Historic Germantown, a partnership of 20 historic sites in Northwest Philadelphia, has launched a series of 26 guided walking tours to mark America’s 250th anniversary this year. The 26 Tours in 2026 program is designed to highlight the area’s history, architecture, and untold stories.
Two of the 26 tours will be held during March. “The Souvenir of Germantown” tour is scheduled for Saturday, March 7, from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. and will be led by members of the Black Writers Museum. The tour will explore the early 20th‑century Black business and civic community around Germantown’s 22nd Ward. According to a Chestnut Hill Local report, the tour borrows inspiration from a 1913 document called the Souvenir of Germantown. Printed on the 50th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation, this booklet has dozens of photographs of Black-owned homes, businesses, churches, and social institutions.
The third tour, “Black Family Lives in Children’s Books,” will take place on Saturday, March 28, from 10 a.m. to noon and will be led by Barbara Dowdall and Susan Bockius. This tour traces representations of Black family life in 1940s Germantown and the shift toward Black authors telling their own stories. According to the Chestnut Hill Local, the tour is based on a popular exhibit from the Germantown Historical Society in 2023 called “Inspiring ‘Bright April’: Race and Class in 1940s Germantown.” The exhibition profiled Marguerite de Angeli’s children’s book Bright April, which is set during that era.
The 23 remaining tours will focus on diverse topics throughout the spring, summer, and fall, including architectural and social history, garden landscapes, and political accounts.