ABSTRACT
This chapter considers how political resolve and a determined Building Commission managed to produce a monumental municipal building symbolizing the city's image of itself as the manufacturing capital of the world, without any mortgage, liens, or encumbrances. In the 1870s, Philadelphia, arguably the most important industrial city in the United States at the time, began the most ambitious municipal building project ever attempted on the North American continent in order to announce its importance to the global economy. In January 1871, the City of Philadelphia began the most ambitious municipal building campaign yet attempted on the North American continent. Designs for new public buildings for the post-1854 City of Philadelphia to be erected at Penn Square, the geographic center of William Penn's colonial city were first advertised in 1860. Building a new city hall would not be cheap, especially given its size, materials and associated labor costs.
