Carpenters' Hall: The Birthplace of Revolution

The First Continental Congress met at Carpenters' Hall in September 1774 — not at the more well-known Independence Hall — and kept its proceedings confidential. The delegates chose this guild hall as neutral ground, passing over the State House, which Joseph Galloway, the conservative speaker of the Pennsylvania Assembly, had offered. The building still belongs to the Carpenters' Company of the City and County of Philadelphia, the oldest trade guild in America, established in 1724.