Editing Tinicum Island (section)

== Legacy and Commemoration ==

Governor Printz Park in Essington, Pennsylvania, marks the approximate site of the Swedish colonial capital at Tinicum. The park is small—just over three acres—but contains monuments commemorating the Swedish settlement, including a replica of a Swedish midsummer pole erected by Swedish-American organizations. Historical markers explain the significance of the site, though no visible remains of the colonial structures survive. The park is a Pennsylvania state historical site and draws visitors interested in the earliest European settlement of the Philadelphia region.<ref name="printzpark"/>

The John Morton Homestead, located nearby in Prospect Park, Pennsylvania, is often associated with the Tinicum settlement. John Morton was a signer of the Declaration of Independence whose ancestors were among the original Swedish settlers of the Delaware Valley. Though the existing building dates to the 18th century rather than the Swedish colonial period, it represents the continuity between the New Sweden colonists and the later American republic. Morton's family had lived in the Tinicum area for generations before he cast the deciding vote for Pennsylvania's delegation to support independence in 1776.<ref name="morton">{{cite web |url=https://johnmortonhomestead.org/ |title=John Morton Homestead |access-date=December 29, 2025}}</ref>

The Tinicum settlement's significance lies not in its size or duration but in its priority as the first European settlement in Pennsylvania. When William Penn arrived in 1682, he found not an empty wilderness but a landscape already marked by nearly fifty years of European presence. Swedish and Finnish families, descendants of the Tinicum colonists and their contemporaries, had established farms and communities throughout the lower Delaware Valley. Penn incorporated these existing settlers into his new colony, and their descendants became part of the diverse population of colonial Pennsylvania. In this sense, Tinicum represents the true beginning of European settlement in the Philadelphia region, even if the city itself would not be founded for another four decades.<ref name="johnson"/>