Excerpt from The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, 1884, Vol. 8 Perhaps you have a curiosity to have a description of Congress Hall; it is a large, elegant brick building, the north end on Chestnut street. The Representative's room is on the lower floor. The Speaker sits in a large arm chair with a table before him like a toilette, covered with green cloth, fringed. The Speaker's seat is elevated about 2 feet and is on the west side of the hall. The members' seats are 3 rows of desks. Rising one above an other in the form of a semi-circle. Opposite the Speaker; these are writing desks with large armed chairs with leather bottoms. There is a lock and key to each desk and places on the desks for ink, pens, sand and a plentiful supply of paper. There are two fireplaces, on each side of the hall with stoves. There is a good deal of room outside the semicircle, or, as we speak, without the bar, to which we introduce strangers to hear the debates, and where considerable numbers are always in attendance, as well as in the gal lery which is at the north end. At the south end, Without the bar, there is an area or half circle with three large windows looking into a large square or walk, the only mall in the city, and two doors from the hall Open into it. There are holes for the Southern and Eastern mails into which we deposit our letters to be carried to the Post Office by the doorkeeper. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.