New Philadelphia Town Site
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| New Philadelphia Town Site | |
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| U.S. National Register of Historic Places | |
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| Location: | Pike County, Illinois, USA |
| Nearest city: | Barry |
| Coordinates: | Coordinates: |
| Added to NRHP: | August 11, 2005[1] |
| NRHP Reference#: | 05000869 |
The New Philadelphia Town Site is the original site of the now-vanished town of New Philadelphia, Illinois. It is located near the city of Barry, in Pike County. It was the first town in the United States founded by an African-American called Free Frank McWorter, a former slave who purchased his freedom.
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[edit] History
Free Frank McWorter moved to Illinois in 1830 with his family and founded a town where he thought it would benefit from the commerce envisioned along the planned Illinois and Michigan Canal. The original town plan consited of 144 lots in a 12 x 12 square, including 22 criscrossing named streets. McWorter officially registered his town with government authorities and sold the lots. The town was integrated, albeit with typical 19th Century segregated facilities, including cemeteries. McWorter became mayor of New Philadelphia, and lived there for the remainder of his life except for a brief visit to South Carolina to purchase freedom for much of the remainder of his family.[2]
McWorter died in 1854. Before the Civil War, New Philadelphia became one of the stops alongside the Underground Railroad for shepherding escaped slaves to Canada. With emancipation, more townspeople arrived in New Philadelphia, peaking at close to 200 shortly after 1865. Later researchers have counted 120 separate surnames.[2]
In 1869, the Hannibal and Naples Railroad bypassed the town on the north, encouraging transit and commerce to move to nearby Barry. New Philadelphia rapidly declined in population thereafter. A small number of continuing residents turned to farming the former townsite. This was not an unusual fate for U.S. small towns in the late 1800s.[2]
In 1885 the town was legally dissolved. The site reverted to farmland, which archaeological studies indicate was inhabited through the 1910s. By the late 20th century, all vestiges of New Philadelphia had vanished vanished save fragments of glass and pottery, and traces of the town's gravel streets.[2]
[edit] Modern research and developments
In 1988 Larry and Natalie Armistead bought some of the land of the former town. In 1996 locals founded the New Philadelphia Association and approached archaeologists. In 2003 a three-year excavation begun with a $226,500 grant from the National Science Foundation. By 2006, they had surveyed 14 of the 144 lots.
The town site lies about three miles (5 km) east of Barry, Illinois, very close to Interstate 72. Its exact address is restricted by its listing agency, the National Register of Historic Places, to discourage trespassing and scavenging.
[edit] External links
- Free Frank New Philadelphia Historic Preservation Foundation
- Rockford Register Star - Former slave founded town that vanished
- Updates on New Philadelphia Archaeology Project
- New Philadelphia: A Multiracial Town on the Illinois Frontier, a National Park Service Teaching with Historic Places (TwHP) lesson plan
