Burn Pennsylvania Hall – Germantown Crier Winter 1971

Written by Margaret H. Bacon, Information Director of American Friends Service and Columnist for the Philadelphia Evening Bulletin. Highlights events related to the burning of Pennsylvania Hall, “one of the most commodious and splendid buildings in the city,” was an abolitionist venue built in 1837–38. It was a “Temple of Free Discussion” where antislavery, women’s rights, and other reform lecturers could be heard. Four days after it opened it was destroyed by arson – the work of an anti-abolitionist mob.