Independence National Historical Park, Philadelphia, Pa.

by Edward M. Riley

During the Civil War, the “Hall” (or Assembly Room) served a solemn purpose. From 1861 on, the bodies of many Philadelphia soldiers killed in the war, and, in 1865, the body of President Lincoln lay in state there. Such use of the room was not new, however, for John Quincy Adams, in 1848, Henry Clay, in 1852, and the Arctic explorer, Elisha Kent Kane, in 1857, lay in state in the venerable room.

In 1860, a movement was begun by the children of the public schools of Philadelphia to erect a monument to Washington. When the fund was nearly raised, the Councils provided a space on the pavement directly opposite the Chestnut Street entrance. The statue, executed by J. A. Bailey, was unveiled on July 5, 1869.

In 1855, the Assembly Room became a portrait gallery, following acquisition by the City of Charles Willson Peale’s oil paintings of Colonial and Revolutionary figures. (Note Liberty Bell on ornate pedestal in corner and Rush’s wooden statue of Washington in center background.) Engraving from Illustrated London News, December 15, 1860. Independence Hall collection.

Little beyond actual maintenance of the buildings seems to have occurred until 1872 when, with the approach of the Centennial of the Independence of the United States, a committee for the restoration of Independence Hall was named by the Mayor. The committee entered upon its duties with energy. Furniture believed to have been in the Assembly Room in 1776 was gathered from the State Capitol at Harrisburg and from private sources. Portraits of the “founding fathers” were hung in the room. The president’s dais was rebuilt in the east end of the room, and pillars, thought to have supported the ceiling, were erected. The red paint which had been applied to the exterior of the building was removed from the Chestnut Street side. When accumulated layers of paint were removed from the first floor interior walls, the long-hidden beauty of carved ornamentation was again revealed.

During the Centennial restoration project, a large bell (weighing 13,000 pounds) and a new clock were given to the City by Henry Seybert for the steeple of Independence Hall. This clock and bell are still in use.

The body of Elisha Kent Kane, Arctic explorer, lying in state in the Assembly Room of Independence Hall, 1857. Courtesy Philadelphia Free Library.

With the close of the Centennial celebration, Independence Hall experienced a period of quiet, disturbed only by the increasing numbers of visitors. Then toward the close of the 19th century, another restoration cycle began, but its emphasis was quite different from that of any in the past. Except for the replacement of the steeple in 1828, all restoration work heretofore had been concentrated in the east or Assembly Room on the first floor. Finally, in the 1890’s interest extended from the Assembly Room to the remainder of the building. An ordinance of the Common and Select Councils, approved by the Mayor on December 26, 1895, called for the restoration of Independence Square to its appearance during the Revolution. A committee of City officers concerned with public buildings and an advisory committee of leading citizens were named by the Mayor to carry out the work. On March 19, 1896, a resolution of the Councils granted permission to the Philadelphia Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution to proceed with the restoration of the old Council chamber on the second floor of Independence Hall.

Between 1896 and 1898, the committees and the Daughters of the American Revolution carried out a most extensive program of restoration. The office buildings designed by Robert Mills were replaced by wings and arcades which were more like those of the 18th century. The first-floor rooms of Independence Hall were restored, and the Daughters of the American Revolution attempted to restore the entire second floor to its Colonial appearance by reconstruction of the long room, the vestibule, and the two side rooms. A dummy clockcase, similar to that of the Colonial period, was rebuilt outside on the west wall, but the planned moving of the clock back to its 18th-century location was not carried out. With the completion of this work, the old State House had been restored to a close approximation of its original design. For the first time in almost a century the building appeared practically as it did during the American Revolution.