{"id":190034,"date":"2026-05-12T10:51:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-12T10:51:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/190034\/"},"modified":"2026-05-12T10:51:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-12T10:51:10","slug":"philly-is-home-to-the-smallest-unit-in-the-national-park-system","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/190034\/","title":{"rendered":"Philly is home to the smallest unit in the National Park System"},"content":{"rendered":"

Love Philly? So do we. Let\u2019s be friends. Sign up for the Billy Penn newsletter today<\/a>.<\/p>\n

After enjoying their first Philly cheesesteak at the Reading Terminal Market on a Saturday, Jim and Beata Hope of Washington, D.C. went to their destination on this trip to the city, a nondescript house at 301 Pine Street.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In 1797-98, it was the home of Thaddeus Kosciuszko, a Polish soldier and engineer who assisted George Washington and other generals during the American Revolution. The Kosciuszko House was designated a National Memorial in 1972. It is the smallest site in the National Park System, between 800 and 900 square feet in size. It\u2019s a tiny fraction of the size of the largest National Park, Alaska\u2019s Wrangell-St. Elias National Park & Preserve which clocks in at 13.2-million-acres.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was amazing, for the smallest national park site in their portfolio, it was pretty impressive,\u201d said Jim Hope.\u00a0 \u201cIt was amazing for the smallest National Park site in their portfolio.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Beata, a native of Poland, she was impressed how a volunteer at the house talked to her in Polish about Kosciuszko.<\/p>\n

Kosciuszko specialized in defensive fortifications, and the barriers he developed helped the colonies win the battle of Saratoga and kept West Point free from British soldiers. Upon his return to Europe, he also fought for Polish independence from Russia and was imprisoned by Tsar Paul I, son of Catherine the Great, who later set him free.\u00a0<\/p>\n

While living on Pine Street he was visited by notable figures, including Thomas Jefferson.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Kosciuszko came to help the colonies because he was \u201cvery much invested in the ideals of the enlightenment and human self-determination \u2013 [such as an] early anti-slavery stance,\u201d said Peter Obst, president of the Polish Heritage Society of Philadelphia.\u00a0<\/p>\n

There were also practical reasons for his arrival in the colonies. \u201cThough well trained in military engineering, he could not get an appointment in Poland,\u201d Obst said.<\/p>\n

\"\"The Polish Heritage Society of Philadelphia gifted a statue of Kosciuszko to the city in the late 70s. It now stands at 18th St. and Benjamin Franklin Parkway. (Google Maps)<\/p>\n

In August 1776, Ko\u015bciuszko arrived in Philadelphia and made the acquaintance of Benjamin Franklin. He proved his worth by designing blockades and fortresses along the Delaware River, and was given the rank of colonel by Congress in October 1776.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In December 1776, the same month Washington made his sneak attack across the Delaware River on Christmas, Ko\u015bciuszko was designing Fort Mercer in Red Bank, New Jersey.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Throughout the war, Ko\u015bciuszko contributed to American victories throughout the northern colonies, leading troops and using creative solutions to stymie the British army.<\/p>\n

On November 14, 1782, Ko\u015bciuszko led a successful skirmish at Dills Bluff, near James Island, South Carolina, targeting British woodcutters, an action that is considered one of the final armed conflicts<\/a> of the American Revolution.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Visiting Kosciuszko House<\/p>\n

Kosciuszko House is only open on weekends from noon to 4 pm. Still, in 2024, more than 2,400 people visited the house. Park rangers say many tourists from Poland come to the site, so many that pamphlets about the site are printed in English and Polish.\u00a0<\/p>\n

About a year ago, a delegation from the Polish embassy in Washington came to the house.<\/p>\n

Carie Carlson is teaching himself Polish.\u201d20 minutes a day on Babbel,\u201d he says. He and his wife Izabela came from Las Vegas for their first visit to Philadelphia and their first visit to the house.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Izabela Carlson said she did a Google search and came across the site. \u201cLooking at the map, oh that Kosciuszko, that\u2019s my homey,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cShe knows there\u2019s a large Polish community here, looking at Polish things, Polish restaurants, Polish markets,\u201d Carrie Carlson said. \u201cWe\u2019re going to hit some restaurants today actually, so I just wanted to see the house and history.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"(Jon Caroulis\/for Billy Penn)<\/p>\n

Inside the house, large maps and placards detail Kosciuszko\u2019s life and efforts. One of them is a quote from Thomas Jefferson that reads, \u201cHe is as pure a son of liberty as I have ever known, and of that liberty which is to go to all, and not to the few or rich alone.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jefferson assisted Kosciuszko in writing in his will, which included: \u201cI authorize Thomas Jefferson in purchasing negroes \u2026and giving them liberty in my name\u2026teaching them to be defenders of the liberty and country.\u201d<\/p>\n

The house also displays\u00a0 artifacts and letters, including Polish currency with Kosciuszko\u2019s image on them.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Saved from demolition<\/p>\n

The house had been slated for demolition, Obst said. It was saved from the wrecking ball by the efforts of Edward Pinkowski, a Polish historian who discovered and preserved the house. He also placed an official Pennsylvania Historical\u00a0 and Museum Commission marker in front of the building. The property was purchased by Edward Piszk, the co-founder of Mrs. Paul\u2019s Fishticks and other frozen foods, who then donated the property to the National Park Service.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy first time at the Kosciuszko Memorial was in 1977,\u201d Obst said. \u201cOver the years, I was at the house many times. In the past, celebrations of Kosciuszko\u2019s birthday were held there. I donated some small items to the display. In 1996, a cousin from Poland visited and served as a volunteer guide at the house.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cPoland has had over 1,000 years of turbulent history and many national heroes. Kosciuszko ranks in the top 10 \u2013 many say he is at the very top \u2014 and every Polish citizen knows at least something about him,\u201d Obst said, who came to the United States with his family in 1963.<\/p>\n

Obst says the Philadelphia Photo Archive has many photos of that corner over the years. In one of the photos, he said, the Kosciuszko house is a drugstore. In another photo from the 1920s, the adjoining building is a tobacco shop.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Love Philly? So do we. Let\u2019s be friends. Sign up for the Billy Penn newsletter today. After enjoying…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":190035,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[12360,94,40623,1958,69,71,70,19766,84705],"class_list":["post-190034","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-american-revolution","tag-history","tag-national-park","tag-parks","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news","tag-poland","tag-thaddeus-kosciuszko"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190034","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=190034"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190034\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/190035"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=190034"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=190034"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=190034"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}