Thaddeus Kosciuszko National Memorial, at 301 Pine Street in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania

The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...

, preserves the home of Tadeusz (Thaddeus) Kościuszko

Tadeusz Kosciuszko

Andrzej Tadeusz Bonawentura Kościuszko was a Polish–Lithuanian and American general and military leader during the Kościuszko Uprising. He is a national hero of Poland, Lithuania, the United States and Belarus...

. The life and work of the Polish patriot and hero of the American Revolution

American Revolution

The American Revolution was the political upheaval during the last half of the 18th century in which thirteen colonies in North America joined together to break free from the British Empire, combining to become the United States of America...

 are commemorated here

Kosciuszko returned to America to a hero's welcome after his wounding, capture, imprisonment, and banishment from his native Poland

Poland

Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...

 occupied by Russia, in 1796. Instructed to find "a dwelling as small, as remote, and as cheap" as possible, Kosciuszko's secretary, Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz

Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz

Julian Ursyn Niemcewicz was a Polish poet, playwright and statesman. He was a leading advocate for the Constitution of May 3, 1791.-Life:...

, chose Mrs. Ann Relf's boarding house in Society Hill (on the corner of 3rd and Pine Streets). Here, while Kosciuszko recuperated from his wounds (rarely leaving the house), he was visited by numerous luminaries of the day, including Vice President Thomas Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson was the principal author of the United States Declaration of Independence and the Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom , the third President of the United States and founder of the University of Virginia...

, architect Benjamin Latrobe

Benjamin Latrobe

Benjamin Henry Boneval Latrobe was a British-born American neoclassical architect best known for his design of the United States Capitol, along with his work on the Baltimore Basilica, the first Roman Catholic Cathedral in the United States...

, William Paterson (a signer of the US Constitution), Chief Little Turtle of the Miamis, and Chief Joseph Brant

Joseph Brant

Thayendanegea or Joseph Brant was a Mohawk military and political leader, based in present-day New York, who was closely associated with Great Britain during and after the American Revolution. He was perhaps the most well-known American Indian of his generation...

 of the Mohawk

Mohawk nation

Mohawk are the most easterly tribe of the Iroquois confederation. They call themselves Kanien'gehaga, people of the place of the flint...

.

The home was listed on the National Register of Historic Places

National Register of Historic Places

The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...

 on December 18, 1970. The National Memorial

National Memorial

National Memorial is a designation in the United States for a protected area that memorializes a historic person or event. National memorials are authorized by the United States Congress...

 was authorized on October 21, 1972. It is administered under Independence National Historical Park

Independence National Historical Park

Independence National Historical Park is a United States National Historical Park in Philadelphia that preserves several sites associated with the American Revolution and the nation's founding history. Administered by the National Park Service, the park comprises much of the downtown historic...

, but is counted as a separate unit of the national park system.

At 0.02 acre (0.00809372 ha) 0.02 acre (80 m²), the memorial is often referred to as America's smallest national park

National park

A national park is a reserve of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that a sovereign state declares or owns. Although individual nations designate their own national parks differently A national park is a reserve of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that a sovereign state declares or...

 (or unit of the National Park System). (The Benjamin Franklin National Memorial

Benjamin Franklin National Memorial

Benjamin Franklin National Memorial — located in the rotunda of The Franklin Institute in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania — features a colossal seated statue of Benjamin Franklin. The high memorial, sculpted by James Earle Fraser between 1906 and 1911, honors the writer, inventor and American...

 is even smaller (only a statue), but is designated an affiliated area rather than a unit because it is not administered by the federal government.)

The site is usually open for touring but is currently closed for renovations.

External links

• Official NPS website: Thaddeus Kosciuszko National Memorial
• "Brief History: The Smallest National Park" by Robert Smith, All Things Considered
  All Things Considered
  All Things Considered is the flagship news program on the American network National Public Radio. It was the first news program on NPR, and is broadcast live worldwide through several outlets...
  
  , 30 June 2008. Retrieved 1 July 2008.