Historic Center City Philadelphia
Philadelphia's City Hall 1889
Statue of William Penn, Alexander Milne Calder, prior to full assembly. At thirty-seven feet and 27 tons, the massive bronze statue of William Penn placed atop the building’s bell tower has presented a distinctive welcome to Philadelphia. In the completed work, Penn carries the Charter of Pennsylvania from King Charles II. The Charter rests on a tree stump, symbolizing the first tree cut from his "Green Country Town."
Center City includes the central business district and central neighborhoods of Philadelphia, in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. It is the former City of Philadelphia prior to the Act of Consolidation, 1854 which extended the city borders to be coterminous with Philadelphia County. Center City has grown into the second-most populated downtown area in the United States, after Midtown Manhattan in New York City, with an estimated 183,240 residents in 2015