St. Peter’s Church

Philadelphia

Interior of St. Peter’s Church

QUICK FACTS

Designed by architect Robert Smith, whose other works include Nassau Hall, Carpenters’ Hall, and the steeple on Christ Church.

LINKS

SITE: St. Peter’s Church
SITE: USHistory.org

LOCATION

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Completed in 1761, this Episcopal church is relatively unchanged, with a wonderfully ornate organ, original box-pews, and an historic cemetery that includes the grave of painter Charles Willson Peale.

Associated People

Peale, Charles Willson

Smith, Robert

One of the most stubborn myths of American history is the idea that the frontier promoted equality of material condition. This national folk legend is, unhappily, ver much mistaken. With some exceptions, landed wealth was always highly concentrated throughout the southern highlands, as it would be in the lower Mississippi Valley, Texas and the far southwest. Inequality was greater in the backcountry and the southern highlands than in any other rural region of the United States.

— David Hackett Fischer

Albion′s Seed: Four British Folkways in America (1989)