Existing comment:
The Governor's Council Chamber, the Long Gallery and the Committee of the Assembly Chamber:
Pennsylvania's colonial government created this center for its many functions. The Governor's Council Chamber, an elegant setting for the Penn family's representatives, the Long Gallery where dignitaries mingled with politicians and the Committee Chamber used by the Assembly for the meetings, as a library and to store militia equipment occupied the second floor originally.
As events decisively changed America's relationship with Great Britain, the uses of these rooms shifted. The Pennsylvania Assembly left its first floor room to the Second Continental Congress -- which declared independence in 1776 -- meeting instead upstairs in its committee room.
British forces took the city in September, 1777. They quartered troops here and hospitalized wounded Americans on the second floor.
The national government's officials returned when the occupation ended. As they came and went -- under the Articles of Confederation and then the new Constitution -- the second floor continued to host state and local government. |