The Penns’ Pal

Elaine Peden has made William Penn
and his wife Hannah her passion

Until the early 1970s, Philadelphia’s Elaine Peden knew almost nothing about William Penn or his wife Hannah Callowhill Penn.

Peden, then the owner of a tavern, was just at City Hall to protest a new tax on drinks. Asked by a friend if she’d ever viewed the city from near the top of City Hall, she said, “No.”  

While waiting in the bare, brick-walled room to ride the tiny elevator to the observation deck near William Penn’s 37-foot-high statue Peden was underwhelmed. There was almost nothing about William Penn there to read. Or an American flag.

Elaine Peden

That galvanized her into action. 

Peden learned everything she could about Pennsylvania’s founder. Then she had the waiting room decorated at her own expense by student artists from area schools. George Washington High School in Northeast Philadelphia provided the most, with over 20 artists participating.

Her goal: to educate those waiting for the elevator about William Penn, and give them something worthwhile to see.

Later, Peden got college scholarships for many of those students, as well as meetings with Philadelphia Mayor Frank Rizzo, Pennsylvania Governor Milton Shapp and First Lady Pat Nixon at the White House.

Along the way, Peden did even more for William Penn, including getting a $50,000 statue of him by sculpture Frank Gaylord prominently placed in Penn Treaty Park.

But her biggest accomplishment was getting William Penn and Hannah Callowhill Penn named the third and fourth honorary citizens of the United States. (Britain’s Winston Churchill and Sweden’s Raoul Wallenberg were the first and second.)

Getting this done took Peden over ten years of cajoling members of Congress and spending some $10,000 of her own money. And it’s the thing that makes her most proud.

In fact, she said to the Philadelphia Daily News in 2001, "I've told my kids, and I even have it in my will that when I die, my epitaph should say that I succeeded in having William and Hannah Penn made honorary citizens. I don't care what else it says." 

Now in her 90s, Peden still has a few things left on her bucket list. She’d love to get her many pieces of Penn memorabilia placed in a museum near Penn Treaty Park. And she wants a mural of William Penn and his second wife, Hannah Callowhill Penn, placed on Callowhill Street. 

Knowing Elaine and her can-do mentality, I’d never bet against her.