View source for Carpenters' Hall

{{Use American English|date=January 2025}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=August 2023}}
{{Infobox NRHP
| name = Carpenters' Hall
| nrhp_type = nhl
| nrhp_type2 = cp
| nocat = yes
| image = Carpenters' Hall, Philadelphia, USA, May 2015.jpg
| image_size = 287px
| caption = Carpenters' Hall in May 2015
| location = 320 [[Chestnut Street (Philadelphia)|Chestnut Street]]<br>[[Philadelphia]], [[Pennsylvania]], U.S.
| coordinates = {{coord|39.9481|-75.1472|type:landmark_globe:earth_region:US-|display=ti}}
| built = 1775<ref name=philarch>{{cite philarch}}, p.29</ref>
| architect = [[Robert Smith (architect)|Robert Smith]]
| architecture = [[Georgian architecture|Georgian]]
| designated_nrhp_type = April 15, 1970<ref name="nhlsum">{{cite web|url=http://tps.cr.nps.gov/nhl/detail.cfm?ResourceId=969&ResourceType=Building|title=Carpenters' Hall|access-date=2008-01-04|work=National Historic Landmark summary listing|publisher=National Park Service|archive-date=October 10, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121010180010/http://tps.cr.nps.gov/nhl/detail.cfm?ResourceId=969&ResourceType=Building|url-status=dead}}</ref>
| added = April 15, 1970<ref name="nris">{{NRISref|2006a}}</ref>
| refnum = 70000552
}}

'''Carpenters' Hall''', in [[Independence National Historical Park]] in [[Philadelphia]], Pennsylvania, is the official birthplace of the [[Pennsylvania|Commonwealth of Pennsylvania]] and a key meeting place for colonial delegates during the early part of the [[American Revolution]]. Completed in 1775,<ref name=Timeline /> the two-story brick meeting hall was built for and is still privately owned by the [[Carpenters' Company of the City and County of Philadelphia]], the country's oldest extant [[Guild|craft guild]].

The [[First Continental Congress]] met at the building in 1774 and passed and signed the [[Continental Association]]. In June 1776, it was where the [[Pennsylvania Provincial Conference]] officially declared the [[Province of Pennsylvania]]'s independence from the [[British Empire]] and established the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, mobilized the [[Associators|Pennsylvania militia]] for the [[American Revolutionary War]], set up the machinery for the Pennsylvania Provincial Convention from July 15 to September 28 in 1776, which framed the [[Pennsylvania Constitution of 1776]] and enabled the [[United States Declaration of Independence|Declaration of Independence]] to be written and ultimately adopted. It was briefly occupied in 1777 by the [[British Army]] during the war.

The site was designated a [[National Historic Landmark]] on April 15, 1970. On November 30, 1982, the [[Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission]] succeeded in passing [[Pennsylvania General Assembly]] 166(R) HR180 to recognize "Carpenters' Hall as the official birthplace of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania".

The building is free to enter and receives 120,000 visitors per year.<ref>{{Cite web | url=https://www.discoverphl.com/partners/carpenters-hall-2/ | title=CARPENTERS’ HALL | publisher=Philadelphia Convention and Visitors Bureau}}</ref> Numerous dignitaries have visited Carpenters' Hall, including [[Supreme Court of the United States]] [[Chief Justice of the United States|Chief Justice]] [[Warren E. Burger]], King [[Carl XVI Gustaf]] and [[Queen Silvia of Sweden]], [[Czech Republic]] President [[Václav Havel]], [[Latvia]]n President [[Guntis Ulmanis]], [[Governor of Texas|Texas governor]] and future [[President of the United States|U.S. President]] [[George W. Bush]], and [[Governor of Pennsylvania]] [[Tom Ridge]].<ref name=Timeline />

==History==
===18th century===
[[File:US-PA(1891) p713 PHILADELPHIA, CAROENTER'S HALL.jpg|thumb|An 1891 illustration of Carpenters' Hall in [[Philadelphia]]]]
[[File:Carpenter's Hall, Phil (NYPL NYPG94-F149-419968).jpg|thumb|Carpenters' Hall]]
[[File:Elevations plans and details by C. L. Hillman and John McClintlock ca. 1898 HABS PA,51-PHILA,229-8.jpg|thumb|[[Heritage Documentation Programs|Historic American Buildings Survey]]'s elevation and plans, circa 1898]]
[[File:Carpenters' Hall, Philadelphia PA.jpg|thumb|A 1905 postcard of Carpenters' Hall]]
[[File:Carpenters Hall, Bicentennial Issue, 1974.jpg|thumb|Carpenters' Hall commemorative stamp issued on the 200th anniversary in 1974]]
The land on which Carpenters' Hall is built was purchased on behalf of the [[Carpenters' Company of the City and County of Philadelphia|Carpenters' Company of Philadelphia]] in 1768 by [[Benjamin Loxley]], [[Robert Smith (architect)|Robert Smith]], and Thomas Nevell.<ref>{{cite web| title=Loxley, Benjamin (1720–1801) Master Builder| last1=Moss| first1=Roger W.| last2=Tatman| first2=Sandra L.| url=https://www.philadelphiabuildings.org/pab/app/ar_display.cfm/26890| website=philadelphiabuildings.org| publisher=Philadelphia Architects and Buildings| access-date=April 23, 2019}}</ref> The hall was designed by Robert Smith in the [[Georgian style]]<ref>[https://archive.today/20061222015206/http://www.nps.gov/archive/inde/Franklin_Court/Pages/archelements.html "Architectural elements"]</ref> based on both the town halls of Scotland, where Smith was born, and the villas of [[Andrea Palladio|Palladio]] in Italy.<ref name=philarch /> The carpenters' guild held their first meeting there on January 21, 1771, and continued to do so until 1777 when the [[British Army during the American Revolutionary War|British Army]] captured Philadelphia.<ref name=Timeline>{{cite web |url= https://www.carpentershall.org/timeline |title=Timeline of Carpenters' Hall}}</ref> On April 23, 1773, which was [[Saint George's Day]], it was used for the founding meeting of the [[St. George Society of Philadelphia]].<ref name=Timeline /><ref>J. Thomas Scharf and Thompson Westcott. 1884. ''History of Philadelphia, 1609–1884'', Philadelphia: L. H. Everts & Co., Vol. I, p. 233.</ref>

The [[First Continental Congress]] of the [[Thirteen Colonies]] of North America met at Carpenters Hall from September 5 to October 26, 1774. The First Continental Congress resolved to ban further imports of slaves and to discontinue the slave trade within the colonies, a step toward phasing out slavery in [[British North America]].<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.nps.gov/inde/national-register-amendment.htm | title=National Register Amendment | first=Anna Coxe | last=Toogood | work=[[National Park Service]] | date=September 2000}}</ref> It also passed and signed the [[Continental Association]]. 

In June 1776, meeting at Carpenters' Hall, the [[Pennsylvania Provincial Conference]] declared the [[Province of Pennsylvania]]'s independence from the [[British Empire]] and established the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania,<ref>{{Cite web |title=Timeline |url=https://www.carpentershall.org/timeline |access-date=2022-08-17 |website=www.carpentershall.org |language=en-US}}</ref> mobilized the [[Associators|Pennsylvania militia]] for the [[American Revolutionary War]], set up the machinery for the Pennsylvania Provincial Convention from July 15 to September 28 in 1776, which framed the [[Pennsylvania Constitution of 1776]]. 

In the [[Second Continental Congress]], which met inside present-day [[Independence Hall]] in Philadelphia, delegates established the [[Continental Army]] and appointed [[George Washington]] as its commander-in-chief in 1775. The following year, in July 1776, the Second Continental Congress unanimously adopted the [[United States Declaration of Independence|Declaration of Independence]], which [[Thomas Jefferson]] largely authored from his second-floor apartment on [[Market Street (Philadelphia)|Market Street]] within walking distance of Carpenters' Hall. From September 1777 to June 1778, the hall and all of Philadelphia was occupied by the [[British Army during the American Revolutionary War|British Army]] during the Revolutionary War.

The meeting hall served as a hospital for both British and American troops in the Revolutionary War, and other Philadelphia institutions have held meetings in Carpenters' Hall, including [[Ben Franklin]]'s [[Library Company of Philadelphia]], the [[American Philosophical Society]], and the [[First Bank of the United States|First]] and [[Second Bank of the United States|Second Banks of the United States]].

Carpenters Hall was the site of the [[1798 Bank of Pennsylvania heist]].<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.carpentershall.org/americas-first-bank-robbery | title=America's First Bank Robbery | last=Avery | first=Ron | work=Carpenters' Hall}}</ref><ref name=wrong>{{Cite news | url=https://www.phillyvoice.com/first-bank-robbery-us-philly-carpenters-hall-patrick-lyon/ | title=The first major bank heist in America happened 225 years ago in Philly — and the wrong guy went to prison | first=KRISTIN | last=HUNT | work=PhillyVoice | date=August 31, 2023}}</ref>

===19th century===
The federal Custom House in Philadelphia was located at Carpenters' Hall between 1802 and 1819, except for a brief interruption between January and April, 1811.<ref>{{cite book|title=Three Centuries of Custom Houses |date=1972|publisher=National Society of the Colonial Dames of America |location=Washington, D.C.|pages=151–2}}</ref>

===20th century===
In 1970, Carpenters' Hall was declared a [[National Historic Landmark]].<ref name=arson>{{Cite news | url=https://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/arson-investigation-underway-at-historic-carpenters-hall-in-old-city-philadelphia/3461035/ | title=Arson Investigation Underway at Historic Carpenters' Hall in Old City Philadelphia | first=Travis | last=Hughes | work=[[WCAU]] | date=December 29, 2022}}</ref>

On November 30, 1982, the [[Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission]] passed [[Pennsylvania General Assembly]] 166(R) HR180 to recognize Carpenters' Hall as the official birthplace of Pennsylvania.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.legis.state.pa.us/WU01/LI/HJ/1982/0/19821130.pdf |title=Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Legislative Journal |date=November 30, 1982}}</ref>

===21st century===
In 2022, a fire in the basement of the building was suspected to be [[arson]]; at the time, the building were closed for renovations.<ref name=arson/>

==Construction and design==
The Carpenters Company was founded in 1724, but had no meeting house of their own, resorting to rented tavern rooms for their meetings. Carpenters Company members finally selected a new building site in 1768 on Chestnut Street, a few hundred feet from [[Benjamin Franklin]]'s home. Robert Smith submitted the plans for the design, but did not supervise the construction of the hall. The decision to proceed with construction was made on January 30, 1770. Construction was completed in August 1774.<ref>Peterson, Charles E. ''Robert Smith: Architect, Builder, Patriot, 1722–1777''. The Athenaeum of Philadelphia: 2000. 112–116.</ref>

==Inscription==
Over the south door of Carpenters' Hall reads the following inscription:
{{quote box|quote='''Within these Walls Henry, Hancock, & Adams inspired the Delegates of the Colonies With Verve and Sinew for the Toils of War'''|source=Inscription over south doorway of Assembly Room<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://tile.loc.gov/storage-services/master/pnp/habshaer/pa/pa1100/pa1131/data/pa1131data.pdf |title=Carpenters' Company Hall |work=[[Historic American Buildings Survey]] |publisher=Library of Congress |location=Washington, D.C. |page=5 |access-date=September 16, 2023}}</ref>|align=center|width=66%|qalign=center|border=1em|fontsize=110%}}

==See also==
{{Portal|Philadelphia|Architecture}}
* [[Continental Association]], the 1774 founding document and system created by the First Continental Congress for implementing a trade [[boycott]] with Great Britain
* [[List of National Historic Landmarks in Philadelphia]]
* [[National Register of Historic Places listings in Center City, Philadelphia]]
* [[Founding Fathers of the United States]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
{{Spoken Wikipedia|Wikipedia Audio - Carpenters Hall.wav|date=2018-11-01}}
{{commons category}}
* [http://www.carpentershall.org/ Official website]
* {{HABS |survey=PA-1398 |id=pa1131 |title=Carpenters' Company Hall |photos=10 |color=1 |dwgs=3 |data=11 |cap=2}}
* {{HABS |survey=PA-1398-D |id=pa1402 |title=Carpenters' Company, Rule Book (carpentry manual) |photos=39 |cap=1}}
* [https://archive.org/details/cu31924030089167 <!-- quote=inauthor:"Carpenters' Company of the City and County of Philadelphia". --> The Carpenters' Company of the City and County of Philadelphia published 1887]

{{Pennsylvania during the American Revolutionary War}}
{{Continental Association}}
{{National Register of Historic Places in Pennsylvania}}
{{Philadelphia}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:18th-century architecture in the United States]]
[[Category:American Revolutionary War museums in Pennsylvania]]
[[Category:American Revolutionary War sites]]
[[Category:Buildings and structures in Independence National Historical Park]]
[[Category:Buildings and structures on the National Register of Historic Places in Philadelphia]]
[[Category:Carpenters' trade unions]]
[[Category:Chestnut Street (Philadelphia)]]
[[Category:Clubhouses on the National Register of Historic Places in Pennsylvania]]
[[Category:Continental Congress]]
[[Category:Federal architecture in Pennsylvania]]
[[Category:Former national capitol buildings in the United States]]
[[Category:Government buildings completed in 1773]]
[[Category:Historic American Buildings Survey in Philadelphia]]
[[Category:Historic district contributing properties in Pennsylvania]]
[[Category:Museums in Philadelphia]]
[[Category:National Historic Landmarks in Pennsylvania]]
[[Category:Old City, Philadelphia]]