Pennsylvania Statutes Title 53 P.S. Municipal and Quasi-Municipal Corporations § 16252. Perpetual succession;  corporate powers in general

The inhabitants of the city of Philadelphia, as the same extends and is laid out between the rivers Delaware and Schuylkill, be, and they, and their successors for ever, are hereby constituted a corporation and body politic, in fact and in law, by the name and style of “The Mayor, Aldermen and Citizens of Philadelphia,” and by the same name shall have perpetual succession;  and they and their successors shall, at all times for ever, be able and capable in law to have, purchase, take, receive, possess and enjoy lands, tenements and hereditaments, liberties, franchises and jurisdictions, goods, chattels and effects to them and their successors forever, or for any other or less estate;  and the same lands, tenements and hereditaments, goods, chattels and effects, to grant, bargain, sell, alien and convey, mortgage, pledge, charge and encumber, or demise and dispose of, at their will and pleasure.