The Philadelphia skies are heavy with wintry clouds and the changed leaves of the trees near Independence Square have fallen to the ground. Through the carpet of yellow and brown, boots plod past on the cobblestone streets. The wind seems not to stop, and passersby hide beneath the shelter of thick scarves and wool pea coats.

Cool stone benches dot the edges of the Old St. Paul’s Episcopal Church graveyard, a colonial cemetery in the heart of Old City, Philadelphia. The people lie quietly now, with not much more than grave markers to tell the stories of their past.

Much of the United States that we know today began in Philadelphia. Long before the colonists’ 1776 declaration of independence from Britain, this Pennsylvania town was designed and developed by William Penn, in 1682. This was the birthplace of the United States’ earliest public parks, its first volunteer fire association and its first hospital. And from 1780 to 1900 it served as the nation’s capital.

This 1920s photo shows Old Mortality, a sculpture situated at the entrance of Laurel Hill cemetery. Installed when the cemetery opened in 1836, the sculpture is based on a Walter Scott story.

Philadelphia was the hub of events leading up to the American Revolution, and thus a magnet for influential people. Many of them — including scientist and diplomat Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790), American astronomer and first director of the U.S. Mint in Philadelphia, David Rittenhouse (1732-1796) — found Philadelphia to be their final resting place.Philadelphia cemeteries, found throughout the city, offer a unique way to discover American colonial history.

Old City/Society Hill

Beginning downtown, on Third Street, and walking south from Market, visitors can take a self-guided tour of four colonial cemeteries. Between Walnut and Locust Streets, a small iron gate swings open to a short path alongside Old St. Paul’s Church. No longer used as a church, it serves as headquarters for the Episcopal Community Services of the Diocese of Pennsylvania. In contrast to the red brick of the restored church, whitewashed gravestones line the sidewalk.

Though small, the cemetery at Old St. Paul’s holds 11 revolutionaries, from doctors and patriots, to captains and soldiers. Visitors can pass the family vault of Philadelphian George Glentworth, who was buried here in 1792. Glentworth graduated from the University of Edinburgh in 1758, and served as a senior surgeon in the American Revolution.

Glentworth’s son, Plunket Fleeson Glentworth, was also interred at Old St. Paul’s. America’s first president, George Washington, was attended by the younger Glentworth while the president was in Philadelphia.

Fleeson became a fellow of Philadelphia’s College of Physicians, which has a museum dedicated to educating future doctors. Today the Mütter Museum is visited by curious locals and visitors, who stop by to view the Fear Factor–style displays of preserved anatomical specimens and medical abnormalities.

South of Old St. Paul’s, near the corner of Third and Pine streets, is St. Peter’s Church, with its tall spire. This National Historic Landmark continues today as a house of worship. The ministry maintains the site’s crowded colonial cemetery.

Enclosed by iron gates and short brick walls, the worn tombstones stand cluttered together like tiny soldiers; more than a century of weathering has rendered many inscriptions unreadable. It’s surprising to find such calm near the pub-driven tourist district of South Street. But the people interred in this now-quiet churchyard were not so reserved during their lives.