Welcome back to National Parks & other public lands with T! If you are seeing this on Twitter or Facebook, please visit the blog to see all of the photos and read the story by clicking the link.
Philadelphia City Hall was constructed from 1871 to 1901 and was designed to be the tallest building in the world at 548 feet. By the time it was finished, it had been surpassed by the Washington Monument and the Eiffel Tower.
With 700 rooms and 22-foot supporting masonry walls, it is the largest municipal building in the United States. It houses all three branches of the city government.
The 37 foot statue of city founder William Penn tops the tower and is the largest statue on top of any building in the world.
Fun fact: The construction of One Liberty Place ended the decades-old gentlemen’s agreement to limit the height of other city buildings to William Penn’s hat brim. This was said to have cursed the Philly sports teams until another Penn statue was erected on the Comcast building just before the Phillies won the World Series in 2008.
The clock faces in the tower are 26 feet in diameter, three feet larger than London’s Big Ben. There is a small glass-enclosed observation deck just below the base of the statue which we have never been able to visit since it’s only open during business hours. We did get to the top of One Liberty on our last visit for views of City Hall and the rest of Philadephia.
Location: 1400 John F Kennedy Blvd, Philadelphia, PA 19107
Designation: National Historic Landmark
Date designation declared: 1976
Date of my visit: August 11, 2017
Spectacular photos, people ask for this at the visitor center
Thanks! I usually park by there and walk to independence
A photo of Penn’s hat was recently featured in the N.Y. Times feature of 50 photos from 50 states quiz. Though I’ve been to Philadelphia, I was not aware of this building. It’s astonishing that the city could fund the construction of such a magnificent edifice.
It is impressive to walk through.
Nice work getting those wildflowers into the shot of City Hall.
Thanks! I think I had the wide angle on
Great images as usual. And thanks for the story too.
Thanks 🙏🏻
Great perspectives and I really love the first picture with the wild flowers framing the lower half!
Thanks 🙏🏻
Thank you for the kind words on my blog “MywalkinManhattan.com”. I appreciated it. I hope you got a chance to spend some time in the Reading Market. Three of the restaurants on my DiningonaShoeStringinNYC blog are located there, The Dutch Eating Place, Beiler’s Doughnuts and Carmine’s Cheesesteaks, which I think are some of the best in Philly. If you go back to Philly at the holidays, don’t miss the Christmas Light Show at Macy’s. Check out my blog on Visiting Philly at the holidays under ‘MywalkinManhattan.com”. Happy travels to you!
Yes I have been to Reading Market a few times when visiting Philadelphia 👍🏻
Since you are entering into New Jersey searching for new spots to visit, if you are in the area of Auntie El’s don’t miss their bakery or having lunch there. I have heard that their pulled pork sandwich is really good. Their bakery is amazing.