USA > Pennsylvania > Philadelphia County > Philadelphia > An historical account of the old State house of Pennsylvania now known as the Hall of Independence > Part 16
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21
After the removal to the Philosophical Society, " Mr. Peale was constantly engaged in adding to the value and interest of his collec- tions by the labor of his own hands." Many of the portraits known as " the Peale Collection," were painted while in this building. Wash- ington himself here sat to him, and simultaneously to his brother and two sons, giving rise to the bon-mot of a Philadelphia punster on meet- ing Mrs. Washington, who mentioned the fact to him, " Madam, the President will be peeled all round, if he don't take care."
It is also stated that Mr. Peale started a Zoological Garden, in the rear of the Hall. Besides the wild beasts in the enclosure, an Ameri- can Eagle 1 was exhibited in a large cage, on which was this inscrip- tion, " Feed me daily, one hundred years."
1 This identical eagle, carefully stuffed, ere yet the hundred years had elapsed, is
CHARLES WILLSON PEALE.
155
PEALE'S MUSEUM.
The accommodations here proving inadequate for his largely in- creasing stock of curiosities, Mr. Peale made application to the Legis- lature for the use of the State House. Accordingly, in 1802, the whole of the second floor, together with Independence Chamber itself, were granted to him rent free. At the request, however, of the Supreme Court of the State he relinquished Independence Chamber for their use.
Under date of April 9, 1802, he writes to a friend in Baltimore : "I am excessively busy in preparing the State House of this city to place my Museum therein. The Legislature having made me a grant of it during their pleasure, and which it will not be difficult for me to transform to during my pleasure,1 as the increase and improvement of this School of Nature shall become so much the favorite of the Public and the utility made manifest to all men, so that further aid will also follow. It ought to be national property, since it is truly a national good, and requires, and is well deserving, an appropriation of greater funds than an individual can afford."
Mr. Peale now gave up his profession and devoted himself to the permanent establishment and enlargement of his Museum.
In the "long gallery," or banqueting hall, he placed his Portrait Gallery of distinguished people. painted from the life, chiefly by him- self and by his son Rembrandt Peale. These were arranged in two rows over the cases. The latter, about twelve feet in height, contained a large collection of birds, duly classified and arranged, according to Linnæus's system ; while, in the background, was the scenery appro- priate to each, - mountains, plains, water, etc. The genus and species were noted in the Latin, English, and French languages.
Insects, properly classified, were also here exhibited ; and those " too small to be examined with the naked eye are placed in microscopic wheels." A perfect skeleton of the mammoth which had been found in New York, " after great exertion " was obtained and placed in one of the ante-chambers. " The Marine Room " contained many am- phibious animals, as well as every variety of fishes, while the tops of their cases were ornamented "with artificial rock-work supporting corals, sea-fans, and other marine productions." Minerals and fossils were also displayed, arranged according to Kirwan. " Among the clays," says Mr. Peale, "are some American specimens, equal to those
now in the National Museum of Independence Hall, and to many of the old gentle- men of to-day, reviving as it does their childish recollections of " the first Zoo," it forms a highly interesting feature.
1 Mr. Peale, as will be seen, retained the building until his death.
156
HISTORY OF INDEPENDENCE HALL.
of which the finest porcelain is made in China or France ; various fine colored earths proper for pigments ; a variety of handsome crystals and precious stones, among which is the North American topaz.''
No essential change in the building was made, for the occupancy by Peale, for his Museum. He constructed, however, a room over the stairway in the main hall, of a temporary character, in which he pre- pared subjects and deposited the stores of duplicates, intended for ex- change for subjects from other quarters of the globe, and also the library of natural history, etc. After acquisition of the property by the city, the authorities required the removal of this room, on account of the injury caused to the architectural beauties of the stairway ; but, as he urged, that it was an indispensable appendage for the necessary
ABI
Admit . Do 9. Pathe i M. Pat's Picture Gallery and Alluseum.
For the Year
July 10.
work and improvement of the Museum " which is always receiving and possessing valuable articles of natural history, which require our ut- most exertions to find place for their display in proper order, without this room. the Museum cannot be improved or even maintained; it is confessed to be a valuable repository for diffusing knowledge to the citizens generally, and also an attractive inducement to strangers to visit and spend their money amongst us." This protest, it is believed was effectual ; the little room was not removed until Mr. Peale's death, upon the reconstruction of the steeple.
A sign-board " Museum " was placed over the front door.
The city authorities, in March, 1812, asked permission of the Legis- lature, and were allowed to remove a portion of the wings, including the arcades and the connecting square offices, and to construct build- ings for the public uses of the day. This was accomplished in 1813.
157
PURCHASE BY THE CITY.
The new buildings were carefully planned, and erected by Robert Mills, the architect, and as consistent with the symmetry and architec- ture of the State House and corner buildings as their general needs admitted, the same line of exterior walls was nearly preserved, except as to the recess immediately adjoining the main building, which was widened towards Walnut Street. This closed the two southernmost doors in Independence Chamber and in the Judicial Chamber. The only relic, then in consequence removed, was the case of the old clock; the case itself was modified and suffered to remain till 1828.1
Within a few years after this was effected, under an act of the Legislature of March 11, 1816, the city of Philadelphia became the actual owner of the whole property. The deed of sale was formally executed June 29, 1818, for and in consideration of the sum of seventy thousand dollars. [Recorded in the office of Recorder of Deeds for City of Philadelphia, in Deed Book MR., No. 20, p. 241.]
The State reserved in favor of the Philosophical Society the rights already granted to that body; the public interests were not over- looked, but a restriction was laid upon the grantees "that no part of said ground lying to the southward of the State House, within the wall as it is now built, be made use of for erecting any sort of build- ings thereon ; but the same shall be and remain a public green and walk forever."
Several changes seem to have taken place at this time.
Congress Hall was slightly modified (no doubt the entrance on Sixth Street was then constructed), and fitted up for the Supreme Court of the State. which since 1802 had been sitting in Independ- ence Chamber. The Hall of Representatives. or a part thereof on the first floor, was assigned to the District Court of the City and County of Philadelphia, a tribunal at one time as highly respected as the Supreme Court, and which probably sat from its organization, in 1811, in the Colonial Supreme Court Room ; this latter at the time of the purchase by the city seems to have been relinquished to the Mayor's Court.2
1 In January, 1830, upon petition from citizens, this clock, together with the old bell -the second one imported from England, - were given to the congregation of St. Augustine's Church in North Fourth Street, with the right reserved to the municipality to reclaim the same should it be so determined. They were both de- stroved by fire with the church.
2 It may be as well to note here that this chamber was afterwards used by the Court of Common Pleas, a bench onee occupied by OSWALD THOMPSON, as Chief Justice, a great jurist, an upright judge, a pure man, and an accomplished gentle- man.
158
HISTORY OF INDEPENDENCE HALL.
The United States Circuit and District Courts seem generally to have occupied the old United States Senate Chamber, while it is likely the old Court of Common Pleas, after the demolition of the Court House, on Market Street, had, up to this time, exclusive possession of the old Hall of Representatives.
Few of the associations, since the city's ownership, are calculated to increase our attachment to this venerated building.
In 1824, Lafayette visited Philadelphia. It was considered appro- priate that Independence Chamber should be fitted up to enable him to formally receive the citizens. This was accordingly done, though apparently more in a mode to suit the notions of the day, than with any effort to recall the memories of 1776.1 Still the selection of the place was fruitful of results, for attention was thus again drawn to the State House, and upon what was nearly the centennial of the date of its erection, a resolution was introduced in the Common Council, which led to a partial restoration of the building.
Messrs. Francis Gurney Smith and Benjamin Tilghman, of Com- mon Council, and Manuel Eyre and John W. Thompson, of the Select Council, were appointed a committee to carry out the resolution of- fered by the first named : --
" Resolved, by the Select and Common Councils, That a joint committee of two members from each Council be appointed, to have the turret in the rear of the State House surveyed, and, if found adapted to the purpose, to procure a plan and estimate of the cost of carrying it up to a height sufficient to place a clock and bell therein, to be called the 'City Clock,' from which the time for the whole city can be regulated." 2
Messrs. William Strickland, Daniel Groves, John O'Neill, and John Struthers, practical architects and builders, were accordingly called upon to survey the building and submit plans and estimates, on 14th February, 1828. They accordingly stated to the Committee, that having examined the square tower, in the rear of the State House, with reference to its strength and capability of supporting a super- structure, they found that the foundation walls were three feet in thickness at the base, and eighteen inches at the top, being carried up
1 The wooden statue of Washington, carved by William Rush, so celebrated for his figure-heads to ships, was now placed in this chamber on deposit.
2 The desire to have a clock and bell upon this occasion, led to a result most gratifying to the next generation. We will hope that the present effort to super- sede these for reasons best known to the projectors, may not be a source of regret to the present or succeeding generations.
159
RESTORATION OF STEEPLE.
with good substantial brick-work, to the height of sixty-nine feet, having regular offsets on the outside at each of the stories. The walls of the upper story are thirty-one feet square, being tied to- gether with girders; and a strong trussed framing of oak and gum timber ; that no departure from stability then appeared in any part of the building, except a slight crack in the southern face of the wall, immediately over the arch of the large Venetian window, which must have occurred shortly after the tower was built ; that it had been caused by the opening of the window being so great, as to throw the largest portion of the weight of the walls toward the external angles of the tower ; they stated their opinion, however, that this circum- stance did not at all affect the strength of the building, and that two stories of brick-work, eighteen inches in thickness, and comprising about twenty-eight or thirty feet in height, could be added to the existing walls with perfect safety ; and " by a continuation of the framing alluded to, connecting it with strong diagonal girders, attached by iron clamps to the walls of each of these stories, a wooden cupola and spire," they go on to say, "could be firmly and easily con- structed."
This statement and opinion were submitted by the Committee, ac- cordingly, to Councils, and they reported that they had also received a proposal from Mr. Isaiah Lukens, to make a clock for the city, and a proposal from Mr. John Wilbank to cast a bell, to be placed in the cupola of the turret. That the expenses of carrying up the turret according to the plan proposed, of which a drawing by Mr. Strick- land was submitted, and stated to be in fact a restoration of the spire originally erected with the building, and standing there on 4th July, 1776, and putting a clock and bell therein would be :
Expenses of carrying up the Turret and Cupola $8,000
Clock 2,000
Bell, 4,000 lbs. at 45 cts., $1,800 (Allowed for old Bell $400) 1,400
$11,400
Cost of painting Turret and incidental expenses
600
Total estimate $12,000
" The value of the old clock," say they, "is left out of view, as from its age ard condition, it is not considered of more value than old metal, except the dials, which might be used for the new clock, and an allowance made for them by the maker.
" In making this report to Councils, your committee are impressed
160
HISTORY OF INDEPENDENCE HALL.
with the necessity of having a uniform time for the city, which would be obtained, by having a good clock under the superintendence of a careful person.
" The carrying up of the turret would also contribute greatly to the ornament of our city, which is so deficient in embellishments, which in other cities, are considered as indispensable. From what your com- mittee have learned since their appointment, the carrying into effect of the plan proposed by them, would meet the approbation of the city at large, and is anxiously and heartily wished for by all. Your com- mittee do not deem it necessary to expatiate upon the utility that the accomplishment of the object before you would be in case of fires, in affording an opportunity of discovering them, and giving the alarm in a much more effectual manner than at present."
The committee, therefore, asked that they be authorized to perfect, and carry out, the plan submitted. The discussion which ensued shows how the prevalence of a more correct taste and due apprecia- tion of Independence Hall, among the citizens of Philadelphia, was beginning to exercise its legitimate effect upon Councils.
The chairman. in enforcing the passage of the resolution, stated that the citizens of Philadelphia seemed to be unanimous in regard to the proposed improvement, and he hoped a like unanimity would be found to prevail in Councils.
Mr. Wayne objected to the question being hastily decided. He doubted if the tower would sustain as heavy a superstructure as it was proposed to raise on it. The clock, then in use, might well last for fifty years.
Mr. Tilghman said : "If there is anything proverbial, it is the bad- ness of the clock at the State House. It is an excusing not a regu- lating clock. It is a clock which affords no rule to go by, but a rule not to go by, for everybody knows it can never go right." He stated that " the plan of Mr. Strickland had been preferred, on account of its being a restoration of the old steeple. If there were a spot on earth, on which space might be identified with holiness, it would be the spot on which the old State House stands. It is a sacred spot, a sacred building." He also expressed his regret that unhallowed hands had ever been permitted to touch it, and regarded the rebuilding of the steeple as an entering wedge for restoring the building to the state in which it stood in 1776.
Mr. Smith said he must correct the error of his friend. "The plan of rebuilding coincides with the original plan as far as is possibly con- sistent with durability, and the use for which the steeple is intended.
161
RESTORATION OF STEEPLE.
Two stories of brick-work are substituted for the wood-work, which used to be a part of the superstructure of the present tower." Brick, he stated, had been preferred to wood to prevent a vibration which would damage the clock as a time-keeper; and to bear the great weight of the bell ; "I would prefer," he continued, "rebuilding the steeple exactly according to the original plan, but that would not be possible if an improved clock and bell are to be placed therein." The cupola and spire he claimed to be exact copies of the original.
Mr. Troth remarked that regard to his own character compelled him to say that the plan submitted was not a copy of the original steeple. "That was very handsome, this is very far from being so. By carrying up the turret two stories higher with brick, without any offsets, instead of the old wood-work, the effect of the original is en- tirely destroyed. Our character is at stake as men of taste and as admirers of antiquity, and I hope we will not proceed hastily in this business."
Mr. Lowber : "So far from being an ornament to the city, it would be a deformity ; so far from recalling to mind the venerable pile that stood on the spot, it would efface the remembrance of it altogether. It is not the ancient design. I would rejoice to see that building re- stored to its ancient state - to the precise state in which it was when the glorious event to which it owes its celebrity was consummated. But no man will be able to look at that building with its new (pro- posed brick) steeple and be able to persuade himself that it represents the ancient State House. If the original features of the building can- not be preserved, I would much rather the whole were demolished, that we might by some handsome monument point out the spot where the glorious Declaration of our National Independence was agreed upon."
Mr. Tilghman : "No man shall ever say of me that I took advantage of the excitement of the moment to press through a favorite measure. I again say that I regard the rebuilding of the steeple as the entering wedge for restoring the building to its original state. The restoration of it is now possible, as persons are now living who remember the ex- act appearance of every part. Fifty years hence it will be impossible. The old door, the old roof, all the ancient characteristics of the building, might be restored at the expense of a few hundred dollars, and I, for one, am determined to make the effort."
Mr. Walmsley had come to the Council Chamber prepared to vote for steeple, clock, and bell, but he was now convinced that carrying up the turret with two stories of brick would destroy the effect of the original plan.
162
HISTORY OF INDEPENDENCE HALL.
Mr. Johnson had conversed with a number of respectable persons on the subject, and found them all in favor of the clock and bell, and careless of the expense of rebuilding the steeple, provided the build- ing were restored to its original form. He moved to postpone the further consideration of the resolution for the present.
Mr. Smith said the Committee would like to know what the mem- bers of Council desired.
Mr. Lowber had no difficulty in answering for himself : he wished to see the old steeple restored ; with two stories of brick work, to receive the clock and bell, but of precisely the same form as the old wood- work, and to be painted in resemblance of it.
Mr. Smith replied this would be impossible, as the walls of the tur- ret are only eighteen inches in thickness at top ; it will not be practi- cable to make the different offsets in brick-work without carrying up a new wall from the foundation, inside of the present tower.
Mr. Lowber : " I should like to know the expense of completing the steeple in this way. A picture of the original steeple has just been placed in my hand, that I may contrast it with the plan reported by the Committee. Why, no man who had ever seen the original, and who was called to look on the State House, with the new steeple, could believe he was in the same country ; he would suppose he was on a different side of the Atlantic. The ancient steeple was very handsome. This is a mammoth chimney - so it would be called if it was ever erected - a straight mass of walls ; a short tower ; there is no beauty, no symmetry about it."
Fortunately the objections, thus made, prevailed. Another plan was obtained from Mr. Strickland, and adopted. In this, the two stories of brick were dispensed with, and the steeple restored very nearly to its original. Openings, however, for the four faces of the clock were made, and thus practically the views of both sides were accomplished.
'The completion of the new steeple was celebrated upon 4th July, 1828, and " a grand raising frolic was given, in the long room of the State House, to the workmen, and there was a very good time." Ac- cording to programme Lukens made the clock, and Wilbank, the bell, - the latter was completed and placed in position on 11th September following. It is stated that " the dimensions of this bell were scien- tifically calculated previously to being cast, and so accurately, that the weight was in excess only seventy-five pounds, its total weight being 4,275 pounds, and cost $1,923.75." 1
1 This bell was short-lived, but like its great predecessor proved so unsatisfactory
INDEPENDENCE HALL, 1876. (REAR VIEW.)
163
EFFORTS AT RESTORATION.
This vaunt, however, is not sustained by the estimate submitted in advance to Councils, as its weight was to be 4,000 pounds. Still, as the increase, over the intended, weight of the original bell was but eighty pounds, it would not appear that our more modern bell-founder could plume himself on any progression in " scientific calculation " in the intervening seventy-five years.
Mr. Lowber's words fell upon fallow ground, and we find that in July, 1830, petitions were sent to the Councils to restore the old Hall to its original condition, and to require for the future that the cham- ber should be used for " dignified purposes only." In the early part of the following year, a plan for restoring Independence Chamber was accordingly submitted to, and approved by, Councils. It was drawn by Mr. Haviland, and as he confined himself to the reinstating such por- tions of the paneling as had been removed (but fortunately preserved in the attic of the State House), and only eked out the missing portions which, he assures us, were " trifling," the results are very satisfactory.
Mr. Haviland, in his report to Thomas Kittera, Esq., dated March 29, 1831, conceives, - though fortunately so imperfectly that he could not carry it out, - at the western end of the room a gallery forsooth, and, as if this did not open the Assembly or Congress sufficiently to the public, he further imagines, an arcade opening into the vestibule " on either side of the entrance, similar to the one through which you pass to the staircase." Two conceits, more antagonistic to the practice of the times, of " closed doors," could not well have been brought forth. The arcade is entirely irreconcilable to the finish of the vestibule, which has fortunately never been tampered with.
Disposition was now shown by Councils to adorn the chamber, and the first purchase was Rush's Statue of Washington, in the fall of this year. Mr. Rush states, in his application for the purchase, that he had executed it about 1812, and that he had frequently modeled Gen- eral Washington, in his life-time, as well in miniature as of life-size ; that this statue was the result of a labor of four months, and that he had been sixty years in the business. He winds up with the state- ment : " The figure is excavated, and saturated with oil, and will be as durable as any furniture, etc." His price was five hundred dollars.
that Mr. Wilbank was required to cast another, which was placed in position De- cember 27, 1828. It weighed forty-six hundred pounds, and was struck for the first time at three o'clock, December 30, when was used the new arrangement of a ham- mer striking the hour by means of the clock-works. It is said that by New Year's day of 1829, the whole machinery was in perfect and satisfactory operation.
[In 1876 a bell and clock were presented to the city by Henry Seybert, but, like that of its predecessors, the tone of the bell was unsatisfactory, and it was re-cast .- [ Editor of Second Edition. ]
16-4
HISTORY OF INDEPENDENCE HALL. .
At the close of 1832, Roberts Vaux and Thomas I. Wharton, a committee of a society formed for commemorating the landing of William Penn, presented to the city the full-length portrait of the Founder by Inman, and desired that it might be placed in Indepen- dence Hall. They expressed an earnest hope on the part of the Society, that a gallery of portraits of distinguished Pennsylvanians might be thus commenced. Councils cordially approved of the design of the Society, and authorized the portrait to be placed in the building.
After these repairs and improvements to Independence Chamber were made, "it was no easy matter," says Mr. Westcott, in his " History of Philadelphia," " to obtain a sight of its interior. The key was in the custody of the janitor of the steeple, and that Caleb Quotemish sort of a functionary was expected to look out for fires, both by day and by night, to keep the building in order, to act as guardian of the sacred Hall, and to play the cicerone, to all strangers who made pil- grimages thither. It is no wonder, under these circumstances, that very few, of the many who desired to visit the spot, were ever gratified by accomplishing more than the obtaining of a peep through the key- hole."
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.