Walnut Street Dock

Before the founding of Philadelphia, the Schuylkill (then known as Manayunk, or “where we go to drink”) was an important part of the landscape for the Lenape tribe. William Penn originally intended for his “greene country towne” to spread evenly between the Delaware and Schuylkill Rivers, situating the city at the narrowest point between the two rivers. However, residents had other ideas, developing bustling neighborhoods along the Delaware River and leaving the Schuylkill River largely as a country retreat with bucolic estates, institutional uses, and larger farm tracts through the late 1700’s.