Miniature Statue of Billy Penn

The Miniature statue of Billy Penn sits atop the Comcast Center, currently Philadelphia’s tallest building, but why is it there?

Founding of Pennsylvania and Philadelphia

‘Billy Penn’ is the nickname residents of Philadelphia give to William Penn (1644 – 1718), the city's founder. His father was Admiral Sir William Penn, who had a distinguished naval career and later became a politician.

After the admiral's death, his son William accepted a grant of land in the American colonies in lieu of money owed by Charles II to his father.

The charter for the new land was granted in 1681. King Charles II insisted the colony be named Pennsylvania in honour of Penn's father — Penn himself had wanted to call it ‘New Wales’ or simply ‘Sylvania’, fearing the name would look like vanity on his part. He began building a new settlement at its heart and named it Philadelphia, meaning ‘brotherly love’ in Greek.

As an early Quaker, Penn wanted a space where settlers from across Europe could live in liberty and religious freedom, something that had been denied to many in England at the time. He wrote:

“It is a clear and just thing, and my God who has given it to me through many difficulties, will, I believe, bless and make it the seed of a nation.”

With such diversity of people and faiths welcomed to the young colony, Philadelphia became known as the ‘Holy Experiment’.

Every citizen in Pennsylvania would be equal under the law, a principle Penn set down in his Frame of Government. It promised trial by jury, freedom of religion, protection from unjust imprisonment, and the right to elect representatives, radical guarantees for their time.

That framework would later help shape the U.S. Constitution.

The curse

In recognition of his life and works, a 37-foot-high bronze statue of William Penn was erected on top of Philadelphia's City Hall in 1894. At this time City Hall was not only the tallest habitable building in America, but indeed the world. Because the building was so tall, urban designer Edmund Bacon was known to have said:

“No gentleman would build taller than the brim of Billy Penn's hat.”

These words became an informal agreement for city planners in the continued development of Philadelphia. However, just under 100 years later, Philadelphia's city planners allowed skyscrapers to be built.

In 1987, One Liberty Place became the city's first building higher than the brim of Billy Penn's hat. Thus, Bacon's words were broken, and this resulted in a so-called ‘curse’ that brought bad luck to the city.

The curse was lifted in 2007, when the Comcast Center, now the city's tallest building, had a four-inch statue of Billy Penn placed on the highest point of its roof (main picture). This made it true again that no building was higher than the brim of Penn's hat.

The following year, the ‘curse’ was broken when the Philadelphia Phillies went on to win the 2008 Baseball World Series. Ten years later, in 2018, the Philadelphia Eagles won the Super Bowl for the first time in their history.

Through it all, the little bronze figure has kept its watch above the city, a small reminder that the brim of Billy Penn's hat still marks the limit.