The world heritage listed Independence Hall in Philadelphia is flanked by Old City Hall on the left and Congress Hall on the right. Besides having a “Hall” in both names, both of them also acted as a Courthouse.
The Old City Hall served as the home of the United States Supreme Court between the years of 1791 and 1800.
Completed in 1791, the building consists of two section, the Mayor’s Council Chamber on the first floor and the Mayor’s Court on the ground floor.
As the Supreme Court was not provided with its own room in Philadelphia, they had to hold hearing sessions in the Mayor’s Court.
Among the interesting things to note include the Supreme Courts’ failure to even hear a case during their first two years, the extremely low average of only seven cases per annum, and appointed judges turning down the “honour” to serve the court.
Since it was so underutilised, I guess the only useful thing that they have really done was to act as a volunteers’ headquarters during the Yellow Fever epidemic in 1793, and also as an Immigration Center, where naturalization ceremonies for new citizens took place.
Over on the other side, I found that the Congress Hall is in a way, more interesting.
Unlike the Old City Hall where anyone can just enter at anytime, entrance to the Congress Hall is through a free guided tour that runs every 20 minutes.
During the tour, we were first seated in the House of Representatives.
After a short brief about the House of Representatives, we proceeded upstairs …
… to the Senate.
It was here, where President George Washington was inaugurated for a second term. After another short briefing on the historical events that took place in the room, our final stop was at the meeting rooms on both sides of the corridor.
When Congress moved to Washington DC in 1800, the building reverted back to the Philadelphia County Courthouse, thus giving Philadelphia two courthouses in a row of three “Halls”.
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