129 South 2nd Street
Philadelphia, PA, USA

Thomas Bond House

The Thomas Bond House is located at 129 South Second Street in Old City, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Originally built in 1769, as the home of Dr. Thomas Bond, it has since been restored into a bed and breakfast. The house was listed on the Philadelphia Register of Historic Places in 1968 and is within the Old City Historic District, a district on the National Register of Historic Places. It is adjacent to the Independence National Historical Park about 3 blocks east of Independence Hall. The main entrance faces south towards Welcome Park, the former location of William Penn's Slate Roof House.

History
The history of the Bond house reflects the economic history of this part of Philadelphia. The central core of the Bond house was built in 1769 by Dr. Thomas Bond Sr., a prominent physician and founder of Pennsylvania Hospital, which was chartered in 1751. In 1824, a four-foot extension with a new facade was added to the west side, and in the 1830s to 1840s, the building was extended eastward at the rear.

National Register of Historic Places - Thomas Bond House

Statement of Significance:

The Founding and Growth of the United States.
The following historic structures, sites, objects, and historic reconstructions possess significance for their contributing association with the funding and growth of the United States from 1774 to 1824 and with the lives of persons significant in that period.

From September 5 to October 26, 1774, the First Continental Congress met in Carpenters Hall, #10, (National Historic Landmark, March 15, 1970) to consider the mounting crisis between Great Britain and her colonies in America. The delegates first gathered at the newly finished (1773) City Tavern, the best known and most genteel tavern in Philadelphia, before walking to Carpenters' Hall for their initial inspection of its facilities. City Tavern was the scene of many notable gatherings of national leaders during the country's founding and growth delegates to the First and Second Continental Congress during the Revolution; members of the Pennsylvania Chapter of the Society of Cincinnatus (Revolutionary officers) after the Revolution; and delegates to the Constitutional Convention of 1787, all met, dined, and discussed business in the tavern's rooms. The National Park Service's thoroughly researched reconstruction of City Tavern on its original site restores this important eighteenth century landmark for a fuller appreciation of the historic setting in which the nation took form. The restoration and refurnishing of the first two floors of the tavern, where the significant gatherings took place, and the current use of these floors as a restaurant with eighteenth century tavern dress and culinary fare helps to recreate the atmosphere in which many critical issues were discussed during the historic period from 1774 to 1800.