PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Independence Hall has taken center stage as Philadelphia celebrates America’s 250th birthday. While the UNESCO World Heritage Site is known globally as the birthplace of American Democracy, the iconic landmark was almost demolished in the 1800s.
"I think many people are surprised to find out that a couple of decades after the meeting of the Second Continental Congress and the Constitutional Convention, the building that is now called Independence Hall and the yard that was with it were almost demolished for real estate development,” said Dr. Whitney Martinko, an associate professor of history at Villanova University.
Martinko said the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania owned the building and the plot of land on which Independence Hall stood, and when the state capital moved from Philadelphia to Harrisburg, it didn't have much use for the building.
"They had to raise money to build a new statehouse in Harrisburg, you know, the capital had left, and of course the City of Philadelphia was growing,” Martinko explained. “There are more houses, more buildings, more infrastructure was needed, so (the) state legislature was interested in selling it and getting the most money that they could. This is a booming real estate market, so why would they hold on to a building that by 1812 was 80 years old in the center of a growing city?”
In 1816, the state legislature passed an act that called for the carving up of the plot of Independence Hall and the yard behind it. It was to sell for no less than $150,000.
Martinko said the act passed by the legislature included an out that allowed the City of Philadelphia to buy the plot for $70,000.
"They knew that they were going to get some pushback and already had, and because Independence Hall was already valued as a tourist site, I think they knew they had to give themselves a way out or sort of allow the city to purchase it.”
And thus, Independence Hall became the historic site we know today.
