religious confusion

"LaPelle believes that the shabby civil engineering is indicative of the overall lousy aesthetic that was laid in stone during the 1600's. The original city was founded by Quakers, after all. They considered the arts to be frivolous. Theirs was the bedrock attitude of the burgeoning city and is the ideological foundation stone. In Philadelphia, he continues, the influence of the Amish, Muslims, Hassidic Jews and other art-hating peoples has always flourished." wrote Delvecchia

I find it strange that a city controled by art haters had the first art school.