Carpenters' Hall

This guide to Carpenters' Hall in Philadelphia opens on a September morning in 1774, when delegates from twelve fractious colonies gathered in this new guildhall to answer Britain's crackdown on Massachusetts and could not even agree on how to open their meeting. Proposing a prayer nearly split the room apart, until Samuel Adams stood and argued that any pious, patriotic man's prayer would do, whatever church he belonged to. You'll hear who the delegates sent for, an assistant rector from Christ Church a few blocks away, and what he carried in under his arm. Stand roughly where the room once turned to listen.