Fraley;] ,, *' <> [Marqb 15. 



as instructive memoranda of the difficulties of get- 

 ting through with such an important work. Such 

 difficulties are not unknown even to the present genera- 

 tion. But at last they were happily surmounted, and 

 with but a slight change in the basement story, the 

 building stands to-day in the same shape as originally 

 constructed. By several additional enactments the leg- 

 islature authorized the Society to rent such parts of 

 the Hall as Were not needed for its own purposes, and 

 under these we have always had a considerable income 

 from rents. The city of Philadelphia is now the owner 

 of the whole of Independence Square, except the lot on 

 which stands our Hall. They purchased the Square from 

 the State in 1814, and out of the sale, our lot was re- 

 served, and a prohibition made of the erection of any 

 other buildings on the Square, than those which were 

 then on it. Although this restriction was subsequently 

 repealed, the historical associations of the Square are 

 still so strong, that the power to build has been only once 

 exercised by placing a Court House on the Sixth Street 



Proposals were made to the Library Company to unite in the purchase of Car- 

 penter's Hall. 



Resolved, that for the present, the Society's meetings should be held in Car- 

 penter's Hall, lo which the Society's effects were soon transferred. 



Then follow many minutes of transactions respecting a Silk Society and Fac- 

 tory, an Act of Legislature vesting the Silk Society stock and machinery in the 

 Philosophical Society, and much trouble with the trustees or directors of the 

 Silk Society. 



March 6, 1783, Rittenhouse moved the transfer of the Library and Cabinet to 

 some member's house, which in time resulted in his being virtual librarian and 

 curator, and finally president of the Society. 



April 10, 1783, enquiries w ; made oT the University at what rent the Philo- 

 sophical Society might use its house in Fifth Street. 



The Society owned some " house in the State House yard," and a committee 

 was empowered to sell it. 



In July an effort was made to purchase a 40' by 4s 7 lot in Fifth Street. 



In September Mr. Willing's lot in Third Street was looked at. 



In November a lot belonging to Mr. Powell was examined. 



