The History of William Pens Statue Research Paper

The History of William Pens Statue - Research Paper Example Although born in an Anglican family, William Penn changed his religious views and joined â€Å"the religious society of friends† or â€Å"Quakers†. Quakers oppose war and violence and obey the divine light that they believe is present within each person. Since their beliefs opposed the Christian religion, they faced many hardships until William Penn managed to get a colonial province of West New Jersey. His implementation of democratic structure in this province included â€Å"full freedom of religion, fair trials, elected representatives of the people in power and a separation of powers†. American constitution is inspired from this democratic system of Penn (ushistory.org). He believed in fair treatment and complete religious freedom. He wrote once â€Å"True religion does not draw men out of the world but enables them to live better in it†. He was arrested a number of times due to his difference of beliefs. Yet the most famous among his trials is the one which eventually gave the freedom to the juries of England and made them independent and out of influence from the judges. William Penn also planned and developed the â€Å"City of Brotherly Love†, Philadelphia (Somerville, 2006). Due to the overcrowding at the old 18th-century city hall at fifth and Chestnut Street, a public election was held in 1870 to decide the new location of a city hall in Philadelphia. Penn Square was the new location that received 51, 623 votes. The architecture of this new city hall was designed by John MacArthur Jr. who immigrated to America from Scotland. William Penn’s statue was not originally included in his design (Hornblum, 2003). The inclusion of a statue was requested by the building commission, which was designed by Alexander Milne Calder, who immigrated to America as well in 1869 (pewtrusts.org). The construction of city hall was completed in 1901 with the intention of making it the world’s tallest building. The Eiffel tower  and Washington monument, however, grabbed that uniqueness from it. Yet it is still the world’s largest masonry building in the world.