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Religious Freedom in Early Philadelphia


  • Dialogue Institute Temple University (062-56) / 1700 N. Broad Street, Suite 315 Philadelphia, PA 19121 (map)

Walking Tour: 3 hours, prices starting at $289 for up to two people, $25 per person for each additional person up to maximum of 20.

Virtual Tour: 90 minutes, starting at $180 for up to 5 people, $25 per person for each additional person up to 20. 

Description: This tour covers sites in Old City Philadelphia and will include visits to several houses of worship (Protestant, Catholic, Jewish) and entrance inside two of them. The tour also includes sites where religion was practiced and proclaimed in public spaces such as Washington Square and Carpenter’s Hall by a wide array of the city’s residents including enslaved and free people of African descent, white colonial elites, and itinerant preachers. We will uncover the interfaith roots of Philadelphia’s most cherished institutions such as America’s first university and first public hospital. The tour will explore the influence of William Penn’s religiously diverse colony on constitutional debates about religious freedom that continue to this day.

Guides: David Krueger, John Bright