rt has been made to present a representative
collection that does justice to the annals and building genius of this
remarkable city.

[Illustration: PLATE LXXXVI.--Carpenter's Hall, off Chestnut Street,
between South Third and South Fourth Streets. Erected in 1770; Old
Market House, Second and Pine Streets.]

[Illustration: PLATE LXXXVII.--Main Building, Pennsylvania Hospital.
Erected in 1755.]

Probably the most famous historical monument in the United States is
Independence Hall, on Chestnut Street between Fifth and Sixth streets.
Here the American nation really came into being and began to
function, and here come thousands of visitors annually to view in awed
admiration the greatest patriotic shrine of a free people. The building,
designed by Andrew Hamilton, speaker of the Assembly, and built under
his direction for the State House, was used for that purpose until 1799.
The foundations were laid in 1731, and the main building was ready for
occupancy in 1735, although the wings and steeple were not completed
until 1751. The steeple was taken down in 1781, but was restored to its
original condition by William Strickland in 1828, and further
restorations of the building to its original condition were effected
later by the city government. The east, or "Declaration" chamber, still
appears substantially as it did when that famous document was signed,
but the restoration of certain other rooms has been less satisfactory.
The building has been set apart by the city, which purchased it from the
State in 1816, as a museum of historical relics, and during the past
century has been used by various public offices and societies.

Many famous buildings of Colonial times were the work of amateur
architects, but this is without exception the finest contemporary
administrative building in America; a noble building rich in glorious
memories; nobler even than the Bulfinch State House at Boston or the
Maryland State House at Annapolis. It is an enduring monument to
Hamilton's versatility, showing that with his genius he might have won
distinction as an architect no less than as a barrister. His sense of
design, mass and proportion, his appreciation of the relative value and
most effective uses of classic detail and his ability to harmonize the
exigencies of the floor plan with attractive appearance were second to
those of no professional architect of his time.

Independence Hall is a stately structure of exceptionally well-balance