Philadlephia's City Hall From City Hall Turns 100, by L. Stuart Ditzen, in the December 17, 2000 Philadelphia Inquirer:
"Ground was broken in 1871. The cornerstone was laid in 1874. The state Supreme Court moved in in 1877. The exterior -- except for the tower -- was finished by 1890. The William Penn statue was mounted atop the tower in 1894. The tower clock started ticking in 1899. The building was "delivered" to the mayor and city councils (there were two councils then) in 1901 by the building commission. ...
On a moonlit night in 1879, Walt Whitman stood at the center of Philadelphia and gazed up at a fantastic construction looming against the sky. To the poet's eye, the huge creation before him seemed 'a majestic and lovely show there in the moonlight . . . silent, weird, beautiful.'

newer postcard of Philadelphia's City HallNow a national historic landmark, the building is considered the best -- and biggest -- example of French Second Empire architecture in America.

City Hall is said to be the biggest municipal building in the country, bigger even than the U.S. Capitol. Its tower is the tallest masonry structure in the world. And motorists have complained for a century that it is the world's biggest traffic obstruction -- standing, as it does, at the intersection of Philadelphia's two main streets."

Status: still in use as City Hall.