Philadelphia - Independence National Historic Park: Independence Hall Assembly Room

            The Assembly Room in Independence Hall, where the Declaration of Independence and US Constitution were drafted and adopted, has been curated according to documentary evidence to look as it did in 1700s.  The room contains two original artifacts to the room--the Speaker's chair, now known as the Rising Sun chair, and a decorative carved frieze, which are paired with a number of other historic furnishings that date to the time.  The seating arrangement, with the northern states on the north side of the room and the southern states on the south side of the room, is conjectural. This room reflects elements of both the Second Continental Congress and Constitutional Convention.   Objects with a connection to signers of the Declaration of Independence, like the green shark's skin case with spectacles that once belonged to William Ellery (RI), and the goose quill pen that Caesar Rodney (DE) owned, are on display although it is not known if they were ever used in the room.

In the front of the room sits the chair known today as the Rising Sun chair.  John Folwell made this chair for the Speaker of the Pennsylvania legislature in 1779. It remains a mystery as to who selected the symbols carved on the chair. Ancient symbols for liberty - the liberty cap and pole - appear on the chair's crest rail. The cornucopias and wheat sheaves on the chair's back probably speak to Pennsylvania's agricultural bounty. This chair achieved lasting fame as the seat for George Washington as the President of the Constitutional Convention. When the Pennsylvania legislature moved on to the new state capitals - Lancaster in 1799 and Harrisburg in 1812 - they took the chair with them. The legislature returned the chair to the City of Philadelphia for display in the Assembly Room on George Washington's birthday in 1867.
  
Independence Hall, which forms the centerpiece for of the Independence National Park on Chestnut Street between 5th and 6th Streets, was built between 1732 and 1753 to the Georgian style design of Edmund Woolley and Andrew Hamilton, the Speaker of the Pennsylvania Assembly.  It initially served as the Pennsylvania State House from and served as the capitol for the Province and Commonwealth of Pennsylvania until the state capital moved to Lancaster in 1799.  But was the events that took place between 1775 and 1787 that earned it the name Independence Hall and its iconic status as the Birthplace of the Nation. It was the principal meeting place of the Second Continental Congress from 1775 to 1781 and the Constitutional Convention in 1787, where the United States Declaration of Independence and the United States Constitution were respectively debated and adopted by America's Founding Fathers.

Facaded in red brick, the hall consists of a central building with bell tower and steeple, reaching 168-feet and 7-1/4 inches at the tip of the spire, attached to two smaller wings which were  demolished and replaced twice, most recently in 1898, via arcaded hyphens.  The bell tower, consisting of a wooden steeple set atop the three-story brick house, was added in 1828 by William Strickland replacing an earlier rotted wooden one, was the original home of the Liberty Bell

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Taken in: United States / Pennsylvania / Philadelphia / Old City (show map)

Taken on: September 4, 2022

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Philadelphia

Pennsylvania

Old City

Independence Hall

Assembly Room

rising sun

Rising Sun Chair

chair

speaker's chair

Independence Mall

Independence Square

Independence National Park

Independence National Historical Park

Independence National Park Historic District

landmark

National Historic Park

Independence NHP

NHP

INHP

National Register of Historic Places

NRHP

U.S. National Register of Historic Places

historic district

U.S. Historic District

1776

american revolution

revolutionary war

UNESCO

World Heritage Site

UNESCO World Heritage Site

UNESCO World Heritage

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Sets appears in: • Philadelphia: Old City

Groups appears in: • U.S. National Park Service

Camera: Apple iPhone 12 Pro, f/1.6, 1/40 sec, 4.2mm, ISO 640 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	Apple iPhone 12 Pro
Aperture:	f/1.6
Exposure Time:	0.025 sec (1/40)
Focal Length:	4.2mm
ISO:	640
Exposure Bias:	0 EV
Flash:	Off, Did not fire
Exposure Program:	Program AE
Exposure Mode:	Auto
Metering Mode:	Multi-segment
White Balance:	Auto
Color Space:	sRGB
Software:	PhotoScape
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