Tinicum Island

Tinicum Island was the site of the capital of New Sweden from 1643 to 1655 and the first permanent European settlement within the present boundaries of Pennsylvania. Located in the Delaware River near what is now Philadelphia International Airport, Tinicum served as the seat of Swedish colonial government under Governor Johan Printz, who built his residence, Printzhof, on the island along with a fort, church, and other colonial infrastructure. Though the Swedish colony was conquered by the Dutch in 1655 and the original structures have long since disappeared, Tinicum represents the earliest European foothold in the Philadelphia region, predating William Penn's founding of the city by nearly forty years.

Location and Geography

Tinicum takes its name from a Lenape word, typically translated as "islands" or "at the islands," describing the cluster of islands and marshy lowlands along the Delaware River in this area. The island selected by Governor Printz for his capital was one of several in the group, chosen for its strategic position overlooking the river and its defensibility against both European rivals and potential indigenous hostility. The site offered access to deep water channels that could accommodate ocean-going vessels, making it suitable as a port for ships arriving from Sweden. The surrounding wetlands, while challenging for agriculture, provided natural protection and abundant wildlife resources.

The geography of the Tinicum area has changed significantly since the Swedish colonial period. Land reclamation, filling of wetlands, and the construction of Philadelphia International Airport have transformed the landscape beyond recognition. The island that served as New Sweden's capital was located in what is now Essington, Pennsylvania, in Delaware County. Governor Printz Park, a small municipal park, marks the approximate location of Printzhof and serves as the primary commemoration of the Swedish colonial capital. The park contains historical markers and monuments but no surviving structures from the colonial period.

Establishment Under Johan Printz

Johan Printz arrived in New Sweden in 1643 as the colony's third governor, bringing new colonists, supplies, and instructions from the Swedish government to strengthen the colonial enterprise. Printz was a physically imposing figure—contemporary accounts describe him as enormously fat, weighing perhaps 400 pounds—with an authoritarian temperament and considerable administrative ability. Recognizing that Fort Christina, the existing capital, was poorly positioned to control river traffic and vulnerable to Dutch competition, Printz determined to establish a new capital further up the Delaware River. He selected Tinicum Island for this purpose, attracted by its strategic location and the presence of an existing Lenape settlement that demonstrated the site's suitability for habitation.

Construction of the new capital began immediately upon Printz's arrival. The centerpiece was Printzhof (Printz Hall), the governor's residence and administrative headquarters, described as the finest building in the Swedish colonies—a two-story log structure with glass windows, a luxury in frontier America. Nearby, Printz ordered the construction of Fort New Gothenburg (sometimes called Fort New Korsholm), a fortification intended to command the river and protect the settlement from attack. The colonists also built a church, the first Lutheran church in North America, a gristmill, and various other structures necessary for colonial life. The settlement quickly became the effective center of Swedish presence in the Delaware Valley.

Life at the Colonial Capital

Tinicum under Governor Printz was a tiny outpost struggling to survive on the edge of a vast wilderness. The total population of New Sweden probably never exceeded 600 people, and Tinicum itself housed only a fraction of that number—the governor's household, garrison soldiers, and perhaps a few dozen settlers and their families. Life was difficult, marked by chronic shortages of supplies, conflict with Dutch competitors, and the challenges of maintaining a European settlement thousands of miles from home. Printz governed with an iron hand, and his autocratic rule generated considerable resentment among the colonists, some of whom complained to authorities in Sweden.

Despite these hardships, Tinicum served as a functional colonial capital for over a decade. Ships from Sweden anchored here to unload supplies and passengers and to take on cargoes of furs for the return voyage. The church at Tinicum provided religious services for Swedish colonists throughout the region, and the governor's court administered justice according to Swedish law. Printz established additional trading posts and settlements up and down the Delaware, attempting to control access to the fur trade that was the colony's economic lifeblood. Relations with the Lenape people remained generally peaceful, with regular trade benefiting both parties, though the presence of European diseases devastated indigenous populations throughout the region.

Printz's Departure and Later Years

Governor Printz departed New Sweden in 1653, frustrated by the Swedish government's failure to provide adequate support for the colony and worn down by a decade of struggle on the frontier. He returned to Sweden, where he lived out his days on an estate granted by the crown. His successor, Johan Rising, inherited a colony in precarious condition, with Dutch pressure increasing and resources dwindling. Rising attempted to strengthen the Swedish position by seizing Fort Casimir, a Dutch post on the Delaware, but this provocation brought swift retaliation. In 1655, Peter Stuyvesant arrived with a Dutch fleet and conquered the entire colony in a virtually bloodless campaign.

After the Dutch conquest, Tinicum ceased to function as a colonial capital but remained inhabited by Swedish settlers who chose to stay under Dutch rule. The Dutch renamed the colony New Amstel and administered it as part of New Netherland, but they made no effort to displace the existing Swedish and Finnish population. When the English seized all Dutch North American colonies in 1664, the Tinicum settlers found themselves under yet another European power, eventually becoming subjects of William Penn when he established Pennsylvania in 1681. By this time, the original colonial structures had deteriorated, and the site's significance lay in memory rather than physical remains.

First Lutheran Church in America

Among the structures built at Tinicum during Printz's governorship was a church that holds the distinction of being the first Lutheran congregation in North America. The Swedish colonists, though not particularly devout by contemporary accounts, maintained the Lutheran faith of their homeland, and Printz recognized the importance of religious observance for colonial morale and order. The first minister, Reorus Torkillus, arrived in 1640 and served the colony until his death in 1643. His successors conducted services at the Tinicum church until it was destroyed by fire in 1646. A replacement was built, and Lutheran services continued at Tinicum until the construction of Gloria Dei (Old Swedes') Church in Philadelphia's Queen Village neighborhood provided a more substantial house of worship.

The Swedish Lutheran tradition established at Tinicum continued long after the colony's political demise. Swedish and Finnish settlers maintained their religious practices through Dutch and English rule, and their descendants built Gloria Dei Church between 1698 and 1700 as a permanent monument to their faith. The church remains active today as an Episcopal parish, its Swedish Lutheran origins having been absorbed into the Anglican tradition during the 18th century. This religious continuity represents one of the most tangible legacies of the Tinicum settlement, connecting the tiny frontier capital of the 1640s to modern Philadelphia.

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.

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.

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.

See Also

• New Sweden
• Fort Christina
• Gloria Dei (Old Swedes') Church
• Dutch Conquest of New Sweden