Miniature Statue of Billy Penn

The Miniature statue of Billy Penn sits atop the Comcast Center, once 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 (1641 - 718), 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, and King Charles II insisted it be named Pennsylvania in honour of Penn's father. Penn himself preferred 'New Wales' or simply 'Sylvania,' fearing the name would look like vanity.

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 could live in liberty and religious freedom. He wrote:

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

With such diversity welcomed to the young colony, the settlement earned a nickname of its own, the 'Holy Experiment.'

Every citizen in Pennsylvania would be equal under the law, a principle Penn set down in his Frame of Government, promising trial by jury, freedom of religion, and the right to elect representatives.

That framework would later help shape the US Constitution.

The curse

In recognition of his life and works, a 37-foot bronze statue of William Penn was erected atop Philadelphia's City Hall in 1894, then the tallest habitable building in America and 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 among city planners, one that held for almost 100 years.

In 1987, One Liberty Place became the city's first building to rise higher than Billy Penn's hat, breaking Bacon's words and bringing a so-called 'curse' of bad luck to the city.

The gentleman's agreement was restored in 2007, when the Comcast Center, soon to be the city's tallest building, had a four-inch Billy Penn statue placed on its roof (main picture), making it true again that no building stood higher than his hat.

The following year, the 'curse' was broken when the Philadelphia Phillies won the 2008 World Series.

The Comcast Center's reign as tallest didn't last. In 2017 the taller Comcast Technology Center rose beside it, and ironworkers placed a small Penn statue on its summit too, keeping faith with the tradition.

The following February, the Philadelphia Eagles won the Super Bowl for the first time in their history.

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