18 [April. 



fifty pounds each, the lots at the corners of Sixth and Fifth Streets 

 were severally vested in the said parties respectively, agreeably to 

 the Act of 1762. The Act also provided that the old gaol and 

 workhouse should be sold, and three thousand pounds of the pur- 

 chase-money be applied to the purpose of erecting the County Court- 

 house on the northwest corner of the State-house lot; and the war- 

 dens were authorized to take out of the personal estate of the latter 

 corporation, three thousand pounds for erecting a court-house on the 

 northeastern corner of the said State-house lot, and if it fall short 

 of completing the building, then such sums as shall be necessary 

 shall be taken out of the common stock of the city in the hands of 

 the Treasurer of the Wardens. These lots were extended in depth 

 to 88 feet by the Act of 29th March, 1787 ; and by the Acts of 27th 

 March and 29th September, 1789, a lottery was authorized to raise 

 eight thousand dollars to defray the expenses of erecting a common 

 hall in the city of Philadelphia. On the 11th March, 1789, the 

 City of Philadelphia was incorporated by an Act of the General 

 Assembly, by the name of ''The Mayor, Aldermen, and Citizens of 

 Philadelphia," its limits being the original city plot of William Penn, 

 as delineated in Holmes's Portraiture of it : two miles in length, from 

 river to river, and one mile in breadth, from Vine to South Street. 



By an Act of the 30th September, 1791, the Grovernor was au- 

 thorized to contract for paving the footway round the State-house 

 square at such times as the City Commissioners shall be paving the 

 cartways of the several streets which surround the State-house. The 

 same Act, after reciting that it would contribute to the embellishment 

 of the public walks in the State-house garden, and may conduce to 

 the health of the citizens by admitting a free circulation of air, if the 

 east and west walls of the said garden were lowered, and palisadoes 

 placed thereon, authorized the city corporation, at their expense, to 

 take down the wall on the east and west sides of the State-house 

 yard, within three feet of the pavement, and to erect thereon good 

 and substantial palisadoes of iron, fixed on a stone capping, to be 

 placed on such wall so prepared. 



The City Hall was occupied by the executive, legislative, and 

 judicial authorities of the city ; whilst the Congress of the United 

 States, on their removal from New York to Philadelphia, in 1790, 

 occupied the County Court-house, the use of which was offered to 

 them by the Commissioners of the City and County of Philadelphia, 

 for their accommodation during their residence in Philadelphia, until 

 their final removal to Washington, in 1800. The State-house had 



