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Survey of
Historic Sites and Buildings

	GLORIA DEI CHURCH NATIONAL HISTORIC SITE (part of Independence NHP) Pennsylvania	Gloria Dei Church NHS
Location: Delaware Avenue near Christian Street, South Philadelphia. Gloria Dei Church National Historic Site

Gloria Dei, or "Old Swedes'," Church is the oldest church building in Philadelphia, having held services first in the year 1700. The structure is of red brick in Flemish bond, with glazed headers. Its Swedish origins are revealed in the steep gable roof, square belfry, and small spire. There were Swedish settlers on the ground long before William Penn came to establish the city of Philadelphia, and Gloria Dei Church is perhaps the best evidence of the fact.

Gloria Dei, or "Old Swedes'," Church, in Philadelphia, stands today as a reminder that the first European inhabitants of this region were Swedes. (National Park Service)

The first Swedish settlers came to the banks of the Delaware River in the 1630's, and one of the villages that developed was called Wicaco, a place now known as South Philadelphia. A mission of the state church of Sweden was begun about 1646 which developed into Gloria Dei Church, using first a small square log blockhouse originally provided for defense against Indians. The present structure was dedicated in 1700 and was the greatest public building in Philadelphia. The bricks were manufactured close at hand and the interior furnished in part with articles brought from Sweden, including a cherubim or decorative carving brought from Sweden in 1643, still to be seen hanging below the organ loft, and a baptismal font from Gothenburg dating to the same year. The church treasures include silver altar appointments, among them the Vanderspiegel tankard of 1773, executed by the Philadelphia silversmith, Young; a Breeches Bible presented to the church by William Penn, published in London in 1599; and a cherished reproduction of the Gustav Vasa Bible of 1541. These and other relics and documents add up to a museum-archival collection of considerable value.

Betsy Ross was among the notable persons connected with Gloria Dei Church—she married her second husband here in 1777. Resting in the churchyard are the last remains of Gustavus Hesselius, first American portrait painter; Alexander Wilson, father of American ornithology; Capt. John Douglas, General Washington's aide-de-camp; and Margaret Boone, sister of Daniel. Gloria Dei separated from the mother church of Sweden in 1789, and was admitted in 1845 into the Convention of the Protestant Episcopal Church of the Diocese of Pennsylvania.

The church is the center of an active parish, filling the current religious needs of hundreds of communicants of the area and carrying on an extensive social service program on the waterfront, as well as giving inspiration to history-minded visitors. Well preserved and useful, it has been likened to a jewel in its drab environs. It was declared a National Historic Site in 1942.