Christ Church Burial Ground at 5th and Arch is worth the $3 admission fee to contemplate the big questions of life, death, and the best angle to get a good shot of tombstones.
The graveyard dates to 1719, so many of the inscriptions are lost.
Even some famous people are in now unidentifiable graves. One is Charles Mason of Mason-Dixon Line fame. To make up for this, the stone from the Pennsylvania-Maryland boundary has been relocated to the grounds.
The dates of stones are a reminder of how precarious life was in that time. Here is a son who died at 24 next to his mother who died at 81.
Most tragic is the reminder of how frequently babies and children died, often in the same family.
And then you might stumble on something you wouldn’t have expected, like the tomb of Katherine and Margaret who were “united through life.”
The star of the grounds, and the draw for tourists, is the grave of Benjamin Franklin, the one founding father you just know would have had a reality show.
Franklin’s grave is also viewable through the only break in brick wall.
Here are a few other shots of grounds.
That Philly Life: Urban Exploring in Philadelphia 