Despite the two riverfronts [Delaware and Schuylkill, Penn's city had an inward-facing design, focusing on this central plaza.

[5]However, the Delaware riverfront would remain the de facto economic and social heart of the city for more than a century.

One of the latter, a tailor named William Boulding, complained that he had invested most of his capital in his Schuylkill lot, 'so that he cannot, as others have done, Remove from the same.'

Not until the mid-nineteenth century, long after the city had spilled northward and southward in an arc along the Delaware miles beyond its original limits, was the Schuylkill waterfront fully developed.

Nor was Centre Square restored as the heart of Philadelphia until the construction of City Hall began in 1871.