This stunning, world’s largest building in Philly will make your jaw drop

I took a recent weekend trip to the city of Philadelphia, the sixth largest in the nation, with my old high school pal, Suzanne.

We decided we needed a break and, as a history lover, I’ve always wanted to see the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall, where the Declaration of Independence was signed (more on those in an upcoming post). We stayed in a gorgeous historic hotel called the Bellevue, which I’ll also write about later. But it turns out, the historical site that fascinated us most was a municipal building, Philadelphia City Hall.

This jaw-dropping Second Empire building blew our minds. Its features are astounding, and I would have visited the city just to see this beautiful work of art.

Instead of writing a lengthy history, I decided to show you the photos we took, supplemented by some historical ones, and share some of the most fascinating facts about this building in a list below. The photos don’t completely capture its presence – City Hall takes up an entire city block – but they will certainly intrigue any student of architecture, history, or art.

The saddest part was that, because it was such a short visit and we were walking toward other places, we didn’t realize visitors can take an elevator to the top of the clock tower until after we’d left (although you do have to ride in a shaky, 100-year-old elevator, which would not have been good for my vertigo). In fact, we didn’t even realize the building still serves as a functioning City Hall. I’ll have to go back another time. I could spend days there.

Here are some things I learned from viewing the building in person and from researching it on my return home (More photos follow the list):

• Philadelphia City Hall is the seat of the municipal government, including the offices of the Philadelphia City Council,  the offices of the mayor, a district courthouse and more.

• Designed by architect John McArthur Jr., the structure took 30 years to complete (1871-1901) and cost $24 million to build, or $601 million in 2023 dollars.

• City Hall has 700 rooms and 14.5 acres of floor space (630,000 square feet), according to VisitPhilly.com. That means 315 houses the size of mine would fit into this space.

• It is the world’s largest habitable masonry building – as opposed to uninhabitable structures such as the pyramids and Washington Monument – and is built from 88 million bricks, plus an inordinate amount of marble and limestone. On our visit, several areas were covered in nets; we assumed the nets were to keep any loose masonry from falling on unsuspecting citizens.

• The clock tower, at one time the world’s tallest, is topped by a 37-foot, 53,348-pound statue of William Penn, who founded and initially laid out the city in 1682. With the statue, the building is 548 feet high.

• The castle-like building has four entrances, one on Broad Street North and one on Broad Street South, one on Market Street and one on Thirteenth Street. Each entrance tunnel features differently themed, ornate designs and rows of stairs leading upward.

• Including decorative designs, there are 250 sculptures on and around the building. We even saw faces of cats carved into one entryway.

• The stunning building has been featured in several movies, including “Rocky” (1976), “National Treasure” (2004), “Law Abiding Citizen” (2009), “Blow Out”(1981), “Trading Places” (1983), “Philadelphia” (1993), “12 Monkeys” (1995), “Transformers; Revenge of the Fallen” (2009), and “Limitless” (2011).

• It is larger than the U.S. Capitol Building.

• It was the tallest habitable tower in the world from 1894 until 1908, when the Singer Building in Manhattan was constructed, according to Atlas Obscura. It remained the tallest in Pennsylvania until 1932; it is now the 16th tallest.

• All of the sculptures, including the massive Penn statue, were designed by Alexander Milne Calder.

• Of all the beautiful and bizarre carvings on the building, we were most fascinated by the cats in the south entrance to the building. Apparently, the cats are a nod to Samuel C. Perkins, who served on the board of Commissioners for the Erection of the Public Buildings (which was created specifically to oversee construction of City Hall. Perkins loved cats, according to BillyPenn.com, and he and the architect became close friends.

• The post on BillyPenn.com lists many of the unusual sculptures found on City Hall, including Ben Franklin’s face, a miniature carving of City Hall, a lobster basket, Vikings, a camel, eagles, wheat, horses and more. We saw for ourselves a moose, bull, elephant, buffalo, writhing bodies, the cats, a statue of President William McKinley (outside the building), and more.

• At the center of the four grand entryways is an open courtyard with picnic tables and wandering throngs of tourists and Philadelphians going about their business. Painted on the center floor is a compass of four continents that show Philadelphia situated at the center of the earth, which BillyPenn.com says is a true statement.

See the photo gallery below and check out my other posts from this visit:

• Eastern State Penitentiary is a creepy-cool Philly tourist attraction
• Our stay at the reportedly haunted Bellevue Hotel in Philly
• Check out these Philly filming locations from ‘National Treasure’
• Scenes from a visit to Philadelphia (photo dump)