Thomas Holme's 1687 plan (Library Company of Philadelphia)

Thomas Holme, appointed William Penn's surveyor, prepared the 1687 plan (often called Holme's Plan) that laid out Philadelphia's original grid and five public squares. The Library Company of Philadelphia holds early printed copies and related colonial survey maps and documents in its Rare Books and Manuscripts collection. Scholars and researchers use the Library Company's holdings to study Holme's survey and the city's earliest cadastral layout.