Invisible Architects Walking Tour—Liberty Bell Center

Stop 5: Liberty Bell Center, viewing window on Chestnut Street east of 6th Street

FIND: The viewing window on the east side of the Liberty Bell Center

Liberty Bell
Maybe you associate this famous symbol with the American Revolution but George Washington and Alexander Hamilton never heard of a Liberty Bell. It was the State House Bell in their time. Abolitionists named it the Liberty Bell in the 1830s.

Abolitionists started having national meetings in Philadelphia in the 1830s. The First Colored Convention in 1830, the American Anti-Slavery Convention in 1833, and the Women’s National Convention in 1838 all met in Philadelphia. These groups became aware of the bell’s biblical inscription: “Proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof.” They adopted it as their symbol with one of the earliest references in the Anti-Slavery Record in 1835. There were also references in the Liberator newspaper in 1839. Groups like the Boston Friends of Freedom helped foster the use of the name.

The Liberty Bell also served as a symbol in the Civil Rights Movement. In the 1960s when there were sit-ins and sleep-ins around the Liberty Bell.
The Liberty Bell

Chestnut Street between 5th and 6th Streets
Now swing around and look at the large building in the middle of the block. That’s Independence Hall. It was already here when:

• Samuel Easton’s residence and shop sat on the north side of Chestnut Street. Easton was a free African American male who lived and worked as a shopkeeper across from the State House. He paid taxes to Elizabeth Kemble and ground rent to James Logan from 1785-1789, according to tax assessment records. The Easton home and shop no longer stands.