Philadelphia Real Estate

Philadelphia homes for sale in Pennsylvania, includes Montgomery County, Chester County, Bucks County, Philadelphia County, and Delaware County

Quick Facts About Philadelphia Pennsylvania

• Philadelphia is one of the oldest cities in the United States.
• Philadelphia is the site of the first capital of the United States.
• Pennsylvania is the 6th largest state in the nation.
• The Quakers came here in 1681 to settle. In the beginning they lived in caves carved out along the Delaware River.
• Philadelphia was founded by William Penn in 1682 and laid out in a simple grid pattern that included wide streets and five public squares. In that respect, Philadelphia was the first "planned city" in North America.
• Pennsylvania was named in honor of Admiral William Penn, whose son founded the colony as a haven for Quakers and other religious minorities in 1682. In Latin, the word Pennsylvania means "Penn's woods."
• Pennsylvania is called the keystone state because it is the central, wedge-shaped stone of an arch that locks its parts together. It also means the central supporting element of a whole. Because of Pennsylvania's location in the middle of the 13 original states, along with its political importance, the nickname "Keystone State" came to be.
• Many important "firsts" happened in Philadelphia: first American hospital, first medical college, first bank, first paper mill, zoo, sugar refinery, US Mint and more. One of the prominent first citizens was Benjamin Franklin.
• Philadelphia is home to the nation's first public library - the Free Library of Philadelphia - founded by Benjamin Franklin in 1731.
  Betsy Ross sewed the first flag of the United States in Philadelphia in 1777.
• Philadelphia was the first capital of the United States from 1790 - 1800.
• The first stock exchange in the United States was the Philadelphia Stock Exchange, which organized in 1790.
• In 1874 the Philadelphia Zoo became the first zoo to open in the United States.
• The motto, The City of Brotherly Love, came from William Penn, the English Quaker, who envisioned the area as a place where anyone of any color or background could live together in peace and harmony, thus, the motto about brotherly love.
• Philadelphia location: in southeastern Pennsylvania. It is 100 miles south of New York and 133 miles north of Washington, D.C.
  The weather in Philadelphia is seasonal. The winters are cold and the summers are hot and humid.
• Philadelphia average annual rainfall is 41 inches per year.
• Philadelphia average annual snowfall is 21 inches per year.
• Philadelphia average winter temperature is 33 degrees F.
• Philadelphia average summer temperature is 75 degrees F.