In 2020, Philadelphia native actor Rob McElhenney teamed up with Ryan Reynolds to purchase Wrexham AFC, creating a new connection between the City of Brotherly Love and Wales. What many people may not realise, however, is that the bond between Philadelphia and Wales stretches back much further.
On 13 August 1682, a ship carrying the first Welsh settlers to Pennsylvania sailed up the Delaware River and arrived at what is now Chester, just south of Philadelphia. One year earlier, the colony of Pennsylvania had been granted to William Penn, an English Quaker who sought to create a refuge of religious tolerance in the New World.
The Quaker faith had spread rapidly in Wales, and Penn invited many of his Welsh Quaker friends to join him in the new colony to escape religious persecution. The first Welsh settlers purchased 40,000 acres of land outside Philadelphia with the ambition of creating a "Welsh Barony", where legal affairs would be conducted in the Welsh language. Although that ambition was never realised, the Welsh influence on the area can still be seen today.
The first settlement became known as Merion, named after the county the settlers had left behind. As more Welsh families arrived, communities including Gwynedd, Pencoed, Bala, Cynwyd, Tredyffrin, Uwchlan and Bryn Mawr also took their names from Wales.
By 1700, one third of Pennsylvania's population was Welsh, with the vast majority living in and around Philadelphia. Welsh settlers also played an important role in the colony's government. A second wave of Welsh immigration followed during the Industrial Revolution, when experienced miners from South Wales settled in Pennsylvania's coalfield communities.
Today, the legacy of Welsh settlement remains visible throughout the Philadelphia area. Welsh place names are still part of the landscape, several towns feature Y Ddraig Goch on their emblems, and the Welsh Society of Philadelphia, founded on St David's Day in 1729, continues to celebrate Welsh heritage each year.
The Welsh people who settled in Pennsylvania brought with them their language and culture, leaving a lasting legacy that can still be seen across the region today. What they did not bring with them, however, was their love of football. That would take another few centuries to arrive.
On 28 July 2023, Wrexham AFC played the Philadelphia Union for the first time at Subaru Park in Chester. The stadium stands on the banks of the Delaware River, less than a mile from where the first Welsh settlers arrived more than three centuries earlier.
Wrexham returned to the stadium on 2 August 2026 to face Sunderland AFC during the club's US tour.
During the visit, Wrexham AFC also partnered with the Philadelphia Union, love.fútbol and the School District of Philadelphia to transform an ageing concrete schoolyard at Penrose Elementary School into a new turf football pitch and basketball court with a vibrant surface mural.
The project is the 11th play space delivered through Philly Plays, a citywide initiative to create safe, inclusive and community driven places for sport and play across Philadelphia while building a lasting legacy beyond the FIFA World Cup 2026™.
It is also the first completed space under Power to Play, an international partnership between Wrexham AFC and love.fútbol that aims to bring community driven sports spaces to neighbourhoods across the United States and Wales.
Together, these organisations are strengthening the ties between Philadelphia and Wales through their work at Penrose Elementary School, continuing a legacy which began centuries ago.
About the author, Connor Duffy
Connor Duffy is a local historian, Swansea University graduate and board member of the Welsh Society of Philadelphia. He has written extensively about Welsh settlement in Pennsylvania and regularly gives public talks on the subject.