Philadelphia: Christ Church Burial Ground

While Jim and I were walking around Philadelphia, we kept seeing signs for Benjamin Franklin's gravesite. It hadn't initially been on my list, but I'm never one to pass up the opportunity to see a historic cemetery, so we made sure to stop at the Christ Church Burial Ground to pay our respects.

CCBG has the distinction of being the only cemetery that I've ever had to pay admission to enter, although that wasn't going to deter me from visiting. You can actually see Franklin's grave from the sidewalk if you're totally against paying the $2 fee, but the grounds are beautiful and contain some wonderfully old tombstones (the oldest known marker is from 1721).

The first thing you notice about Franklin's grave is how plain and simple it is, and a sign hanging close by states that it was prepared in exact accordance with the instructions contained within his will. I happen to prefer the epitaph that he wrote as a young man, with its literary references and the line "food for worms," which I think is pretty much perfect in every way.

The fall leaves provided an excellent backdrop to the crumbling stones, and I've never met an arching, iron entrance gate that I haven't immediately fallen in love with. In addition to Franklin, the burial ground is the final resting place of four signers of the Declaration of Independence, the publisher of the first daily newspaper, Civil War generals, Pennsylvania governors, artists and several descendants of Franklin as well as his wife.