Philadelphia's City Hall

Images of America: Pennsylvania

by Allen M. Hornblum, George J. Holmes

At the crossroads of Center City, Philadelphia, stands city hall, an architectural and sculptural masterpiece whose size and beauty rival the grand structures found in the capitals of Europe. Shortly after the Civil War, city hall embraced the community's need for a new municipal building while filling the visionary desire of its designers to underscore Philadelphia's reputation as "the Athens of America." Thirty years later stood a monumental structure that was easily the largest building in North America and one of the most beautiful, displaying over two hundred fifty pieces of sculpture. Philadelphia's City Hall illuminates the fascinating account of the building's controversial origin, its symbolic sculptural program, and the largest statue topping a building in the world. These stunning photographs highlight a marvel of masonry and community vision created by a city with the desire to show the world what it could produce.

Genres: History, Local History

128 pages, Paperback

First published November 10, 2003

Reviews

[Kurt Weber · Rating 4 out of 5]

The authors must have received government funding for each time they managed to mention that the Eiffel Tower and Washington Monument are taller, they are not functioning buildings-a phrase which was mentioned almost verbatim an impressive eleven times.

[Petey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty pictures.

Not an amazing historical resource, information is repetitive.

Favorite part? Learning that critics of city hall called it a “magnificent pile”.

[Alexys · Rating 3 out of 5]

great overview of city hall. some of the dates didn't match up though; it was mentioned that the statue of penn was put in the courtyard for passersby to admire in 1894 and stayed there for a year (pg 66), but on pg 63 it says in 1892 (three years after the opening of the tacony iron and metal works) the statue was moved to the courtyard. and the statue was placed atop the statue in November 1894 so.... a little more proofreading and double checking would have been helpful. otherwise, very interesting.

[Robert · Rating 1 out of 5]

Equally as bad as his 'book' on the River Wards - this one adds annoyingly repetitive captions to the authors list of sins. Did you know the Statue of William Penn on top of the tower is 37 feet tall? You'll read that tidbit a dozen times. How about the fact there used to be 552 light bulbs in the clock? Holmes will remind you 1/2 dozen times if you're foolish enough to read this yourself. Avoid this 'book' at all costs.