{"id":960146,"date":"2026-07-26T10:10:23","date_gmt":"2026-07-26T10:10:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/960146\/"},"modified":"2026-07-26T10:10:23","modified_gmt":"2026-07-26T10:10:23","slug":"franklin-square-marks-20-years-since-restoration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/960146\/","title":{"rendered":"Franklin Square marks 20 years since restoration"},"content":{"rendered":"

Franklin Square fell into decades of decline in the second half of the 20th century. It languished for decades before its restoration. Feiler Bender recalled a severely neglected park that had become \u201creally derelict\u201d by the time plans for its restoration began in 2005.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were broken benches. The fountain hadn\u2019t worked since the \u201970s. There was a sort of decrepit old playground that the area day care centers would come use, but they had to clear off the feces and the needles every morning before they could come use it,\u201d Feiler Bender said.\n<\/p>\n

Amy Needle, president and CEO of Historic Philadelphia, said she joined the nonprofit in 2005 after former Gov. Ed Rendell recruited her with the promise that she could lead Franklin Square\u2019s restoration.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cWe worked really closely with the city and Fairmont Park and Parks and Rec to develop the plans to transform the square,\u201d Needle said. \u201cI feel very grateful and lucky that I was able to be a part of it.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\"PeopleAmy Needle and Ben Franklin pose with the 20th birthday cake for Franklin Square Park. (Hannah Pajtis for WHYY)
\nA community space for everyone<\/p>\n

Various attractions have been added to the square over the years to make it a community gathering place. In addition to the carousel and mini golf, the park has a burger stand and party pavilion that can be rented for special events. The Franklin Square Fountain, renamed The Rendell Family Fountain<\/a> in 2023, is the oldest refurbished and functioning fountain in the country and now features a light show coordinated to music.\n<\/p>\n

The park also hosts community events for city residents of all ages, from Easter egg hunts to yoga classes. Now through Aug. 16, the annual Philadelphia Chinese Lantern Festival has taken over the space with towering illuminated sculptures inspired by wildlife, the FIFA World Cup and Chinese folk tales.\n<\/p>\n

But the space isn\u2019t just a place for locals. Chris Howe-Smith, who grew up in Philly, came from Lancaster, Pennsylvania, with his family to show his daughter the space.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cWe actually didn\u2019t know there was an event on. We came here just for the lanterns, but we\u2019re here and it\u2019s lots of fun,\u201d Howe-Smith said.\n<\/p>\n

Catherine Clinton from New Jersey was at the park looking for a short activity between breakfast and lunch with her family and also didn\u2019t know about the celebration.\n<\/p>\n

She called the park beautiful and said \u201cit feels like people are coming together.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

Community, Feiler Bender said, is what Franklin Square is all about. Parks in general, she added, are important in all cities, but especially in Philadelphia, where most residents live within a 10-minute walk of one.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we want to do in Franklin Square is help the city manage that public space and provide extra reasons to come and engage and get people out to enjoy the green, shady, open air, beautiful public land, while also giving you some fun things to do and reasons to come out and blend with the community,\u201d Feiler Bender said.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Franklin Square fell into decades of decline in the second half of the 20th century. It languished for…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":960147,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5132],"tags":[5229,46667,1448,2830,1311,107046,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":["post-960146","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-america","tag-franklin-square","tag-pa","tag-pennsylvania","tag-philadelphia","tag-public-parks","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116985741186078793","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/960146","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=960146"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/960146\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/960147"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=960146"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=960146"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=960146"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}