unanimously chosen Speaker of the House of Representatives at the last session; and who, removing to Philadelphia in 1812, became an active promoter of the Schuylkill Navigation Company and the first President of that corporation.

INAUGURATION OF THE NEW HALL OF THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF PENNSYLVANIA.

The new hall of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania is situated at the southwest corner of Thirteenth and Locust Streets, Philadelphia.

The main portion of the building was erected by the late John Hare Powel, in 1832, for a residence. It was purchased in 1836 by Gen. Robert Patterson, who resided there until his death in 1881. The house stands twenty feet back from the building line on Locust Street. It is sixty feet front and forty deep, and, as originally planned, had wings of twenty feet each on the east and west, giving it a frontage of one hundred feet, extending westward from Thirteenth Street. The grounds of the mansion were bounded on the west by Juniper Street, and on the south by Wynkoop Street. In November, 1882, a portion of this lot (95 feet on Locust Street, by 120 on Thirteenth), including nearly all of that occupied by the building and its wings, was offered to the Society for $50,000. An examination of the property showed that it was admirably suited to the wants of the Society. It was substantially built; its proportions were grand; and its close proximity to the Philadelphia Library and the Library of the College of Physicians rendered its situation (central in all respects) a most desirable one for the objects of the Society. The refusal of the property until the first of February was obtained, and an appeal was at once made to the friends of the Society to enable it to make the purchase. So favorably was this proposal received that the Council felt justified in obtaining the refusal of thirty additional feet. These, with the lot first offered, making one hundred and

THE NEW HALL OF THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF PENNSYLVANIA,

S W. corner of Thirteenth and Locust Streets, Philadelphia.

From Scharf and Westcott's History of Philadelphia.

twenty-five feet on Locust Street, were finally secured. An account of the subscriptions for the purchase of the property and of the expenditure for alterations will be found in the opening address of the President.

The general features of the mansion have been but little. changed. The western wing has been removed, and where it stood, and on the adjoining ground, a spacious hall, 45 by 70 feet, has been erected for the meetings of the Society. The wing on the east has been rendered thoroughly fireproof. Its internal measurement is 16 by 37 feet. It is surrounded with a gallery, and affords ample space for the most valuable portions of the Society's collections. The doorways between the parlors on the first floor of the main building have been enlarged, so as to make the rooms, which are used as reading rooms, virtually one. The handsome marble mantel pieces have been retained. The upper portion of the building will be used for the storage of books and other articles of interest.

The first general meeting of the Society in the new hall occurred on the evening of the 18th of March, 1884, a large assemblage being present.

The President, Brinton Coxe, Esq., occupied the chair, and made the following address:

FELLOW MEMBERS OF THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF PENN

SYLVANIA:

I congratulate you upon this most auspicious occasion. You have been invited here to-night to take possession of your new home, and to inaugurate it as the Hall of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. After fifty-nine years of existence, you now meet under a roof which is your own. You are now no longer tenants of another, but proprietors, in your own right, of your own house, on your own soil. The moral and material anxieties connected with a precariVOL. VIII.-13