Liberty Bell Center

Erected in 1773 by the Carpenters’ Company of Philadelphia, a trade guild, the building was intended to demonstrate craft and house their meetings. In the fall of 1774, it hosted the First Continental Congress, convened to deliberate on a response to the British blockade of Boston. Here, after some controversial debate, its delegates called upon the Rev. Jacob Duché, assistant rector of Christ Church, to lead them in prayer. Later John Adams raved about the prayer to his wife Abigail, “I have never heard a better prayer, or one so well-pronounced.”