Upcoming Events

Robert Smith Birthday Celebration and scholarship fundraiser

Tuesday, January 14th, 5:30pm to 8:30pm
Carpenters’ Hall, 320 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia

Jointly hosted by the Carpenters' Company of the City and County of Philadelphia and the St. Andrew's Society of Philadelphia, we invite you to join us for a festive, Scottish-themed celebration of the anniversary of Robert Smith's birth. Enjoy Scottish music and dance and of course Scotch whisky, courtesy of ImpEx Beverages, Inc.! This event is graciously sponsored by Hensel Phelps Construction.

Purchase tickets by clicking the button below.

Robert Smith was Colonial America's leading architect and builder. He was born on January 14, 1722, in Dalkeith, Scotland. His extant work in Philadelphia includes Carpenters' Hall, the Powel House, St. Peter's Church and the steeple of Christ Church, and he also built Nassau Hall in Princeton and the Public Hospital in Williamsburg, among many others.

Proceeds from this event go towards the Robert Smith Memorial Scholarship. Launched in 2024 in partnership with the St. Andrew’s Society of Philadelphia, the scholarship awards an annual scholarship to a student in the traditional building trades. We will be awarding the inaugural winner of this scholarship during this event.

Purchase Tickets here

Book Talk: Jane Calvert, Penman of the Founding: A Biography of John Dickinson

Tuesday, January 28th, 2025, 5:30pm to 7pm

Carpenters’ Hall, 320 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia

Historian Jane Calvert's new book, Penman of the Founding: A Biography of John Dickinson is the first complete account of Dickinson's life and work.

John Dickinson of Pennsylvania and Delaware was an early leader of the resistance to British rule in the American colonies. In fact, to many, he was the most prominent figure in the struggle for independence, though his Quaker-influenced opposition to violence kept him from signing one of its most famous documents in July 1776. Still, Dickinson, one of the wealthiest men in the colonies, did more to promote the cause behind it than almost anyone else, not only as the lead draftsman in all the national Congresses, but in his popular writing. His hugely influential Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania educated colonists about their rights and instructed them in how to defend those rights in non-violent ways. In essence he taught the colonists to think of themselves as Americans, united in a common cause. Despite his refusal to sign the Declaration of Independence, he continued to serve the nation in a number of capacities.

Despite the key part he played in the country's founding, few Americans today have heard of John Dickinson. Early chroniclers and historians, seeking to create a patriotic narrative and taking their cues from his political enemies, cast him as a coward and Loyalist for not signing the Declaration. Many later historians have simply accepted and echoed this distorted and dismissive view. Jane Calvert's fascinating, authoritative, and accessible biography, the first complete account of Dickinson's life and work, restores him to a place of prominence in the nation's formative years.

Purchase tickets here

Book Talk: Aaron Betsky, Don't Build, Rebuild: The Case for Imaginative Reuse in Architecture

Thursday, February 27th, 2025 from 5:30pm to 7:00pm

Carpenters’ Hall, 320 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia

Join us for a book talk with Aaron Betsky, author of Don't Build, Rebuild: The Case for Imaginative Reuse in Architecture.

As climate change has escalated into a crisis, the reuse of existing structures is the only way to even begin to preserve our wood, sand, silicon, and iron, let alone stop belching carbon monoxide into the air. Our housing crisis means that we need usable buildings now more than ever, but architect and critic Aaron Betsky shows that new construction—often seeking to maximize profits rather than resources, often soulless in its feel—is not the answer. Whenever possible, it is better to repair, recycle, renovate, and reuse—not only from an environmental perspective, but culturally and artistically as well.

Architectural reuse is as old as civilization itself. In the streets of Europe, you can find fragments from the Roman Empire. More recently, marginalized communities from New York to Detroit—queer people looking for places to gather or cruise, punks looking to make loud music, artists and displaced people looking for space to work and live—have taken over industrial spaces created then abandoned by capitalism, forging a unique style in the process. Their methods—from urban mining to dumpster diving—now inform architects transforming old structures today.

Purchase Tickets Here

PAST EVENTS

Public Reading of the First Prayer in Congress

On September 7, 1774, Rev. Jacob Duché delivered a rousing invocation/prayer at Carpenters' Hall before the Founding Fathers at the First Continental Congress. Exactly 250 years later, Carpenters' Hall marked this moment – which set a precedent for prayer in Congress that continues to this day – with a free public reading of the invocation by Reverend Palmer Hartl of Christ Church.

Watch the video below for a full recording of the reading.

First Continental Congress Forever® Stamp First day-of-issue dedication ceremony

On Thursday, September 5th, Carpenters’ Hall hosted a dedication ceremony for the new First Continental Congress Forever Stamp. This stamp was issued to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the First Continental Congress which took place inside Carpenters’ Hall in 1774. Fifty-six delegates from 12 of the 13 colonies convened to discuss their response to England’s increasing control and taxation. This ceremony included guest speakers and the opportunity to purchase the stamp and receive autographs from the speakers on program books.

Go 4th & Learn: Legos and Hands-On Learning at Carpenters’ Hall

On Tuesday, July 2nd from 11am to 3pm, Carpenters’ Hall, in partnership with the Franklin Institute, and Wawa Welcome America, welcomed the public to Carpenters’ Court for a free and fun day of interactive Lego building and science-learning related demonstrations. Selected Lego builds were judged by young professionals in the architecture, engineering and building trades at a cocktail hour reception following this event. The top three winning builds are now displayed in Carpenters’ Hall for the rest of the summer.

In addition to interactive Lego builds and food trucks and giveaways curtesy of Wawa Welcome America, Carpenters’ Hall unveiled a new Lego model of Carpenters’ Hall. Crafted from 50,000 Lego pieces, this model was created by Richard Paules, a lifelong Lego afficionado from Washington, DC. He has previously been commissioned to build large scale Lego replicas of buildings such as Dulles Airport.

This model depicts Carpenters’ Hall as it would have looked during the First Continental Congress in 1774. Note the view into the eastern half of the first floor of the building where the delegates from 12 of the 13 colonies met. Also, peek into the second-floor library of Carpenters’ Hall, which then housed Benjamin Franklin’s Library Company. This collection was used by delegates during the First Continental Congress.

Paules can be found on Instagram @dclegoman.

This new permanent exhibit was made possible by a generous donation from McHugh Engineering Associates, Inc. & the Witkowski Family.

ARCHITECTURAL HISTORY TOUR OF THE OLEY VALLEY

On Saturday, April 13th, 2024 the Carpenters' Company hosted a small group architectural history tour of the Oley Valley in Berks County, Pennsylvania. Oley township in its entirety was designated a historic district by the National Register of Historic Places in 1983 and residents, preservationists and historians continue to preserve and promote Oley Valley's unique historic landscape.

Carpenters’ Company consulting historian Tom Stokes led the group through buildings and sites from the 18th and 19th centuries, some of which are either still in use or are being actively preserved. We visited the Exeter Quaker meetinghouse, the Kauffman Farm, the Johannes Yoder Farmstead, the Lobachsville Gristmill, and the Keim Homestead.

Celebrating Robert smith’s birthday and kicking off our anniversary year: January 18th, 2024

On Thursday, January 18th, 2024, we gathered in Carpenters’ Hall to celebrate the birthday of the architect and master builder of Carpenters’ Hall and Carpenters’ Company member, Robert Smith, and kick-off the start of our grand Anniversary year.

Born on January 14, 1722, in Dalkeith, Scotland, Robert Smith was Colonial America's leading architect and builder. His extant work in Philadelphia includes Carpenters' Hall, the Powel House, St. Peter's Church and the steeple of Christ Church. He also built Nassau Hall in Princeton and the Public Hospital in Williamsburg, among many others. He was also a devout patriot who designed Delaware River defenses to thwart British warships.

The night featured performances of Scottish dances by The Campbell School of Highland Dance and a fiddler performance by musician Sean Heely.

The Carpenters’ Company would like to extend a special thank you to our lead partners and sponsors, the St. Andrew’s Society of Philadelphia (of which Robert Smith was also a member) and the Pennsylvania Society Sons of the Revolution. We would also like to thank ImpEx Beverages Inc. for providing scotch and all our wonderful performers.

Arriving, Staying, Leaving: The Idea of Home

On September 26th, 2023, the Carpenters’ Company in partnership with MGA Partners, and sponsored by Premier Building Restoration, Inc. hosted John Jarboe and Drew Philp for a night of performance (the first drag show held in Carpenters’ Hall!) and intimate conversation. Drew Philp is the author of A $500 House in Detroit: Rebuilding an Abandoned Home and an American City. John Jarboe, a college classmate of Philp’s, is the founder and artistic director of the Bearded Ladies Cabaret, founded in 2010, which uses the tropes of queer performance to engage audiences and explore issues of history, sexual politics and popular culture.

Thank you to our partners, Philp, Jarboe, and everyone who was able to come out! Please view some pictures from the event below. Photos were taken by Michael Xu and Chris Raia from MGA Partners.

Our grand reopening

Thank you to all who joined us for our grand reopening on Monday, July 3rd. A special thank you to the First Troop Philadelphia City Cavalry for the color guard procession, trumpeters Nozomi Imamura and Will Gregory, and the Pennsylvania Society of Sons of the Revolution for the stunning flag installation. Also, thank you to our wonderful guest speakers: Interim Superintendent of Independence National Historical Park Amnesty Kochanowski, U.S. Congressman Brendan Boyle, President and CEO of Visit Philadelphia Angela Val, Philadelphia City Representative Sheila Hess, and Immediate Past President and Trustee of the Carpenters’ Company Tom Daley.

See some great photos below!