Carpenter's Hall
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Carpenters' Hall
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(2009)
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| Location | 320 Chestnut Street Philadelphia, Pennsylvania |
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| Coordinates | 39°56′53″N 75°08′50″W / 39.94814°N 75.14722°WCoordinates: 39°56′53″N 75°08′50″W / 39.94814°N 75.14722°W |
| Built | 1770-1774 |
| Architect | Robert Smith |
| Architectural style | Georgian |
| NRHP Reference # | 70000552 |
| Significant dates | |
| Added to NRHP | April 15, 1970 |
| Designated NHL | April 15, 1970 |
Carpenters' Hall is a two-story brick building in the Old City neighborhood of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, that was a key meeting place in the early history of the United States. Completed in 1775 and set back from Chestnut Street, the meeting hall was built for and is still owned by the Carpenters' Company of the City and County of Philadelphia, the country's oldest extant craft guild. The First Continental Congress met here. The building was designated a National Historic Landmark on 15 April 1970 and is part of Independence National Historical Park.
Carpenters' Hall was designed by architect Robert Smith in the Georgian style based on both the town halls of Scotland, where Smith was born, and the villas of the Palladio in Italy. It would be first used as a meeting site by the guild on January 21, 1771, and would continue to hold annual meetings there until 1777 when the British captured Philadelphia. On April 23, 1773 (St. George's Day), it was used for the founding meeting of the Society of Englishmen and Sons of Englishmen.
The First Continental Congress of the United Colonies of North America met here from September 5 to October 26, 1774, since the Pennsylvania State House (Independence Hall) was being used by the moderate Provincial Assembly of Pennsylvania. It was here that Congress resolved to ban further imports of slaves and to discontinue the slave trade within the colonies, a step toward phasing out slavery in British North America. The building has a long history as an assembly place and has been the home to numerous tenants in the arts, sciences and commerce. The meeting hall served as a hospital for both British and American troops in the Revolutionary War, and other institutions in Philadelphia have held meetings in Carpenters' Hall, including Franklin's Library Company of Philadelphia, the American Philosophical Society, and the First and Second Banks of the United States. The federal Custom House in Philadelphia was located at Carpenter's Hall between 1802 and 1819, save for a brief interruption between January and April, 1811.
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