Part 4

With the 20th century, emphasis shifted from Independence Hall to the remainder of the group. Although some restoration work had been done in Congress Hall by the Colonial Dames of America in 1896, their efforts were confined to the Senate chamber and to one of the committee rooms on the upper floor. Additional restoration of Congress Hall was not undertaken until the American Institute of Architects became interested in the matter. In 1900, the Philadelphia Chapter of this organization made a study of the documentary evidence available on the building and began an active campaign for its restoration. Finally, in 1912, funds became available and the City authorized the beginning of work under the auspices of the Philadelphia Chapter. This was completed in the following year, and President Wilson formally rededicated the building. In 1934, additional work was done in the House of Representatives chamber.

The restoration of Congress Hall at Sixth Street brought into sharp contrast the condition of the Supreme Court building (Old City Hall) at Fifth Street. For many years the American Institute of Architects and other interested groups urged the City to complete restoration of the entire Independence Hall group by working on the Supreme Court building. This phase of the program, delayed by World War I, was not completed until 1922.

With the completion of restoration projects, the buildings on Independence Square presented a harmonious group of structures in substantially the appearance of their years of greatest glory. The neighborhood in which they were situated, however, had degenerated into a most unsightly area. Therefore, the improvement of the environs of Independence Hall, containing a large concentration of significant buildings, was the next logical development.

This movement to preserve the historic buildings in Old Philadelphia, and incidentally to provide a more appropriate setting for them, had long been considered. During World War II, the nationwide movement for the conservation of cultural resources became particularly active in Philadelphia, and much was done to coordinate the work of different groups. In 1942, a group of interested persons, including representatives of more than 50 civic and patriotic organizations, met in the Hall of the American Philosophical Society and organized the “Independence Hall Association.” This association was the spearhead of a vigorous campaign which resulted in stimulating official action to bring about the establishment of Independence National Historical Park Project.

Conceived as a means of reclaiming some of the neighborhood around Independence Square and to preserve the many significant historical buildings in the area for the benefit and enjoyment of the American people, the historical park is being developed by the concerted efforts of the City of Philadelphia, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and the United States of America.

In 1945, the State Government authorized the expenditure of funds to acquire the three city blocks between Fifth and Sixth Streets from the Delaware River bridgehead at Race Street to Independence Square. This project of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, officially designated “Independence Mall,” provides for the demolition of almost all buildings within the authorized area to make room for a great concourse, thereby forming a dignified approach to Independence Square. By the summer of 1953, all buildings in the first block, between Chestnut and Market Streets, had been demolished and the ground prepared for landscaping.

The Federal area was defined by an act of the Congress (Public Law 795, 80th Congress) after the matter had been studied intensively by a Federal commission named in 1946. The principal area covers three city blocks between Walnut and Chestnut from Fifth to Second Streets, with subsidiary areas on either side to include important historic sites, such as the property adjacent to old Christ Church, the site of Franklin’s home, and an area leading from Walnut Street to old St. Mary’s Church. A surprising number of significant buildings are included within the park boundaries. The First and Second Banks of the United States, the Philadelphia Exchange, and the Bishop White and Dilworth-Todd-Moylan houses are the principal historic buildings included in the Federal area. Carpenters’ Hall and Christ Church will not be purchased, but their preservation and interpretation have been assured through contracts with the Department of the Interior.

The contribution of the City of Philadelphia to the historical park is by far the most vital. On January 1, 1951, the custody and operation of the Independence Hall group of buildings and the square were transferred, under the terms of a contract, from the City to the National Park Service. The title to the property will remain with the City. Earlier, in 1943, the buildings were designated a national historic site by the Department of the Interior. Since assuming custody of the Independence Hall group, the National Park Service has carried out an extensive program of rehabilitation of these historic structures; also, many facilities for visitors have been provided for the dissemination of the history of the Independence Hall group, as well as that of the other structures in the park. In addition, a far-reaching project of historical and architectural research has been undertaken. The facts gathered in this research will enable plans to be developed which will assure the public of deriving the maximum benefit from a visit to this most important historical area.

It is fortunate that these old structures have survived, sometimes through accident rather than design, so that they may serve as tangible illustrations of this Nation’s history for the inspiration of this and succeeding generations of Americans.

_The Story of a Symbol_

The Liberty Bell is the most venerated symbol of patriotism in the United States; its fame as an emblem of liberty is worldwide. In the affections of the American people today it overshadows even Independence Hall, although veneration for the latter began much earlier. Its history, a combination of facts and folklore, has firmly established the Liberty Bell as the tangible image of political freedom. To understand this unique position of the bell, one must go beyond authenticated history (for the bell is rarely mentioned in early records) and study the folklore which has grown up.

The known facts about the Liberty Bell can be quickly told. Properly, the story starts on November 1, 1751, when the superintendents of the State House of the Province of Pennsylvania (now Independence Hall) ordered a “bell of about two thousand pounds weight” for use in that building. They stipulated that the bell should have cast around its crown the Old Testament quotation, “Proclaim liberty throughout all the land, unto all the inhabitants thereof.” Most likely, this phrase was chosen in commemoration of William Penn’s Charter of Privileges issued 50 years earlier.

Thomas Lester’s foundry at Whitechapel, in London, was the scene of casting the bell. Soon after its arrival in Philadelphia, in August 1752, the brand new bell was cracked “by a stroke of the clapper without any other viollence as it was hung up to try the sound.” At this juncture, those now famous “two ingenious workmen of Philadelphia,” Pass and Stow, undertook to recast the cracked bell. After at least one recorded failure to produce an instrument of pleasing tone, their efforts were successful, and, in 1753, the bell began its period of service, summoning the legislators to the Assembly and opening the courts of justice in the State House.

With the threat of British occupation of Philadelphia in 1777, the State House bell and other bells were hastily moved from the City to prevent their falling into British hands and being made into cannon. Taken to Allentown, the bell remained hidden under the floor of the Zion Reformed Church for almost a year. In the summer of 1778, upon the withdrawal of the British, it was deemed safe to return the bells to Philadelphia.

By 1773, the State House steeple had become so dangerously weakened that it was removed in 1781 and the bell lowered into the brick tower. Some 50 years later, in 1828, when the wooden steeple was rebuilt, a new and larger bell was acquired. The old bell, almost forgotten, probably remained in the tower. The new one was obtained, perhaps, because the original had either cracked or had shown indications of cracking. Traditionally, the fracture occurred while the bell was being tolled during the funeral procession of Chief Justice John Marshall some 7 years later. In 1846, an attempt was made to restore the bell’s tone by drilling the crack so as to separate the sides of the fracture. This attempt failed. The bell was actually tolled for Washington’s birthday, but for the last time, for the crack began to spread.

Now that the bell was mute, useless as a summoner or sounder of alarms, it began to assume a new and more vital role. Over the years it came to be a symbol of human liberty—a very substantial symbol of 2,080 pounds of cast metal—inscribed with the Biblical admonition to “proclaim liberty.”

It is difficult to find the exact beginnings of this veneration for the Liberty Bell. Independence Hall, the building with which it is so intimately associated, began its evolution as a patriotic shrine about the time of Lafayette’s visit in 1824, but the bell, rarely mentioned earlier, still received no notice. Illustrative of this lack of interest, perhaps, is the late 19th-century tradition, only recently disproved, that in 1828 the Liberty Bell was offered as scrap metal valued at $400 in partial payment to the manufacturer for the new State House bell.

Probably the first use of the bell as a symbolic device dates from 1839. In that year, some unknown person apparently noted the forgotten inscription on the bell. This was immediately seized upon by adherents of the antislavery movement who published a pamphlet, entitled _The Liberty Bell_. This is also the first known use of that name. Previously, the bell was called the Old State House Bell, the Bell of the Revolution, or Old Independence. That publication was followed by others which displayed the bell, greatly idealized, as a frontispiece. Thus the bell became identified with early antislavery propaganda, invoking the inscription of a promise of freedom to “all the inhabitants.” During this time, it is interesting to note, the symbolism of the bell served a narrow field; little, if any, thought was given it as a patriotic relic.

But patriotism was the next logical step. In the first half of the 19th century the bell became the subject of legendary tales which it has not been possible to verify. These legends have been recited in prose and poetry; they have found their way into children’s textbooks; and they have contributed greatly to rousing the patriotic enthusiasm of succeeding generations of Americans. Accepted by all classes of people, these legends have done more than anything else to make the bell an object of veneration.

The patriotic folklore apparently began with George Lippard, a popular novelist of Philadelphia. It was Lippard who wrote that most thrilling and irrepressible tale of the bell, the vivid story of the old bellringer waiting to ring the bell on July 4, 1776. This tale first appeared in 1847 in the Philadelphia _Saturday Courier_ under the name, “Fourth of July, 1776,” one of a collection called _Legends of the Revolution_.

The popularity of Lippard’s legend soon brought imitations. The noted Benson J. Lossing, gathering material for his popular _Field Book of the Revolution_, visited Philadelphia in 1848 and recorded the story. This gave the legend historical credence in the minds of Lossing’s host of readers. Taking the story presumably from Lossing, Joel Tyler Headley, another well-known historian, included it with certain variations of his own in his _Life of George Washington_, which was published first serially in 1854 in _Graham’s Magazine_ and then in book form.

Firmly established as history by Lossing and Headley, Lippard’s story also found poetic expression. The date of the first poem on this theme has not been established, but, once written, it found its way into school readers and into collections of patriotic verse. The most widely read was probably G. S. Hillard’s _Franklin Fifth Reader_, issued in 1871, although the poem had been in popular use for some time before. Beginning with “There was a tumult in the city, in the quaint old Quaker town,” the poem became a popular recitation piece which every schoolboy knew. The best known lines read:

Hushed the people’s swelling murmur, Whilst the boy cries joyously; “Ring!” he’s shouting, “ring, grandfather, Ring! Oh, ring for Liberty!” Quickly at the given signal The old bellman lifts his hand. Forth he sends the good news, making Iron music through the land.

The growing legend of the Liberty Bell aroused curiosity in the relic itself, hidden from view in the tower. It was consequently brought down to the first floor of Independence Hall. In 1852, during a convention of delegates from the Thirteen Original States in Independence Hall, the bell was placed on a temporary pedestal in the Assembly Room—the east room. Two years later the temporary platform was replaced by a massive pedestal having 13 sides ornamented by Roman fasces, liberty caps, and festooned flags. The bell was topped by Charles Willson Peale’s mounted eagle.

In this position the Liberty Bell remained until a more intense interest, awakened by the approaching celebration of the Centennial Anniversary, caused it to be moved to the hallway. Here it was mounted on its old wooden frame which had been found in the tower. A plain iron railing enclosed the bell and frame.

The bell stayed in this location for only a short time. A few years later it and the frame were placed in the Supreme Court Chamber—the west room—near one of the front windows. Displaying it in its heavy wooden frame evidently proved unsatisfactory, because the bell itself was practically concealed. The next move, therefore, was to suspend it from the ceiling of the tower room by a chain of 13 links.

Probably because the inscription was difficult to read while the bell was suspended from the chain, it was lowered about 1895, placed in a large, glass-enclosed mahogany case, and again put in the Assembly Room. For 20 years it remained in this case, located part of the time in the Assembly Room and part of the time in the tower room. Finally, it was decided that visitors should be permitted to touch the bell, which was removed from the glass case in 1915 and exhibited on a frame and pedestal. With the whole arrangement on wheels, it could be quickly rolled out of the building in an emergency. This is the manner in which it is displayed today. Located just inside the south, or tower, door, the Liberty Bell is illuminated at night so that visitors may see it from Independence Square.

The growing importance of the Liberty Bell as a patriotic symbol aroused popular demand for its movement around the country so that more people could see it. The first long journey was in the winter of 1885 to New Orleans and through the South. Later trips took the bell to Chicago in 1893, to Atlanta in 1895, to Charleston in 1902, to Boston in 1903, and to San Francisco in 1915. On each trip the arrival of the bell was the occasion for celebrations by patriotic groups and citizens, many of whom traveled long distances to see and touch the venerated relic. During these trips, however, the crack in the bell increased, and finally its condition became so dangerous that all future travel had to be prohibited.

The affectionate reverence inspired by the Liberty Bell is demonstrated by the endless stream of visitors who come to see it, touch it, or simply stand quietly beside it. No other patriotic relic in America has had a more distinguished visitation. Almost every President of the United States since Abraham Lincoln has come to Independence Hall to pay his respect to the Liberty Bell. Statesmen and great military leaders of the world have joined the masses of ordinary people in honoring it. Poets and other literary figures have attempted to express the meaning of the bell, and John Philip Sousa, the “March King,” composed a _Liberty Bell March_. It has been pictured on postage stamps, fifty cent pieces, and on national bond drive posters.

The Liberty Bell has served to arouse the patriotic instincts of more than one generation of Americans. It is today surrounded by a cloak of veneration. Even more, it has come to be regarded by countless millions throughout the world as the one great symbol of freedom, liberty, and justice.

_Guide to the Area_

The information which follows supplements that contained in the narrative of this handbook. It is so arranged as to enable the visitor to make his own tour of the area. The numbers given correspond to the numbers on the map of the park and vicinity. (See pages 32 and 33).

NO. 1. INDEPENDENCE HALL GROUP, Independence Square, comprises Independence Hall, east and west wings, Congress Hall, and the Supreme Court building (Old City Hall). INDEPENDENCE HALL, the center building, was erected between 1732 and 1753 as the State House of the Province of Pennsylvania; here the Declaration of Independence was adopted on July 4, 1776, the Continental Congress met during the American Revolution, and the Federal Constitutional Convention sat in 1787. The Liberty Bell is located on the first floor of the tower. The WING BUILDINGS, erected originally in the 1730’s, served as Provincial offices; they were torn down in 1812 and reconstructed in 1898. The buildings now serve as the Information Centers of the park. CONGRESS HALL, built as the County Courthouse in 1787-89, housed the Congress of the United States from 1790 to 1800. In the SUPREME COURT BUILDING, erected in 1789-91 as the City Hall of Philadelphia, sat the Supreme Court of the United States from 1791 to 1800. These buildings are open from 9 a. m. to 5 p. m. daily, including holidays. Visitors should begin their tours in the Information Center, west wing of Independence Hall.

NO. 2. PHILOSOPHICAL HALL (American Philosophical Society) on Independence Square. In 1785, the Assembly of Pennsylvania granted the lot to the society. The building, erected between 1785 and 1789, harmonizes in style with the other buildings on the square. The American Philosophical Society, the oldest and one of the most distinguished learned societies in America, was started in 1743 by Benjamin Franklin. The building, still occupied by the society, is not part of Independence National Historical Park and is not open to the general public.

NO. 3. LIBRARY HALL, (site of Library Company of Philadelphia), on northeast corner of Library and Fifth Streets. Founded in 1731 by Benjamin Franklin and his friends, the Library Company of Philadelphia was the first subscription library in the American Colonies. From 1790 to 1880, the library was housed in an attractive building on this site. The structure was demolished about 1884.

NO. 4. SECOND BANK OF THE UNITED STATES (Old Custom House), 420 Chestnut Street. The building, patterned after the Parthenon by the architect William Strickland, and considered one of the finest examples of Greek revival architecture in the United States, was erected between 1819 and 1824 to house the Second Bank of the United States. After a bitter controversy between President Jackson and the Whigs over the renewal of the charter, the bank closed in 1836. It was then chartered by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, but finally failed in 1841. From 1845 to 1934, the building was the Philadelphia Custom House. In 1939, the Treasury Department transferred the building to the Department of the Interior. It has been partially restored to its original design under the guidance of the National Park Service. Now exhibited and maintained by the Carl Schurz Memorial Foundation, the building is open to the public Monday through Friday from 9 a. m. to 5 p. m.

NO. 5. DILWORTH-TODD-MOYLAN HOUSE, on northeast corner of Fourth and Walnut Streets. This small brick row house, typical of colonial Philadelphia, was built by Jonathan Dilworth, merchant, about 1775. From 1791 to 1793, it was the home of John Todd, Jr., and his wife, Dolly Payne. Following Todd’s death during the yellow fever epidemic of 1793, his widow married James Madison, Congressman from Virginia, who later became the fourth President of the United States. From 1796 to 1810, it was the home of Gen. Stephen Moylan, mustermaster general and cavalry officer during the Revolution and commissioner of loans in 1793. The building is not open to the public pending its restoration by the National Park Service.