The Pennsylvania Supreme Court Chamber Through Time

While the Pennsylvania Supreme Court heard cases in this room, members of the Pennsylvania legislature made laws for the colony in the Assembly Room across the hall.

NPS photo

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court met in this room periodically from 1743 to 1799. Later, the room housed other courts before becoming a museum about the Revolution. Although the chamber underwent several architectural changes through the years, park staff later restored the room to its 1776-1787 appearance. Look carefully and you will “see” the rights of English Common Law - trial by jury of your peers, the right to a public trial, and more - reflected in the physical layout of the room.

While the Pennsylvania Supreme Court heard cases here, members of the Pennsylvania legislature made laws for the colony in the Assembly Room across the hall. The colonial governors and Supreme Executive Council met with visitors and advisors on the second floor of the building. Although we know the building today as Independence Hall, it was originally the Pennsylvania State House, the center of the colony’s colonial government and early statehood.

Imagine watching a trial here or witnessing the British occupation of this courtroom in 1777-1778 or strolling through the National Museum – a memorial of the American Revolution – that once occupied this space. Take a deeper dive into the layers of time.

Colonial through Revolutionary Period, 1743 to 1783

Originally the Pennsylvania Supreme Court held its sessions in the courthouse at the corner of Market and Second Streets. It moved to this room in the Pennsylvania State House circa 1743. During this time, the Supreme Court gained more influence and power. Its docket increased with the types of cases it oversaw. The cases came from within the city limits as well as from the surrounding counties. They involved free citizens, enslaved people, and Native Americans. Some of these cases included:

• Capital offenses, such as murder
• Piracy and admiralty cases
• Civil cases, such as divorce proceedings

The justice system was English Common Law and certain rights are represented in this chamber. A person on trial could expect:

• A right to a public trial – people had direct access from the entry hall into the courtroom through open arches
• A right to call witnesses to testify on their behalf – a witness stand was located to the side of the bench
• A right to a trial by a jury of their peers (typically white male property owners) – members of the community seated in the jury boxes decided the verdicts in many cases
• The right to be presumed innocent - although the accused stood in a cage-like prisoner’s dock, the accused was presumed innocent until proven guilty.

Three to four justices presided over the cases. The jury boxes would have accommodated a grand jury and a trial jury.

Two dramatic events occurred here during this period that had nothing to do with a trial.

• On July 8, 1776, Colonel John Nixon stood on the State House Observatory Platform on Independence Square (then the State House Yard) and read the Declaration of Independence to a group of enthusiastic Philadelphians. Afterwards, several members of the Pennsylvania Associators entered the State House and tore the Royal Coat of Arms – the “lion and unicorn” of King George III – right off the wall from above the justices’ bench. Later that day, local citizens destroyed that symbol of the king and others like it found around the city.
• In September 1777, the British marched into Philadelphia, beginning a nine-month occupation of the city. The British army converted both rooms on the first floor – the courtroom and the Assembly Room – into barracks for five companies of British artillerymen. The British removed the jury boxes, bar, and justices’ bench, possibly for firewood. State and city government officials replaced these items, as well as the floor, in 1779, after the occupation.

Post-Revolutionary Period, 1783 to 1799

After the Revolutionary War, the state of Pennsylvania reclaimed the courtroom for their use. In 1785, Pennsylvania placed the state’s coat of arms in the place above the justices’ bench that previously displayed the Royal Coat of Arms. Painted by George Rutter, Pennsylvania’s coat of arms continues to hang above the bench today.

Renovations to the space in 1789 changed the entryway into the room. The wide-open archways were closed off and a doorway was added in what had been the middle archway area.

In 1790, the federal government moved to Philadelphia. The Supreme Court of the United States held its first two sessions here as [Old] City Hall was not yet ready for its occupancy. In 1799, the state government moved – from Philadelphia to first Lancaster (1800-1812) and then Harrisburg (1812-present) - and this room ceased functioning as the home of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.

Various Courts, 1800 to 1875

Various courts continued to use the room after 1800. A building plan of Independence Hall dated 1824 shows the city’s Mayor’s Court in this room. Although that court moved out in the middle of the 1800s, other courts held session in this room till 1875.

Physical changes to the room during this time period included bricking up a couple western-facing windows in 1812 to accommodate a new adjacent West Wing building. Architect John Haviland later added at least two iron columns to the chamber to provide additional support for his second floor renovations.

National Museum, 1876 to 1896

This chamber underwent yet another transformation – into a museum – as the United States approached its Centennial in 1876. Frank Etting –chairman of the committee to restore Independence Hall and director of the Historical Department of the Centennial– sought to create a space to celebrate and honor the American Revolutionary War.

Etting's’ curatorial team secured some 400 artifacts from 240 donors. The artifacts, including portraits and antique furnishings, primarily highlighted British culture within the colonies as well as the Revolutionary War itself. Visitors saw portraits of the Founding Fathers and even those of British monarchs. The lives of Native Americans and enslaved people during those times were excluded. The museum served school children and the visiting public for 20 years. In 1896, the bulk of the collection moved to the second floor of Independence Hall and to other buildings on Independence Square. A few art objects remained in the room. Many of its artifacts from the National Museum remain in the park’s collection today.

Restoration Work, 1896 to 1898

Architect T. Mellon Rogers restored the room between 1896 and 1898. The workers removed the panels in the archways, the cast iron columns in the room, and the mosaic tile flooring. The work also reopened the western windows. At the completion of the restoration, the room’s décor included a few of Charles Willson Peale’s portraits of the founders as well as William Rush’s statue of George Washington.

Independence National Historical Park, 1956 to the present

National Park Service staff at Independence National Historical Park professionalized historic preservation with their work at Independence Hall in the 1950s and 60s. They re-created the bar, jury boxes, prisoner’s dock, and a witness stand. They also returned the Rutter painting of the Pennsylvania Coat of Arms to its place of prominence above the bench.

Read More

Mires, Charlene. Independence Hall in American Memory. University of Pennsylvania Press, 2013.