Philadelphia History Trivia Quiz

Answer: Walnut Street Theater

The theater opened in 1809 as "The New Circus", and was used for equestrian displays. A dome was soon added, making the structure the highest in Philadelphia at the time. In 1811 a stage was added for theatrical productions, and the theater was renamed "The Olympic".

In 1812 the first theatrical production was held there, entitled "The Rivals". President Thomas Jefferson and the Marquis De Lafyette were in attendance. In 1820, the theater was renamed "The Walnut Street Theater", and went back to "The Olympic" in 1822.

In 1828 it was again renamed the "Walnut Street Theater", putting the schizophrenia at last to rest.

Answer: Auguste Rodin

The Rodin Museum opened to the public in 1929 and showcases 124 sculptures. The Rodin Museum in Philadelphia has the odd distinction of being the only museum in the world in which a firearm was discharged during a robbery. In 1988 a thief attempted to make off with the famous bronze bust "Man with a Broken Nose".

A security guard at the museum shot the man once in the hindquarters, but the perpetrator still managed to hail a taxi and escape. Police issued a reward notice, the thief was promptly "busted", and the bust was recovered intact.

Answer: One Liberty Place

One Liberty Place was the first and was completed in 1987. It stands 974.4 feet in height, and as of this writing is the tallest structure in the city. One Liberty handily broke the previous Philadelphia record held by City Hall at 548 feet. Since the completion of One Liberty several buildings have broken the City Hall record that had stood since 1894. Commerce Square 1 and 2, completed in late 1987 both rise to 572 feet.

In 1989 Two Liberty Place capped-off at 848 feet. In 1990, Mellon Bank Center and the Blue Cross-Blue Shield Tower were completed at 792 and 700 feet, respectively.

In 1991, Verizon Tower was completed peaking at 739 feet, completing the list of Philadelphia buildings taller than City Hall as of this writing.

Answer: True

The US Capitol building measures up at a mere 288 feet, vs. the 548 feet of Philadelphia City Hall. (Both measurements include crowning statues.) City Hall is also the tallest occupied all-masonry building in the world.

Answer: Delaware

The Delaware was the river that Washington crossed during the Revolutionary War to ambush a band of English soldiers and Hessian mercenaries at Trenton, NJ on December 26, 1776.

Answer: Stetson

John B. Stetson began commercially manufacturing his famous hat in 1863 in Philadelphia with an initial investment of one-hundred dollars.

Answer: Hack

"Hack" debuted in the Fall season of 2002 and stars David Morse as Michael Olshansky, a disgraced Philly cop who was caught stealing $8,000 during a drug bust. Desperate for work, he rents a cab from a Chechnyan immigrant.

Answer: Lincoln Financial Field

Begun on May 7, 2001 and completed in the summer of 2003, the Lincoln Financial Field had a final pricetag of $512 million dollars. The stadium seats 68,532 fans, and replaced Veteran Stadium as the home of the Eagles. The first event held at the "Linc" was an international soccer match between Manchester United and FC Barcelona on August 3rd, 2003.

The Eagles 2003-04 season opener was played against the defending Superbowl champion Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Monday, September 8th, 2003.

Answer: The Benjamin Franklin Bridge

The Ben Franklin Bridge opened to traffic as the Delaware River Port Authority Bridge on January 6, 1926. The bridge wasn't given its present moniker until 1956. The main span is 1750 feet in length and connects Philadelphia, PA to Camden, NJ. The bridge was the longest suspension bridge in the world until the George Washington was completed in New York City in 1931.

The bridge weighs a total of 720,000 tons and required a 1920's bankroll of $45,200,000 to build. The other bridges in this multiple choice question are all Philadelphia landmarks, and all span the Delaware River.

The only other suspension bridge with a mooring in Philadelphia is the Walt Whitman, opened in 1957. The Betsy Ross is a steel through-truss bridge and opened in 1976. Lastly, the Tacony-Palmyra is a steel arch and bascule bridge that was first crossed by the public in 1929.

Answer: Bartram's Garden

Quaker John Bartram founded Bartram's Garden in 1728. According to his journals, the elegant beauty of a single daisy stopped him in his tracks while he was plowing a field and inspired him to begin studying botany. If you tour this beautiful and historic site, you will have the privilege of seeing up-close hundreds of different plant specimens ranging from ferns to trees, all meticulously catalogued.

Answer: William Penn

This small home no longer exists today. William Penn moved into another, much larger dwelling in 1699. An avowed Quaker, Penn was the founder of Philadelphia and a party to the treaty with the Lenape indians that set the original borders of the state of Pennsylvania.

Answer: 1876

Over 100 masonry buildings were constructed in Philadelphia's Fairmount Park to house the 1876 World's Fair exhibits. In addition to the many other themed buildings, each state in the union raised a building, as well as did several countries. The most popular exhibits were to be found in Machinery Hall, such as a telephone, a typewriter, a huge generator, and many other items from the age of invention. All of the buildings were demolished after the fair save one, the mammoth Memorial Hall, which contains a scale model of the fairground layout and can still be visited today.

Answer: True

The Fairmount Park System encompasses 8900 acres of public land in the city of Philadelphia. Included in this land are the two remaining squares, Washington Square and Rittenhouse Square, of the first five public squares zoned by William Penn at the founding of the city.

These five squares were the first public parks in North America, and were dedicated in 1681 as part of Penn's vision of a "Greene Country Towne". Today the two remaining squares comprise only a tiny fraction of the Fairmount Park System, but are among the most heavily used by thousands of city dwellers.

Answer: Campbell's Soup

Campbell's soup, founded in 1869, is based in Camden, NJ, Philadelphia's sister city across the Delaware. In 1897 an employee of the company, Dr. John Dorrance, invented condensed soup and quickly made Campbell's a household name nationwide. Philadelphia soft pretzels were first brought to the area by early German immigrants, now known as the Amish, or the Pennsylvania Dutch (a corruption of the German word for German, Deutsch).

The origins of the Philadelphia Cheesesteak are hazy, but true Philadelphians are very particular about what is and what isn't a cheesesteak.

Many variations exist, but the benchmark version is thinly sliced steak (not roast beef, not Steak-Um), Provolone or white American cheese, and fried onions, all on an italian roll, with the preferred condiment being catsup. Nobody knows who invented cream cheese, but Philadelphia Brand Cream Cheese was first manufactured here in 1880, and is now marketed world-wide.

Answer: 1,517,550

The breakdown is 46% male, 54% female, 45% European-American, 43% African-American, 4.5% Asian-American, and 8.5% Latino-American, with the remainder filling out all of the other trace ethnicities.

Answer: No

Although Pennsylvania soil saw combat, most notably at Gettysburg, Philadelphia was never captured by the rebels. However, the city didn't completely escape wartime strife, as Philadelphia was plagued with a series of draft riots during the war.

Answer: W. C. Fields

W. C. Fields was born Claude William Dukenfeld on January 29, 1880, in Philadelphia. He ran away from home at 11, and eventually made his way to Broadway, where he juggled for the Ziegfeld Follies for six years. He switched to acting in 1923, and was best known for the films "The Bank Dick" (1940), "My Little Chickadee" (1940), and "Never Give a Sucker an Even Break"(1941).

He died in Pasadena, CA on Christmas Day, 1946. In a 1925 "Vanity Fair" article, he was rumoured to have said that the epitaph on his tombstone should read, "I would rather be living in Philadelphia." Unfortunately, his actual tombstone reads simply, "W. C. Fields 1880-1946".

Answer: Larry Fine

Curly Howard was born on October 22, 1903 in Brooklyn, NY. His brother Moe Howard was born June 19th, 1897 in Bensonhurst, NY. Joe Besser was born in St. Louis, MO on August 12th, 1907. Larry Fine was an excellent violinist, and worked in ceramics as a hobby.

He also earned money as a lightweight prizefighter for a time. He was born at his family home at 300 South St., Phila., PA, October 5th, 1902. Today a cafe stands on the site and is decorated with a mural of Larry that was dedicated by the Philadelphia Mural Arts Project in October of 1999.

Answer: Move

"Move" was founded in Philadelphia in the early 1970's with the stated purpose of following the teachings of John Africa. The first siege was initiated in 1978 under police-commisioner-turned-mayor Frank Rizzo, and cost one police officer his life. Nine "Move" members were tried on a bevy of charges, and all were sentenced to prison terms ranging from thirty to one-hundred years.

The second siege took place in 1985 under Mayor Wilson Goode. After a ninety-minute gun-battle, a police helicopter dropped a firebomb aimed at a bunker on the roof of the "Move" house.

The ensuing fire burned down sixty-one houses and killed eleven people. The only adult "Move" survivor, Ramona Africa, was convicted of riot and conspiracy and served seven years in prison.

The city was forced by Federal court to pay $28.2 million in damages; $25 million to property owners, and $3.2 million to members of "Move".

Answer: The Battleship "New Jersey"

Although launched at the Philadelphia Naval Yard in 1942, the Battleship New Jersey is not docked in Philadelphia, but across the Delaware in Camden, NJ. She is the most decorated warship in U.S. Naval history, having served in WWII, Korea, and Vietnam.

She was mothballed in 1991, and now serves as a floating museum on the revitalized Camden waterfront. The Olympia was Commodore Dewey's flagship and sailed around the world as the flagship in Teddy Roosevelt's Great White Fleet. She also served in the Phillipines in the Spanish American War, and is currently docked as a historic museum at Philadelphia's Penn's Landing waterfront park.

The Moshulu was launched by the Germans in 1904, was confiscated by the U.S. in WWI, again by the Germans in WWII, was purchased by American Raymond Wallace from a private owner in 1970, and opened as a restaraunt in 1975.

After closing in 1989 due to fire damage, the Moshulu re-opened in 2003 at Penn's Landing. She is the largest four-masted sailing ship still afloat, and has even "co-starred" in "The Godfather 2" as the boat that brought Vito Corleone to America.

Her name can be read on the hull in some scenes. The United States is both the largest and fastest passenger ship ever built in the U.S., and still holds the "Blue Riband", the award for the fastest transatlantic crossing, which she set with the round-trip time of 6 days, 22 hours, and 52 minutes in 1952. She was recently purchased by Norweigan Cruise Lines to be overhauled and returned to service, but is still docked at an industrial pier in South Philadelphia as of this writing.