Assembly Room Hall Supreme Court Committee of Assembly’s Chamber Council Chamber Long Gallery
Although the 15 years required to build the State House must have been a source of irritation to legislators eager to occupy it, the completed building proved the time was well spent. A most ambitious project for that early date, it emerged a sturdily constructed brick edifice—described at the time as a “large handsome building”—with a facade 107 feet in length connected by closed arcades, or “piazzas,” to wing buildings some 50 feet long. The main building had a decked gable roof, balustraded between the chimneys and surmounted by a centrally located cupola. The interior arrangement of the State House provided suitable space for the various agencies of government. The first floor contained two chambers about 40 feet square, separated by a spacious center hall about 20 feet wide. The eastern chamber served as the meeting place of the Assembly. This room, in the words of a contemporary in 1774, was “finished in a neat but not elegant manner.” Since the Assembly’s sessions were usually secret, the room was provided with a door. The western chamber housed the Supreme Court of the Province and was entered through open archways. The staircase to the upper floor occupied the south end of the central hall. The Provincial Council, the Governor’s advisory body, met in a chamber approximately 20 by 40 feet in the southwestern corner of the upper floor. This room was separated by a small vestibule from a chamber in the southeast corner which was designed as a committee room of the Assembly. The entire Chestnut Street frontage was one room, called the “gallery,” or “long room,” measuring 100 by 20 feet. The gallery was used generally for public entertainment and banquets.
It is apparent that the State House was not elegantly furnished. Chairs, tables, curtains, screens, and other items purchased for the building were never unduly expensive. However, the silver inkstand, purchased from Philip Syng, of Philadelphia, for the table of the Speaker of the Assembly, and still preserved in Independence Hall, was a most unusual item which cost £25-16-0. The building appears to have been heated originally by open fireplaces for which stoves were later substituted. Lighting was not a serious problem since the meetings rarely continued until darkness; when they did, the Assembly ordered that candles be brought in. There is no known picture of the interior of the State House during the Colonial period; the earliest representation is a painting of the Assembly Room by Pine and Savage, “The Congress Voting Independence,” which was executed in 1784-86.
In January 1750, shortly after the State House was completed, the Assembly authorized the superintendents of the building to erect a tower to contain a staircase and belfry. Edmund Woolley was entrusted with the construction. By 1753, the tower was completed and the State House bell (now called the Liberty Bell), ordered in 1751, was hung.
The Assembly also ordered a “large Clock to strike on the Bell.” Subsequently, its works were installed in the attic of the State House, with clock faces in the end walls just below the eaves. Under the face of that clock in the west end, a masonry structure resembling a tall case clock was constructed, the hands of both timepieces being moved by rods connected with the mechanism in the attic. The steeple bell, however, was not used to strike the hours. A second bell was ordered by the Assembly, in 1752, for that purpose and was placed in a turret on the main roof just before the tower.
Andrew Hamilton, an eminent lawyer and Speaker of the Assembly, superintended the building of the State House. From a portrait copied by Adolf Wertmuller (1751-1811) from an original now lost. Courtesy Historical Society of Pennsylvania.
In February 1752, in order to accommodate its committees, the Assembly ordered the erection of a suitable room adjoining the southeast corner of the building. Work was begun immediately, and the room was completed some time during the following year. Demolished probably around 1812, the chamber was described by a contemporary as “a very elegant apartment.” This room also served as the library of the Assembly and was well equipped with sets of English statutes along with works on history and literature.
With the completion of the committee room and library, no additional structures were erected in the State House Yard during the Colonial period. However, other buildings were contemplated. On February 20, 1736, the Assembly reserved the lots on Chestnut Street at the corners of Fifth and Sixth Streets for the erection of a city hall and county courthouse within the next 20 years, but these buildings were not constructed until several years after the Revolution.