Benjamin Franklin’s Market Street Houses: Lost, Found and Restored

Along Market Street in Philadelphia’s Old City, between Third and Fourth Streets, stands a row of five historic buildings in front of the entrance to Franklin Court. They date from the 1700s, and three of them — numbers 316, 318 and 322 — are special: they are the last surviving properties Benjamin Franklin owned in Philadelphia.

The Market Street Houses in the 1980s. NPS photo.

Franklin the landlord

After returning from France in 1785, at the end of the American Revolution, Franklin set out to improve his property at Franklin Court. He built a large addition to his house and transformed the street entrance to his courtyard by building 316, 318 and 322 Market Street. The houses were rentals that added to his income — and gave his courtyard a dignified front door, since 316 and 318 flanked an arched carriageway leading back to Franklin’s house.

Nearly lost

In the decades after Franklin’s death, as his property was developed and redeveloped, the houses were sold and heavily altered. By the time Independence National Historical Park was created in 1948, they were virtually unrecognizable.

The Market Street Houses in 1950. NPS photo.

A surprise inside the walls

From the 1950s to the 1970s, the National Park Service worked to restore Franklin Court. While archeologists uncovered the remains of Franklin’s house in the courtyard, other specialists studied the Market Street buildings. At first they believed nothing of the 1700s houses survived — that 19th-century storefronts had replaced them.

In 1959, historical architects Charles Grossman and Penelope Batcheler found otherwise: a significant amount of the 1780s construction remained, especially in the arched carriageway and the houses’ interior walls. That discovery saved the buildings.

Fifteen years of restoration

Restoration under way, 1964. NPS photo.

Over the next fifteen years:

• 1800s additions were removed, returning the buildings to their original heights.
• The original 1780s carriageway and interior walls were stabilized and preserved.
• The facades were rebuilt using descriptions in historical insurance surveys.

Market Street Houses, 1974 NPS photo.

With no record of how the interiors were furnished, the Park Service filled them with museums on the life and legacy of Franklin and his family. The Market Street Houses and the rest of Franklin Court were finished just in time for the nation’s Bicentennial in 1976.

Today visitors from around the world see the remains of Franklin’s house in the courtyard, explore the museums, and walk through the same carriageway Franklin used in the 1780s.

Sources

Based on "The Market Street Houses," National Park Service (Independence National Historical Park); a work of the United States government in the public domain. Pictures an earlier version of this page left out were restored on 2026-09-26.