Logan Circle

Logan Circle, also known as Logan Square, is an open-space park in Center City Philadelphia's northwest quadrant and one of the five original planned squares laid out on the city grid. The circle itself exists within the original bounds of the square; the names Logan Square and Logan Circle are used interchangeably when referring to the park. Originally "Northwest Square" in William Penn's 1684 plan for the city, the square was renamed in 1825 after Philadelphia statesman James Logan. The park is the focal point of the eponymous neighborhood. Logan Square was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1981.HistoryPrior to the 1800's the city developed along the Delaware River, leaving the area around Logan Square as untouched forest through the American Revolution. Over the next quarter century the square served as a pasture, execution grounds, and graveyard, and hosted a gallows until the hanging of William Gross in 1823. With aims of redirecting public attention away from its previous morbid use, Philadelphia leased the square to the Orphans' Society from 1821 to 1830.In 1842 an ordinance “made it an offense to drive or take into Logan, Penn, or Rittenhouse squares any ‘horse, cow, cart, wagon, carriage or wheelbarrow, except by permission, or place any wood, coal, rubbish, carrion, or offensive matter within either of the squares, or to climb on the trees, fences or gates... or to dig up the soil or injure the grass, or to run or walk over or lie on the same.’”By the 1840s Philadelphia had begun a restoration of the square from its former days as a graveyard, lining the walks with trees, planting greenery and shrubbery, and constructing a wooden fence allowing the square to resemble Penn's vision of an urban green space. During this period, the city limited access to Logan Square to homeowners with property connected to the square who paid for its upkeep; the city constructed a wrought iron fence around the square in 1852.