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This narrow thoroughfare, now called South Orianna street, extending south from Market to Chestnut streets, east of Fourth
Street, marks the side of the narrow lane leading back to the home of Benjamin Franklin in his later years, and in which he
died in 1790. His "mansion house" was upon the west side about the center of the square. After his death the house was occupied
by the Portuguese Minister. In 1801 it was offered by the advertisements as having "five chambers, two parlours, a large kitchen,"
etc. In that year it was occupied by the Philadelphia Academy. Subsequently it became John Cordner's Coffee House and Hotel.
In the Athenian Hall, in this alley, a young Scot, James Gordon Bennett, essayed his first newspaper venture, the Daily Courier,
which he afterward sold to Jasper Harding. Here also James Wilson, grandfather of President Wilson, published the Aurora.
In Franklin Court one Baker maintained, in 1822, an agency for servants and advertised "Black boys and girls for sale." This
was probably one of the latest instances of traffic in modified human slavery in the city.
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