Existing comment:
Directly in front is Independence Hall. The statue is of John Barry, a captain of the U.S. navy. He was one of the first captains in the new colonial navy. In 1776, his ship captured an English gunboat, the first war vessel captured by a commissioned Continental naval officer. The British blockade caused him to shift to army duties and he fought with Washington at Trenton and Princeton. Later, he returned to the navy and captured more vessels. When the new country's navy was formed after the war, Washington appointed him as the first captain of the navy. When he died in Philadelphia in 1803, he was usually called "commodore" although there was no official rank of that. This bronze statue to him was erected in 1907. The yard itself is called Independence Square. From a sign:
The State House Yard, now known as Independence Square, was the scene of both turmoil and tranquility in the late 1700's.
On the eve of the American Revolution, Philadelphia citizens gathered here for mass meetings to protest British policies. As protests turned to war, soldiers drilled and drums echoed, disturbing the deliberations of the Continental Congress inside the State House. The most important result of those deliberations was the Declaration of Independence which was first read in public here in the State House Yard on July 8, 1776.
The scene was quite different when the Constitutional Convention convened in 1787. The sounds of war had faded, and the courtyard had become a peaceful garden. Winding walkways, grassy mounds, and a rich variety of trees and bushes provided a tranquil setting for the founding of the new government. |