Answer: The statue of William Penn

Though Philadelphia wouldn’t see the completion of its new city hall until 1901, by the time of its architect’s death (John McArthur, 1823-1890), the building had well taken shape. Its full construction, which began in 1871, took thirty years.

In 1873, McArthur hired Scottish-born artist Alexander Milne Calder (1846-1923) to design the many sculptures that would eventually adorn the building. Calder had previously studied under Thomas Eakins at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. The city hall project was one of his first, and it took him nearly twenty years to complete. Adding to his plate, in 1875, he won a bid to design the now-famous statute of William Penn that rests at the building’s peak. Over the course of a couple years, Calder created the 37-foot statue in pieces, and it was eventually assembled in the building’s courtyard. But in order for it to be placed on top of the building, it had to be dismantled, raised in pieces, and then put back together.

For a number of decades, Philadelphia’s City Hall was the tallest building in the city measuring 548 feet tall. For many years local builders honored a gentleman’s agreement that prevented the construction of any structures that extended beyond the top of the William Penn statue. City Hall lost this distinction with the completion of the One Liberty Place skyscraper in the mid 1980s.

HSP has a number of archival sources on Philadelphia City Hall, including Sculptures and Ornamental Details of the New City Hall (We .446) and Papers Related to Philadelphia City Hall (#1360). There are also numerous images of the building in HSP's print (#V89) and photograph (#V59) collections, as well as the Philadelphia Record photograph morgue (#V7).