Where the Liberty Bell Has Lived: Steeple, Assembly Room, Railcar, Pavilion and Center

The Liberty Bell's inscription. NPS photo.

"When did you move the Bell inside?" "Last time I was here, it was outside." Park rangers at Independence National Historical Park hear this every day, and the answer is less simple than it sounds: the Liberty Bell has had many homes.

1753–1846: the State House Bell

When it was cast in 1753, it was not yet the Liberty Bell but the State House Bell — a tool for communication, hung in the tower of the Pennsylvania State House, the building now called Independence Hall.

The Pennsylvania State House (Independence Hall) in 1778. The bell hung in its steeple from 1753 to 1777. Engraving after a painting by Charles Willson Peale, published in the Columbian Magazine about 1790.

• 1777: with the city's other bells, it was hidden away during the British occupation of Philadelphia.
• 1778: back in the city, it was hung in the brick section of the tower, where it stayed for the rest of its working life — until it cracked for the last time in February 1846.

After the crack: a relic in the Assembly Room

Taken down from the tower, the bell went on display in the Assembly Room of Independence Hall — where the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were signed — among portraits of the founding generation, the room's original furniture and objects of the period, as a relic of the nation's revolutionary past.

The Assembly Room in 1856, with the bell on a pedestal crowned by an eagle. NPS image.

1885–1915: the bell on the rails

From 1885 until 1915, the bell traveled the country by train at intervals, stopping in big cities and small towns for expositions, world's fairs and commemorations, so that millions could see it. After its last homecoming in 1915, it was displayed in the stair hall of Independence Hall for decades.

The Liberty Bell in St. Louis, 1904. Library of Congress.

1976: the move at midnight

After Independence National Historical Park was established in 1948, visitor numbers climbed steadily. With the Bicentennial of 1976 approaching, Park Service officials worried about damage to Independence Hall, especially the small space where the bell was shown, and planned a building of its own on Independence Mall.

Visitors crowd around the bell inside Independence Hall. NPS photo.

At the stroke of midnight on January 1, 1976, in a driving, freezing rain, thousands of soaked onlookers watched the bell move from Independence Hall to the new Liberty Bell Pavilion.

The bell leaves Independence Hall (left) and is installed in its new building (right). NPS photos.

1976–2003: the Pavilion — and why people remember it "outside"

The Pavilion, on Market Street between Fifth and Sixth Streets, was a modern glass building able to take thousands of visitors a day. It was fully enclosed — but the lighting made many visitors believe the bell was displayed outdoors. That is where the memory of an "outside" bell comes from.

The Liberty Bell Pavilion outside (left) and inside (right), 1979. NPS photos.

Since 2003: the Liberty Bell Center

After twenty-seven years and millions of visitors, the Pavilion was showing its age. On October 9, 2003, the bell moved again, to the Liberty Bell Center, where it is today. The modern building welcomes even more visitors, with extensive exhibits telling the bell's full story, and its Bell Chamber shows the bell directly across the street from its first home, Independence Hall. More than one million people from around the world visit every year.

The Liberty Bell in its current home. NPS photo.

Sources

Based on "Displaying the Liberty Bell," Independence National Historical Park, National Park Service; a work of the United States government in the public domain. The source spells the building both "Pavillion" and "Pavilion"; Pavilion is used here.