| World / USA / New Jersey / Camden, 5 km from center | Coordinates: 39°57'8"N 75°9'48"W |
Philadelphia's City Hall is located on Penn Square, where Market Street would intersect with Broad Street (Pennsylvania Route 611). It has been named a landmark by the American Society of Civil Engineers.
"City Hall is the nation's most elaborate seat of municipal government," reads a plaque commemorating the honor. "It is the finest American example of the French Second Empire style, widely used in late-19th-century public buildings."
The mayor's office rests on the second floor of the building. Other amenities include a gift shop, Broad Street (Orange) subway line station directly underneath the building, and a clock tower topped with a statue of Pennsylvania founder William Penn.
Said statue is involved in a local legend known as the "Curse of Billy Penn." For years, Philadelphia, as most cities tended to do at the time, had an "unwritten rule" that no building rise taller than the brim of the hat atop the William Penn statue's head. However, when several skyscrapers were constructed in the late 1980s and early 1990s in order to compete with other growing metropolises, notably New York City, this "rule" was broken.
Thus, the "Curse of Billy Penn" was unleashed: since the statue was dwarfed by the skyscrapers surrounding City Hall, no Philadelphia professional sports team has ever won a national championship. Often, the teams make it to the last leg of playoff series or even to "big games" themselves (Stanley Cup, Super Bowl, etc.) but falter at the last moment.
Category: government architecture temp names billy hall penn city historic
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