Get our book

Welcome to the website of the New Philadelphia Association!  For 25-plus years we have worked to protect and promote the remarkable story and site of New Philadelphia, Illinois.  Please look around and learn.  Just this fall (2020), a bill in Congress will put the site into the National Park Service. Click here to find out more and support this long-sought move!

Click the yellow donate button to support our mission—in 2020 your donation will be matched dollar for dollar. Thank you!

Founded in 1836 by Frank McWorter, New Philadelphia, Illinois, is the first town founded, platted and and registered by an African American in the United States. “Free Frank” McWorter used his earnings (while a slave and then while free) to purchase 16 family members out of slavery. New Philadelphia included both African Americans and European Americans, many of whom helped freedom seekers get North before the Civil War.  Ten years of archaeology at the site in the 21st century shed more light on free, rural communities and the abolitionist cause.