PHILADELPHIA 



4622 



PHILADELPHIA 



priation yet exists i the main building 



was completed, but it was without the bell tower 

 until 1751. Plans were drawn also for a building 

 at either end of the main building; those v 

 finished in 1785, after the war had ended, and 

 wrre us,-.. y hall and a courthouse. In 



1828 ah appropriation of $12,000 was made for a 

 new steeple. The story of the Liberty Bell is 

 given undor that title, pages 3400-3401. 



i >n .May in. i77Ti. in the t-ast room, unimposing 

 in ;.: t the most historic spot in 



America, the patriots met who formed the Second 

 Continental Congress. In the same room, on June 

 15, 177". Washington was chosen commander- 

 in-chief of the Continental army. Here, too, on 

 July 4. 1776. the Declaration of Independence 

 signed. The American* officers taken by the 

 British in the battles of Brandywine and Ger- 

 mantown in September and October, 1777, were 

 kept in this same east room, as prisoners of war. 

 On July 9, 1778, the Articles of Confederation 

 (which see) were signed here by representatives 

 of eight states. The east room is shown in the 

 halftone illustration herewith. 



For more than a century Independence Hall 

 was used for public meetings of all descriptions. 

 To-day it is a museum laden with memories of 

 the momentous days of the past. The Liberty 

 Bell is in the main entrance ; the Congress room, 

 with desks of officers of the Continental Congress' 

 and fourteen of the original chairs of members, is 



It is now a bare 



THE BETJ 



IS HOUSE 



open to visitors ; across the hall is another room 

 of equal size, given exclusively to a display of 

 relics of the Revolutionary period. The second 

 floor, one long room, was for many years Phila- 



delphia's public banquet hall, 

 reminder of past glories. 



The Betsy Ross House. At _J'. Arch Street 

 stands the home of Betsy Ross, with whose name 

 is associated the designing of the first American 

 There are two rooms on the small ground 

 floor. The first is now a salesroom of Ross me- 

 morials ; the smaller rear room is bare, but is full 

 of memories. Around the old fireplace in the 

 corner, the story runs, George Washington and 

 Hnlurt Morris often sat with Mrs. Ross, planning 

 the Hag which should represent the new republic. 

 Tlu iv is more or less tradition connected with 

 part of the story, but in the little room the visitor 

 can imagine the courtly, patriotic group that 

 centered in the home of the pleasant-voiced, 

 kindly widow. The Betsy Ross flag is illustrated 

 in the article FLAG, page 2195. 



rat ii Mansion. The home in which William 

 Penn, the founder of Pennsylvania, lived with his 

 family, was built in 1682. It was the first brick 

 house erected in 

 Philadelphia, 

 and was on the 

 street which later 

 became Letitia 

 Court, between 

 Market and Chest- 

 nut streets,, near 

 the Delaware 

 Rive r. The en- 

 c roach men t of 

 business houses 

 threatened its de- 

 struction, so it 

 was carefully 

 taken down and 

 brick by brick re- 

 erected in Fairmount Park. 

 Penn relics. 



Congress Hall. Close to Independence Hall 

 stands Congress Hall, now a museum of Revo- 

 lutionary days. It was completed in 1790 on the 

 former site of a wooden shelter provided for 

 visiting Indians. From 1790 to 1800 it was the 

 meeting place of 

 the Congress of 

 the new nation. 

 In 1793 Washing- 

 ton was inaugu- 

 rated here for his 

 second Presi- 

 dential term, with 

 John Adams as 

 Vice - President; 

 four years later, in 

 the same room, 

 Adams and Jeffer- 

 son took the oath 

 of office as Presi- 

 dent and Vice- 

 President. It was 

 here that John 

 Marshall, later 

 Chief Justice of the United States, in announcing 

 the death of Washington in 1799, uttered the 

 phrase which was destined to be inseparably 

 linked with Washington "first in war, first in 

 peace and first in the hearts of his countrymen." 

 After 1800 Congress sat in the new city of 

 Washington and the hall became a court room. 



THE PENN MANSION 



The rooms contain 



CONGRESS HALL 



