OPENING – THE FIRST GLIMPSE
The construction of the building had sufficiently progressed by April 1905, allowing for the 14th Continental Congress to be held within these walls!
Memorial Bronze Doors
Making way into the front entrance of the building, clad in Vermont marble, one enters through one of three pairs of memorial bronze doors. These doors, made of both cast and sheet bronze feature cast eagle beaks holding massive door pulls.
The pair of doors on the south was a gift of the Massachusetts State Society, the pair to the north, a gift of the Connecticut State Society, and the central pair was designated as a memorial to the Founders and Charter Members of the Organization, each at a cost of $3,000 a pair.
First Floor
Entrance Hall
The Pennsylvania State Coat of Arms in Bronze is located in the center of the floor, directly below the chandelier. In those early years, a small room on the north side of the entrance served as the telephone switchboard room and the room on the south side, to this day serves as a coat closet.
Each of the eight doors has a niche above and two archways for portrait bust of Revolutionary heroes.
The Entrance Hall was adorned with four upholstered arm chairs and benches and a portrait bust of Benjamin Franklin, gifts of Pennsylvania chapters.
Other marble busts adorning the vestibule and niches forming the frieze, include:
Oliver Ellsworth
Gift of Connecticut
General George Washington
Gift of Washington
Replica of French sculptor, Houdon
John Hancock
Gift of John Hancock Chapter, MA
Sculptor, Piccirilli
General Edward Hand
Gift of Kansas
Sculptor, Preston Powers
Colonel Isaac Shelby
Gift of Kentucky
Sculptor, Piccirilli
James Edward Oglethorpe
Gift of Georgia
Sculptor, Augustus Lukeman
John Adams
Gift of John Adams Chapter, MA
Sculptor, Piccirilli
Ethan Allen
Gift of Vermont
Sculptor, Piccirilli
General John Stark
Gift of New Hampshire
Sculptor, Augustus Lukeman
General George Clinton
Gift of New York
Sculptor, Augustus Lukeman
Nathan Hale
Gift of Mrs. J. E. McWilliams
Sculptor, Augustus Lukeman
FIRST FLOOR CORRIDOR, STAIRWELL AND ELEVATOR
The north staircase is a memorial to Mrs. S. V. White, given by Fort Greene Chapter, Brooklyn, NY.
The south staircase was a gift of the Chapters of Minnesota, and the coat of arms of the State is displayed on the wall at the first turn of the steps.
The cost of each staircase as a memorial was $1,000.
At the first turn of the North staircase is an ornamental tablet, which resembles the design of the Prison Ship Martyrs’ Monument. The original monument was erected in memory of 11,500 victims of the Wallabout Bay prison ships of the State of New York.
This Elevator was in given in memory of Josiah Bartlett, signer of the Decleration of Independence and Mary Bartlett, his wife, by one of their Descendants.
Video Series – A Closer Look at Memorial Continental Hall
In the North Corridor is a bronze bas-relief drinking fountain, depicting images of soldiers of the American Revolution. The tablet was donated by the Army and Navy Chapter, D.C., and is the work of Sculptor, A.A. Weiman.
Video Series – A Closer Look at Memorial Continental Hall
The elevator featured wrought and cast-iron panels set in wood frames enameled white with an oak parquet floor. It was erected along the South Corridor as a memorial from the estate of Miss Ella A. Bartlett to her great-grandfather, Josiah Bartlett, a signer of the Declaration of Independence and first Governor of New Hampshire.
Along this same corridor is a memorial to the “Heroes of the Independence,” a gift of Madame Lefevre. The bronze relief was offered to the National Society by Madame Leferme, Nee Helene David D’Angers, Daughter of the sculptor through the medium of H. Ex. Mons. Jules Jusserand, French Ambassador in the United State of America, 1905.
Auditorium
1906 Continental Congress, President General McLean. The auditorium, with three galleries had a seating capacity of about two thousand.
Auditorium with the brass Eagle Lectern and a Bible were gifts of the Flintlock and Powder Horn Chapters of Rhode Island.
Video Series – A Closer Look at Memorial Continental Hall
The walls are artistically decorated with garlands of fruit and leaves. The brilliantly colored flags, hanging from the cornice of the Auditorium represent each State of the union and flags are arranged according to the State ratifying the Constitution. The Betsy Ross flag gifted by the Flag House Chapter, of Philadelphia, PA hung suspended from the ceiling during the week of Continental Congress.
The auditorium was also adorned with four electroliers (a light fixture that holds electric lamps, often suspended from a ceiling), with branch lights under the galleries and single lights around the cornice above the galleries and platform. One electrolier was presented by Tioughnioga Chapter, Cortland, NY; another was a memorial gift from Kansas.
The glass ceiling is divided into twenty-five squares, ornamented by scroll work.
The clock on the east gallery railing was a gift of the Baltimore Chapter, MD. In the frame is the state coat of arms and below the hands on the face is the insignia of the Society.
In the south gallery hangs a full-length portrait of Martha Washington, a gift from the artist’s daughter Mary Lord Andrews. In the north gallery hangs a large oil painting, “Washington on Dorchester Heights,” by Darius Cobb, presented by the Massachusetts Daughters in memory of Mary A. Livermore.
Video Series – A Closer Look at Memorial Continental Hall
On the platform is a large table, a reproduction of the one on which the Declaration of Independence was signed, and a chair like that used by the presiding officer on that occasion. The table was a gift of the Continental Chapter and the chairs were given by the Continental Dames Chapter, both of the District of Columbia.
Other companion chairs were gifts from the Colorado Chapter, CO, the Katherine Livingston Chapter, FL, Monticello Chapter and Margaret Whetten Chapter, D.C. and Mississippi Daughters. Another large table made from koa wood came from the Aloha Chapter, HI. Many other chairs were gifted by individuals, chapters, and states.
On either side of the platform are furnished stage boxes, each with a connecting restroom / dressing-room. The lower box on the south, known as the “President General’s Box,” was gifted by the John Marshall Chapter, KY. The lower box on the north is a memorial from Colonel Timothy Bigelow Chapter, MA.
The upper box on the south was gifted by the Colorado Chapters, and the upper north box was a memorial from Wisconsin Chapters.
Video Series – A Closer Look at Memorial Continental Hall
During the Opening of the twenty-second Continental Congress, April 14, 1913, President Woodrow Wilson, deliver the Welcome Address. President Wilson, visited Memorial Continental Hall on many other occasions, including February 22, 1917, during which he awarded a gold medal to a young boy, Harold F. Stose for his winning essay titled “The Western Campaign of George Rogers Clark, and the Early Territorial Expansion of the United States.” In presenting the medal President Wilson said: “It gives me a great deal of genuine pleasure to present this. I know some of the things that you have gone through, for I myself have tried to write history. It is much less of an adventure than to try to enact it, but it nevertheless is the kind of adventure that lifts the spirit, and I hope it has had that effect on you, sir. They certainly gave you a big enough subject to lift anybody and I congratulate you, sir, that you have come through, not only, but in front.”
