City Hall

Seat of Philadelphia's Local Government

Description

Rising 40 stories above Philadelphia, the gothic City Hall building is one of the city's most beautiful. It remained dominant over the city's skyline until the late 1980s, when the handshake agreement not to build above the 491-foot tall turn-of-the-century building was put to bed. Construction on City Hall originally began in 1871 and didn't finish until 1901, and in the time it took to build, architecture had moved away from the stone masonry construction that architect John MacArthur used, opting for lighter, steel-reinforced facades like those found in Chicago's renaissance. As such, the City Hall is the tallest stone masonry building in the world, meaning that the walls bear all of the load of the building. The enormous statue of William Penn that caps off the building was designed by Alexander Milne Calder, who also sculpted all of the works on the building's exterior. There is a free guided tour offered by the city every weekday at 12:30pm, which will show you the building as well as the tower with it's magnificent views of the city.