ABSTRACT
Philadelphia served as capital of the American colonies and the new nation for most of the time between September 1774, when the First Continental Congress met at Carpenters Hall, and September 1800, when President John Adams and his wife, Abigail, moved to the new capital in Washington. Washington came to Philadelphia from Virginia as a delegate to the First Continental Congress in 1774 and made many trips between the Potomac and the Schuylkill in the ensuing years. Thomas Willing, whose style and bearing reminded contemporaries of Washington, was the leading Philadelphia gentleman of his time. By the end of the 18th century, Philadelphia was the most sophisticated city in North America. Benjamin Franklin helped to found the American Philosophical Society, the first learned society in the colonies, which was eventually housed in a building facing Fifth Street in State House Yard.
