show signs of blight and the park benches are beds to the homeless by night.
Benjamin Franklin was a city boy. Where others of means would escape Philadelphia's sweltering summers by removing to fine mansions in the countryside, Franklin would stay in the city working. He was also a man who dedicated much of his life to civic improvement, from promoting regular trash collection to agitating for environmental reform as early as 1739. In a city where Benjamin Franklin's name can be seen on everything from greasy spoons to dry-cleaning establishments, Franklin Square is by far the most dubious way of honoring his civic commitment and contribution. In this easterly portion of Franklin Square, between the years of 1741 and 1835, many faithful members and five beloved pastors of Old First Reformed Church, United Church of Christ were buried.