Travels through the states of North America, and the provinces of Upper and Lower Canada, during the years 1795, 1796, and 1797 [Vol. 1 of 2]Weld, Isaac
History
Travels through the states of North America, and the provinces of Upper and Lower Canada, during the years 1795, 1796, and 1797 [Vol. 1 of 2]
Weld, Isaac
Canada -- Description and travel -- Early works to 1800; United States -- Description and travel -- Early works to 1800
As for the public buildings, they are all heavy tasteless piles of red
brick, ornamented with the same sort of blue marble as that already
mentioned, and which but ill accord together, unless indeed we except
the new Bank of the United States, and the presbyterian church in
High-street. The latter building is ornamented with a handsome portico
in front, supported by six pillars in the Corinthian order; but it is
seen to great disadvantage on account of the market house, which
occupies the center of the street before it. The buildings next to
these, that are most deserving of notice, are the State House, the
President’s House, the Hospital, the Bettering House, and the Gaol.
[Sidenote: PHILADELPHIA.]
The State House is situated in Chesnut-street; and, considering that no
more than fifty-three years elapsed from the time the first cabin was
built on the spot marked out for the city, until it was erected, the
architecture calls forth both our surprise and admiration. The State
House is appropriated to the use of the legislative bodies of the state.
Attached to this edifice are the congress and the city-halls. In the
former, the congress of the United States meets to transact business.
The room allotted to the representatives of the lower house is about
sixty feet in length, and fitted up in the plainest manner. At one end
of it is a gallery, open to every person that chuses to enter it; the
stair-case leading to which runs directly from the public street. The
senate chamber is in the story above this, and it is furnished and
fitted up in a much superior style to that of the lower house. In the
city hall the courts of justice are held, the supreme court of the
United States, as well as that of the state of Pennsylvania, and those
of the city.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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