THE WAMPUM LOT:

A LEGENDARY INDIAN CAMP GROUND

IN OLD CITY PHILADELPHIA
By Harry Kyriakodis

Philadelphia was once reputed as the only city in the United States in which Native American camping
grounds were established to accommodate Indians whenever they visited the city. Two such reservations
were said to have been set aside in Philadelphia. The second of these was once located in the original
part of town (now called Old City), occupying a spot adjacent to the southeastern edge of where Welcome
Park came to be. (I present the story of this park in "Welcome Park: The Story of a Storied Philadelphia
Place," plus the tale of Philadelphia's first alleged Native American reserve in "Marble Court: A Forgotten
Indian Camp Ground in Center City Philadelphia?")
The second Indian campsite in Philadelphia was granted to a group of Native Americans in 1755 by John
Penn (1729-1795), grandson of William Penn. John's uncle, Thomas Penn (1702-1775), had sent his
nephew to the province of Pennsylvania in 1752 as a political apprentice to Governor James Hamilton.
The young Penn served on the Provincial Council, associated with important Penn family appointees, and
dealt with local Indian tribes before returning to England late in 1755.
The legend of this grant sometimes mistakenly identifies William Penn as the grantor of the property
being discussed. This may be because the founder of Philadelphia resided in a nearby house during his
second stay in America, 1699 to 1701. That house was the famous Slate Roof House, an early colonial
mansion located on the east side of Second Street between Chestnut and Walnut Streets. Despite his
prominent position, John Penn did not live in the Slate Roof House in 1755, as it was too expensive for
him to maintain! He reportedly lived in a small house near the corner of Second and Walnut Streets,
across from the City Tavern. Its address would eventually become 145 South Second Street.

A 1830S IMAGE OF
THE SLATE ROOF
HOUSE BY WILLIAM
L. BRETON, WHO
PAINTED SEVERAL
WATERCOLORS OF
THE DWELLING.

It was a strip of ground in the rear of this modest house that John Penn supposedly deeded to a
delegation of the Six Nations of Indians, also called the Iroquois, for their exclusive use and perpetual
ownership. He did this in appreciation of their friendliness and support for the British crown during the
French and Indian War. (The precise reasons are rather complicated and need not be described for this
narrative.)
 JOHN PENN (1899 ETCHING BY ALBERT ROSENTHAL),
A TYPICAL WAMPUM BELT, AND
KING (OR CHIEF) HENDRICK THEYANOGUIN (1740 ENGRAVING BY JOHN FABER)
To cement the grant and their friendship, John Penn ceremoniously gave the Native American
representatives a belt with a string of wampum attached. The lead Indian envoy who received the belt
was a Mohawk chief named King Hendrick Theyanoguin (1692-1755). Also called Chief Hendrick and
Hendrick Peters, he was an important leader in the Mohawk Valley of colonial New York. It is unknown if
Hendrick gave John Penn anything in return as a token exchange.
The event happened sometime between January 7th and January 23rd, 1755, while King Hendrick and a
group of twelve Algonquin sachems (chiefs) were visiting Philadelphia. Only a few months after meeting
with John Penn, Hendrick was killed while on a mission to stop the southern advance of the French army
at the Battle of Lake George. He died on September 8, 1755.
It is unclear who owned the 145 South Second property at the time that John Penn inhabited the house at
that address. So the question arises: Did Penn have the legal right to deed part of the backyard to any
person or group? Probably not. Perhaps he thought he was establishing an easement on the ground,
rather than a land grant to be held in fee simple. Such an easement would surely be unenforceable. Or
maybe Penn knew that he would soon be returning to England and simply did not worry about the legality
of the wampum transaction.
The plot of land that Penn set aside as an Indian reserve is variously reported as "twelve by sixteen" or
"fifteen by forty-seven" feet. The site never had a formal name, but it was referred to as the "wampum lot"
in late-19th century, as the quotes below indicate. This is from The American Architect and Building
News, vol. 36 (May 28, 1892) (reproducing a New York Evening Post story), page 140:
The Philadelphia Chamber Of Commerce Overcomes A WamPum-belt Title. —
In Philadelphia under the shadow of the Chamber of Commerce is a lot of land
fifteen by forty-seven feet that would seem to belong rightfully to one of the Six
Nations. It appears that in the period of the French and Indian War, when John
Penn, the grandson of William, was acting as Proprietary Governor, he lived in a
little house at the corner of Second and Walnut Streets, leasing the Governor's
slate-roof house, the state of which he was too poor to keep up, to John
Claypole, a wealthy merchant. On the occasion of a reception Governor Penn
granted to a delegation of the Six Nations, otherwise known as the Iroquois, he
made a wampum-belt deed of a small lot of land on the State-house lawn to the
Indians, so that they might erect a lodge on the spot in which to make treaties
with the whites and smoke the calumet with their great men.
 THE DECREPIT SLATE ROOF HOUSE, JUST BEFORE BEING DEMOLISHED IN 1867.
THE COMMERCIAL/KEYSTONE/BELL EXCHANGE BUILDING ON THE SAME SITE.
The Slate Roof House was torn down in 1867 and the Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce built the
Commercial Exchange Building on the site. It was rebuilt in 1870 after a fire and the Chamber occupied
the multi-story French Empire edifice for some thirty years. Chamber of Commerce officials knew about
the Indian reserve adjacent to their property, as they had initially tried to purchase the Wampum Lot so as
to expand their building tract south towards Walnut Street. In this, they were unsuccessful. The following
continues from The American Architect and Building News, page 140:
The late Charles Knecht, who negotiated for the purchase of the land on which
the Chamber of Commerce now stands, discovered that the title to a part of the
ground which he wanted was vested in the Oneidas, who in evidence of it
exhibited the famous wampum-belt deed. Nothing could induce them to
surrender it, and the lot on which the Chamber was built did not embrace the little
section claimed by the Oneidas. To-day tenements and the rear windows of the
Chamber look upon the wampum lot in which a huckster's cart or a stray cur may
often be seen. An alley leads up to the little court, and this alley, owned by the
Chamber, has been kept closed to the public for more than twenty years. Having
thus asserted a prescriptive right to the land, the Chamber now claims it.
Whether the title could be confirmed is a question which only the Indian claim
makes at all doubtful.

1875 PHILADELPHIA ATLAS (G. M. HOPKINS)

THE WAMPUM LOT OCCUPIED SOME OR ALL OF THE LOWER PART
OF THE OPEN SPACE UNDER THE "RCE" IN "COMMERCE."
Furthermore, the following is from The United Service (October 1895), edited by L.R. Hamersly, pages
377-378:
It appears that there was a little plot of land just back of the [C]hamber of
[C]ommerce, in that city, which had become very valuable in the course of time,
for which no valid title could be obtained. It was discovered, at last, that this little
piece of ground, only a few feet square, at the end of the south alley-way of the
[C]hamber of [C]ommerce belonged to the once great Six Nations of Indians, by
a proprietary right given a century and a half ago, by a wampum belt deed. This
title had never been dispossessed, and no other title, except a paper title, had
since been held by any subsequent claimant.
***
When Mr. Knecht made his search for the wampum belt he found it in possession
of the Oueidas, who had taken and retained after the Revolution all the wampum
belts of the Six Nations. Nothing could induce the Oueidas to give up the belt or
surrender the title to the property, which they regarded as precious relics of their
past greatness. Every means was tried to make the Indians change their minds.
Ely S. Parker was brought to Philadelphia, where he had a conference with Mr.
Knecht and others. Nothing came of the conference, and no title could be
obtained to the property, as the wampum belt established a proprietary right
given by the [C]ommonwealth [of Pennsylvania], which not only exempted the
property from taxation, but conferred the title forever, and as a proprietary right
could not, it is claimed, be forfeited. And so the [C]hamber of [C]ommerce never
built on the wampum lot, but in 1867 they took title in the rest and erected their
present building. Owning the driveway to the south of their building, skirting the
wampum lot, the chamber of commerce about twenty years ago closed to the
public the driveway by means of iron gates.
According to Iroquois tradition, the wampum belt received by King Hendrick was the only record and legal
document of John Penn's land grant. It was said that this belt joined the other venerated wampum belts
passed from one generation of the Six Nations to the next. In 1898, the Iroquois placed the collection of
about twenty belts in the custody of the State of New York after the last "wampum keeper" chief died.
The belts wound up at the State Library in Albany, but many were destroyed by a fire at the Capitol
building on March 29, 1911. The exact fate of the Penn-Hendrick belt is unknown.

1895 PHILADELPHIA ATLAS (G. W. BROMLEY)

The quotes above show that the Wampum Lot was a valuable piece of property with many peculiarities
attached to it, and that the Six Nation tribes long remembered what happened there in early 1755. They
knew about the property and its provenance, as well as their unfettered right to erect a tent, smoke the
calumet, and make treaties on that special plot of ground. Furthermore, Granville Penn (1761-1844), son
of Thomas Penn, apparently visited this plot of ground in the 1830s and was aware of its significance.
Yet there is no indication that the Wampum Lot was ever used as a camping place by any Indian group or
individual.
In 1901, the Commercial Exchange Building was sold to the Keystone Telephone Company and became
the Keystone Telephone Building. The open courtyard encompassing the Wampum Lot was on the south
side of the building and was surrounded by a protective railing in the early 20th century. (Bell Telephone
Company eventually came to own the Keystone Telephone Building before selling it in 1944. The
structure was torn down in 1977-1978 and Welcome Park was laid out on the site a few years later.)
Hancock Street, still existing in that vicinity, would have bounded the Wampum Lot on the east. (The
alleyway was previously called Petroleum Street and Zachary's Court.) The lone building remaining on
that street overlooked the Indian tract for decades. This structure, at 149 South Hancock Street, was built
between 1824 and 1834 by Michael Bouvier, a cabinetmaker and great-great grandfather of Jacqueline
Kennedy Onassis. Now surrounded by parking lots once occupied by similar 19th century commercial
structures, the Bouvier Building is currently being renovated into a residence.
Five Indian chiefs from New York visited Philadelphia in November of 1922 for a ceremony presided by
William Penn-Gaskell Hall (1873-1927), a direct descendant of William Penn, 2nd, the only surviving son
of William Penn by his first marriage. Hall "rededicated" the Wampum Lot courtyard as an Indian
campsite in the presence of Philadelphia and Pennsylvania officials. The following is from the Bulletin of
the Friends Historical Association, vol. 12, no. 1 (Spring 1923), pages 24-26:
A very short notice celebration occurred on 11 mo. 24, 1922, when the chiefs
representing four Indian tribes came to Philadelphia for conference and good will.
***
Following this all walked to Second and Walnut Streets, where the Indians, on
the ground granted to their forefathers by John Penn in 1755, went through the
ceremony of smoking the pipe of peace, and Rev. Red Fox, of the Blackfoot
tribe, petitioned the Great Spirit in earnest words of prayer. It seemed as though
we had gone back two hundred years, but in reality we were joining the past two
hundred years to the future, with a prayer and a pledge for peace and good will.
***
Albert Cook Myers gave some further account of the Indians who visited
Philadelphia recently, as mentioned in the President's report, above. As no
record of Albert Cook Myers's account is available, the following is presented,
which is from a newspaper account, with some revision:
The chiefs were Chief Shenandoah, of the Oneidas; Chief Mountpleasant, of the
Tuscaroras (both of the six nations); Chief Strong Wolf, of the Ojibways, and
Chief Red Fox, of the Blackfeet. With them came two squaws—Gladys
Ganloquidgeon, of the Mohicans, and Mrs. White Cloud, of the Mohawks.
***
Chief Shenandoah told of the wampum belt for the tract of land on Second
Street, alleging that it is still in the possession of the Oneida tribe, and how the
proof of the existence of the tract has been handed down from generation to
generation.
The party then went to the Indian Reservation in Second Street, where a wigwam
had been erected. The pipe of peace was smoked under the leadership of Red
Fox; and William Penn-Gaskell Hall, seventh in descent from William Penn,
responded to the speech of Mountpleasant.
The Indian Reservation is said to have been presented to Chief Hendrick, of the
Six Nations, when he visited Philadelphia in January, 1755, at which time he had
a conference with the Governor of the Province with respect to the Indians and
the Connecticut claims to Northern Pennsylvania.
 At that time, it is claimed, John Penn, son of Richard, and grandson of William
Penn the Founder, was living in a house near the tract in question and gave the
Indians part of his lawn in appreciation of their friendship.

1922 PHILADELPHIA ATLAS (G. W. BROMLEY)

Furthermore, this is from Six Historic Homesteads (2005), by Imogen B. Oakle, pages 157-158:
In 1922, a leader of the Boy Scouts conceived the idea of celebrating the rights
of the Indian Order of the Tepee on that square of Indian land that adjoins the
site of the Slate Roof House. He invited to the ceremony the chief of the Six
Nations, the mayor of the city, the governor of the Commonwealth, the Historical
Society, the Pennsylvania Society of Colonial Dames, and all of the known
descendants of the Penns.
Four chiefs and two notable Indian women accepted the invitation and with the
Boy Scouts and the other guest smoked the pipe of piece in a Tepee of state
erected on the square. Chief Red Fox of the tribe of Black Feet recited an
original poem, and an address was made by a Boy Scout who was of the
seventh generation from William Penn, and who stood upon the self-same spot
on which John Penn is believed to have stood when he deeded the land to the
Six Nations.
This quote has a few inconsistencies with the 1923 Bulletin of the Friends article. Perhaps William Penn-
Gaskell Hall was the Boy Scout leader—not the Boy Scout—noted above. Or perhaps his son, William
Penn-Gaskell Hall, Jr., was the Boy Scout who made the address. The 1923 account also mentions a
Penn Gaskell Skillern, Jr., as being present during the proceedings, and that he was the eighth
generation descending from William Penn.
The earlier quotes above note that an alleyway led from Second Street to the enclosed court and that the
Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce had closed it off to the public in the 1870s. This dead-end alley
came to be called Moravian Street and would later provide access to the dumpsters behind Old Original
Bookbinder's Restaurant on Walnut Street. It was used this way for decades and the Wampum Lot itself
was probably used for dumpster storage. I recall this narrow alley as being particularly grimy, and still
fenced off from Second Street.
The story of the Wampum Lot disappeared from local consciousness after the 1920s. The last
substantial reference that I found about it was an exhaustive report on both of Philadelphia's purported
Indian campsites published in 1940. Called "Tradition and Fact of the Indian Camp Grounds," the article
was authored by a real estate lawyer, Michael P. McGeehan, who was asked by the Welcome Society of
Pennsylvania to investigate the two properties. He conducted a thorough title search on both tracts in
1938 and his report appears in Records and Activities; Charter, By-Laws, Officers, Members, Minutes;
Indian Camp Grounds; Hall of Fame; Pennsbury (The Welcome Society of Pennsylvania, 1940).
Mr. McGeehan begins thus:
The tale is often told that some time in the long ago[,] William Penn or his descendants set aside
a part of the property at the south east corner of Second and Sansom Streets, now occupied by
The Keystone Telephone Company, as a reservation upon which Indians, visiting the City, could
pitch their camps, and that the right, so created, still exists.
Like other legends of its kind, the tale is vague as to details...

A DIAGRAM FROM "TRADITION AND FACT OF THE INDIAN CAMP GROUNDS" (1938).
The real estate attorney then goes on to conclusively prove that William Penn did not grant any property
in the vicinity of Second and Walnut Streets to any Native American group or person. But McGeehan
does not mention John Penn, King Hendrick, or the wampum belt in his research on the Wampum Lot
and the surrounding property. He does not even acknowledge the 1755 event, which is referenced in
several reliable accounts. This omission, whether purposeful or accidental, is especially curious since the
November 24, 1922, "rededication" ceremony received considerable attention in the local press and
occurred only 16 years before McGeehan conducted his investigation.
Whatever the case, Movarian Street itself disappeared in that locale around 2005. Bookbinder's
Restaurant had experienced some difficult times at the start of the 21st century and its owners thought
that building a residential condominium on the property behind the restaurant would be lucrative. Old
Original Bookbinder's reopened after three years of renovations, along with an attached residential
development. The Moravian, at 143 South Second Street, is a 7-story brick-faced condominium complex.
It is doing well enough, but Bookbinder's went bankrupt and closed for good in 2009.

The western part of the Moravian building thus occupies the former location of Movarian Street, and its
eastern portion—housing a driveway entrance and access to building systems—sits squarely atop the
Wampum Lot site. It is also possible that Welcome Park occupies part of the Wampum Lot tract.

APPROXIMATE SITE OF THE WAMPUM LOT INDIAN RESERVATION, LOOKING SOUTH

ON HANCOCK (NOT SANSOM) STREET, AT THE BACK OF THE MORAVIAN CONDOMINIUM
BUILDING (RIGHT). THE BOUVIER BUILDING IS ON THE LEFT.
Given that the site is unmarked and that all remnants of the alleged Native American camp ground there
have been obliterated, a historical marker of some sort should be affixed to the southern wall of Welcome
Park. Such a marker would highlight how interesting and unusual that one small spot in Philadelphia is,
regardless of whether the Wampum Lot story is true or not, and regardless of the legality of John Penn's
actions in 1755.

THIS VIEW OF THE APPROXIMATE SITE OF THE WAMPUM LOT IS LOOKING

SOUTH FROM WITHIN WELCOME PARK. THE MORAVIAN BUILDING SITS ATOP THE
WAMPUM LOT SITE, BUT PART OF THE CAMP GROUND TRACT MAY
HAVE BEEN WHERE THE WORDS "WILLIAM PENN" APPEAR.

I have written a separate article on the other so-called Indian reservation in Philadelphia: "Marble Court: A
Forgotten Indian Camp Ground in Center City Philadelphia?"

RESOURCES:
• The American Architect and Building News, vol. 36 (May 28, 1892), page 140.
• L.R. Hamersly, ed., The United Service (October 1895), pages 377-378.
• Amelia Mott Gummere, The Quaker in the Forum (1910), pages 130-13.
• Bulletin of the Friends Historical Association, vol. 12, no. 1 (Spring 1923), pages 24-26.
• Francis Burke Brandt & Henry Volkmar Gummere, Byways and Boulevards In and About Historic
Philadelphia (Philadelphia, PA: Corn Exchange National Bank, 1925), pages 38, 74-75.
• Imogen B. Oakley, Six Historic Homesteads (1935), pages 157-158.
• Federal Writers' Project & Pennsylvania Historical Commission, Philadelphia: A Guide to the Nation's
Birthplace (Philadelphia, PA: William Penn Assn. of Philadelphia, 1937), page 19.
• Henry Paul Busch, comp. & ed., Records and Activities; Charter, By-Laws, Officers, Members,
Minutes; Indian Camp Grounds; Hall of Fame; Pennsbury (Philadelphia, PA: The Welcome Society of
Pennsylvania, 1940), containing "Tradition and Fact of the Indian Camp Grounds," by Michael P.
McGeehan, pages 165-184.
• Maxwell Struthers Burt, Philadelphia, Holy Experiment (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, Doran & Co.,
Inc., 1945), page 49.
• www.ushistory.org/tour/welcome-park.htm