If this is Thursday it must be postcards, 473

Carpenters’ Hall, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

 

This postcard was distributed by Art Color Card Distributions of Cherry Hill, New Jersey with color by Mike Roberts of Berkeley, California.  The blurb on the reverse reads: “… was built in 1770 by the Carpenters’ Company, founded in 1724 by a group of master carpenters, as their hall.  Beginning September 5, 1774, the First Continental Congress met here almost daily.  Because of its historic importance, Carpenters’ Company in 1857 resolved to dedicate this hall as a patriotic shrine.”

The building is a two story, Georgian style, brick meeting hall.  It is the oldest craft guild meeting hall privately owned and still used by the Carpenters’ Company of the City and County of Philadelphia.  The land was purchased on behalf of the Company in 1768 by Benjamin Loxley, Robert Smith, and Thomas Nevell.  Robert Smith designed the hall based on town halls in Scotland, where he was born, and Italian villas in Palladio, Italy.  The first carpenters’ guild meeting was held in the hall in January 1771 until 1777 when the British Army captured Philadelphia.  It was in this hall that the Congress resolved to ban imports of slaves and discontinue slave trade within the colonies.  

The meeting hall served as a hospital for both British and American troops during the Revolutionary War.  In 1970 it was designated a National Historic Landmark and in 1982 the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission voted to recognize Carpenters’ Hall as the official birthplace of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.  Today it is open to the public for free with more than 150,000 tourists visiting annually.  It is also still used for the Carpenters’ Company meetings.

For additional information, see:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carpenters’_Hall
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carpenters'_Company_of_the_City_of_Philadelphia