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Franklin Square is one of the five original open-space parks planned by William Penn when he laid out the city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1682. It is located in the Center City area, between North 6th and 7th Streets, and between Race Street and the Vine Street Expressway (I-676). The park went through a period of deterioration, but was refurbished and revitalized in 2006. It is now managed by Historic Philadelphia, a non-profit organization.〔("Visitor Information" ) on the Historic Philadelphia website〕 Franklin Square was added to the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) in 1981. == History == Originally called North East Publick Square, Franklin Square was renamed in 1825 to honor Benjamin Franklin, one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. In its early years, the square was an open common used for grazing animals, storing gunpowder during the American Revolution and drilling soldiers during the War of 1812. From 1741 to 1835, a portion of the Square was used as a cemetery by the German Reform Church; some of the graves still remain, marked by a plaque. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, Franklin Square was at the center of a fashionable residential neighborhood; but beginning in the 1920s, a series of events corresponding with the rise of the automobile began the decline of the Square and its surrounding neighborhood. The construction of the Ben Franklin Bridge, from 1922–26, leveled blocks of row homes, shops and other structures; the Bridge begins at the Square’s eastern boundary, 6th Street. The steady flow of cars over the bridge made Franklin Square’s northern boundary, Vine Street, into one of the city’s busiest thoroughfares, effectively cutting off pedestrian access on two of the Square's sides. In 1961, writer Jane Jacobs labeled Franklin Square "the city's Skid Row park," a description that fit for decades. The neighborhood’s residential character was further eroded when the Federal government established Independence Mall. The government acquired private land around the Square in the 1950s and 1960s and demolished blocks of homes and other buildings. The construction of the Vine Street Expressway in the late 1980s exacerbated the problem. Franklin Square became the least-used of Penn’s original five squares, and served mainly as an encampment for the homeless. From 2003 to 2006, the park was refurbished by Historic Philadelphia, Inc. — a non-profit company responsible for the Betsy Ross House and several other historical sites — in a $5.5 million project funded primarily by a grant from the state of Pennsylvania. It was reopened and rededicated on July 31, 2006, in Franklin’s tercentenary year. The revitalized park contains a number of family-friendly attractions.〔Lapp, Alison. ("Forgotten Philly square gets a facelift — and carousel" ) ''USA Today'' (August 7, 2006)〕 Recent development around Franklin Square has included new housing in the Northern Liberties neighborhood to its north and the redevelopment of the shuttered Metropolitan Hospital as a condominium project. As a result, pedestrian traffic has increased dramatically. In 2009, the Delaware River Port Authority (DRPA) announced that it was commissioning a design plan for renovating, modernizing and reopening the PATCO Speedline's underground Franklin Square Station, closed since 1979. As a result of ongoing capital projects scheduled to continue through 2016, PATCO stated in 2014: "We do not presently have the capacity or capital resources to evaluate the feasibility of reopening the Franklin Square Station."〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Ben Franklin Bridge Track Rehabilitation Project: Frequently Asked Questions )〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Franklin Square (Philadelphia)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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