Philadelphia City Hall

Art by: Chris Hytha

Story by: Mark Houser

Planned as the world’s tallest building when construction commenced in 1871, the tower was usurped by the Washington Monument and Eiffel Tower before its completion. Alexander Milne Calder’s 37-foot bronze William Penn is the tallest statue on any building anywhere, double the size of the Statue of Freedom on the U.S. Capitol.

That dome’s designer, Thomas Walker, came out of retirement to help architect John McArthur Jr. with this monumental edifice. Neither man lived to see their work completed. Calder, who crafted 250 sculptures for city hall and was there in 1894 to see his 27-ton Penn hoisted to its apex, despaired that the founder was installed looking north, which leaves his face perpetually in shadow.

The tower is built of load-bearing brick walls sheathed in marble and rests on 22-foot-thick granite walls at its base. Above the four clocks, marble gives way to white painted steel, a replacement of the original cast iron.

Besides the internal clockwork and two extravagant mayoral and council rooms, the tower is basically empty but for a staircase and small, slow elevator to take passengers to the viewing deck. An unwritten agreement that kept Penn’s hat the tallest point in the city was finally broken in 1987.