Skyscrapers in Philadelphia - Photo from 1935

(courtesy of Ms. Marica Solomon)

If you examine the photo you will discover a Renaissance palace somewhere on the left, of course much, much smaller than the skyscrapers. It has a huge tower (again, much smaller than the rest of the buildings).

That Renaissance palace is the City Hall: just in the middle of downtown Philadelphia. A statue is on the top of the tower: William Penn, the founder of the Province of Pennsylvania. It was settled that no building in Philadelphia should be taller than the tower with the statue of Penn.

As the city grew up, this became impossible. So the authorities decided to resort to a gentleman agreement: all skyscrapers to be built on the back of the statue, so Penn would not be able to see them.

That explains why Philly has all its skyscrapers situated in one half of the city.

And this is not the unique oddity in Philly: imagine, the prison is across the bank (it's right, in the other half of the city, so Penn can observe what's going on there).

(Philadelphia)