The Birthplace of the United States

Construction on the building started in 1732. Built to be the Pennsylvania State House, the building originally housed all three branches of Pennsylvania's colonial government.

The Pennsylvania legislature loaned their Assembly Room out for the meetings of the Second Continental Congress and later, the Constitutional Convention.

It's this bell that would ring to call lawmakers to their meetings and the townspeople together to hear the reading of the news. Benjamin Franklin wrote to Catherine Ray in 1755, "Adieu, the Bell rings, and I must go among the Grave ones and talk Politicks."

It's not until the 1830s that the old State House bell would begin to take on significance as a symbol of liberty.

The Speaker of the legislature sat at a large table on a raised platform in the front of the room. From this prominent position, the Speaker looked out to lawmakers seated at tables that faced him. By 1773, there were eleven tables for the then 11 counties of Pennsylvania.

Lawmakers may have gazed upon the decorative cockleshell (sea shell) frieze carving on the wall behind the Speaker. This ornamental feature is the only surviving element of the room's original 18th century woodwork.

In the front of the room today sits the chair known today as the Rising Sun chair. John Folwell made this chair for the Speaker of the Pennsylvania legislature in 1779. It remains a mystery as to who selected the symbols carved on the chair.

Ancient symbols for liberty - the liberty cap and pole - appear on the chair's crest rail. The cornucopias and wheat sheaves on the chair's back probably speak to Pennsylvania's agricultural bounty.

This chair achieved lasting fame as the seat for George Washington as the President of the Constitutional Convention.

It's not until the mid-20th century that the chair became known as the Rising Sun chair, but its connection to the idea of a rising sun goes back to September 17, 1787 - the day the delegates signed the U.S. Constitution.