PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — One of Philadelphia’s oldest professional guilds is celebrating its 300th anniversary. In that time, the Carpenters’ Company has played a pivotal role in building not only the cityscape but also American democracy.
Oct. 26 of this year marked a tricentennial in Philadelphia for the Carpenters’ Company as the city’s professional association of architects, contractors and engineers. The company is also steward of Carpenters’ Hall, their historic meeting house in Old City, built just before the American Revolution.
“The Carpenters’ Company was founded in 1724 as a trade guild for master builders who built most of what still exists today from the 18th century Philadelphia,” said Michael Norris, executive director of Carpenters Hall.
Norris says the anniversary has two very important facets.
“It’s a combination of celebrating not only the impact the Carpenters’ Company has had on the built environment but also the role the Hall has played in the foundation of American democracy.”
The Hall hosted the First Continental Congress in 1774, Norris said, “where colonial delegates, like George Washington, John Adams and Patrick Henry, came together to discuss their grievances about England and what they could do collectively.”
The Second Continental Congress, which oversaw the Revolutionary War and adopted the Declaration of Independence and the Articles of Confederation, met elsewhere, at the Pennsylvania State House (now known as Independence Hall) from 1775 to 1781, but Norris says those meetings of the First Continental Congress at Carpenters’ Hall got the ball rolling for American government.
“It was the sense of unity, cohesion and coalition that came out of the Continental Congress that really paved the way for the Declaration of Independence and the Revolution.”
Today there are more than 200 members of the guild who continue assisting in the ongoing design and building of Philadelphia.
Carpenters’ Hall is free to the public and sees over 150,000 visitors a year.