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Circa 1905. "City Hall -- Philadelphia, Pa." The largest municipal building in the United States, City Hall is topped by a 26-ton statue of William Penn. 8x10 inch glass negative. View full size.
As previously mentioned, I'm sure the hoisting of it would have been interesting to see. My curiosity also involves how did they deliver all 26 tons of him to this spot?
Was he in pieces with "some assembly required" or all in one piece?
Just to get an idea of how big William Penn's statue is, here it is before they hoisted it up to the top.
26 Tons? Wow, that building must be well built to hold that much weight up on top. Would have been interesting to see it hoisted up there. I can't imagine.
When you look at the decorative statues seemingly holding up the arches over the windows on the upper floor and the statue of William Penn sitting on the tower and then look at the size of the people on the ground you realize how big this structure is. The ceiling must have been very high over each floor. This building is massive and yet the detailing on the outside is impressive.
The structure still stands and it's as tall as a modern skyscraper. So many of these classic buildings have been demolished in the interest of "progress" so I'm grateful that this giant beauty survives.
I was wondering how many more awesome, looming city halls and county courthouses you could post. But then I remembered drives along blue highways in the Midwest, and realized any county seat or populous town would have put up one of these just to show how prosperous they were. They are often still in use and well preserved, since smaller towns weren't as affected by urban renewal.
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