Let its failures be what they may, it was in large measure due to the work done during the period of its ascendancy that we owe a certain tradition and precedent in public work that has wrought for good and is still working in our own day. CHAPTER XI PUBLIC BUILDINGS OF THE COLONIAL AND POST-COLONIAL PERIODS The architecture of Colonial America, exclusive of the churches, was almost altogether domestic in its scope and yielded but comparatively few examples of impressive public edifices in proportion to the area of the territory embraced. There were, however, enough secular public buildings scattered through the length and breadth of the Colonies to make a striking representation when grouped together and what the aggregate collection of such structures lacked in point of numbers was amply made up in point of individual excellence or historic interest, or both, on the part of the several units. In the space of one chapter it would be manifestly impossible to discuss fully all the secular public buildings of the Colonies but enough of them can be considered to convey a comprehensive idea of the civic architectural setting of Colonial days. If the houses and churches of the Colonial period in America reflect the social and religious life of our forefathers, no less truly do the public buildings reflect the civic and political side of their existence. To be sure, the public buildings are not without their interest and power to shed light on the social and economic conditions, but it is especially in their civic and political capacity that their appeal to us is strongest. Then, too, we may truly say that they form much of the setting for the dramatic side of our history and, therefore, the picturesque association is potent. With the State House in Philadelphia (Independence Hall, as it has been called in later years), we cannot fail to associate the Declaration of Independence and the framing of our national constitution, eleven years afterward. Neither can we fail to associate with Faneuil Hall or the Old State House in Boston the stirring events that preceded the outbreak of the War for Independence.