Title
Also naming Market Street, between Front Street and Eighth Street, as "Avenue of Our Founders".
Body
WHEREAS, No other City in America rivals Philadelphia for the rich history that has occurred along our streets. It is time to honor Market Street's central role in American history by designating it "Avenue of the Founders"; and
WHEREAS, Philadelphia, America's first World Heritage City, can claim the only street which was home to four famous Founding Fathers: Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams and George Washington. Market Street was the 18th Century furrow where the founders planted the seeds that grew into America; and
WHEREAS, A young Benjamin Franklin built his successful printing business at several Market St. addresses from Front Street to Fourth Street, and made a name for himself as both an entrepreneur and as colonial America's man of letters. His highly successful almanac and newspaper became tools of the Enlightenment, which promoted the emerging theory that regular people could improve themselves and rely on each other, instead of subservience to official edicts and the divine right to rule; and
WHEREAS, It was also on Market Street that Franklin reorganized the colonial postal service, deliberately establishing a communications network which drew the thirteen colonies together, eventually propelling them to cut their ties with Britain; and
WHEREAS, Four blocks further west on that same street, Thomas Jefferson crafted the world's most famous enlightenment document. His Declaration of Independence declared that this new Nation was based on the consent of the governed. It would inspire colonial enthusiasm for the American Revolution, as well as subsequent independence movements elsewhere; and
WHEREAS, Presiding at Market and Sixth Streets, first President George Washington carefully transformed the American Constitution from an aspirational document into a working government. Aware that every dec...
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