Philadelphia urban legends: what's true, and where

City Hall, Philadelphia, PA

The dates are real. One Liberty Place opened in March 1987 and rose above the statue of William Penn on City Hall, breaking a long-standing gentlemen's agreement. No major Philadelphia team won a championship again until the Phillies' World Series in October 2008, sixteen months after ironworkers fixed a small Penn figurine to the Comcast Center's top beam in June 2007. That the statue caused any of it is folklore.

Fox Chase, Philadelphia, PA

A real case, and no longer an unnamed one. The boy found in a cardboard box in Fox Chase on February 25, 1957 was publicly identified on December 8, 2022 as four-year-old Joseph Augustus Zarelli. He had been beaten; the autopsy findings amount to blunt-force trauma, not the poisoning some retellings describe. When he was identified, police said they had suspicions but named no suspect.

Eastern State Penitentiary, Philadelphia, PA

The history is true: Eastern State opened in 1829 as America's first penitentiary, and Al Capone served time there in 1929 and 1930. The ghosts are a legend. Even the site itself says that the cell shown as Capone's rests on oral tradition.

Fort Mifflin, Philadelphia, PA

Private William H. Howe, a Union soldier convicted of desertion and murder, was hanged at Fort Mifflin on August 26, 1864, the only prisoner known to have been executed there during the Civil War, and the name he carved in his cell wall can still be seen. That his ghost walks the fort is legend.

Christ Church Burial Ground, Philadelphia, PA

Franklin is buried with his wife Deborah and two of their children in Christ Church Burial Ground, and visitors really do toss pennies on his grave, enough that the pitted marble needed a restoration, finished in 2017. The sightings of his ghost in Old City are legend.

Laurel Hill Cemetery, 3822 Ridge Avenue, Philadelphia, PA

Laurel Hill, founded in 1836, was the country's second major rural cemetery, and it has been a National Historic Landmark since 1998. The weeping woman belongs to the ghost tours, not the record.

Walnut Street Theatre, 825 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, PA

The Walnut opened in 1809 and is the oldest theatre in America. The figure in the upper balcony is a backstage legend.

Wissahickon Valley Park, Philadelphia, PA

Johannes Kelpius was real: in 1694 he led a small community of mystics to the Wissahickon to await the end of the world, and he died in 1708. Whether the stone "Cave of Kelpius" was ever his is doubtful. Historians have never confirmed it, and it is thought to be a springhouse or root cellar.

Liberty Bell Center, Philadelphia, PA

A genuine mystery. The National Park Service says no one recorded when or why the bell first cracked; the most likely time is the early 1840s. A repair before Washington's Birthday in 1846 failed, and a second crack silenced the bell for good.

Mütter Museum, Philadelphia, PA

The Mütter Museum acquired 46 small portions of Albert Einstein's brain, and thin slices mounted on microscope slides went on display in its galleries in 2013.

Old City, Philadelphia, PA

In 1793, yellow fever killed 5,000 or more people in a city of about 50,000. Washington and much of the government left. The Free African Society, led by Richard Allen and Absalom Jones, nursed the sick and carried the dead when most residents would not.

Northern Liberties, Philadelphia, PA

Cohocksink Creek, which once ran between Northern Liberties and Kensington, was enclosed in a 16-foot-wide arched brick sewer in the 19th century. In heavy storms that system can still overflow into streets and basements, which is why the Water Department is doubling its capacity.