Philadelphia was but forty-two years old when a number of builders in the growing town decided to have a guild like the journeymen’s guilds of London. Accordingly they formed, in 1724, “The Carpenters’ Company of the City and County of Philadelphia,” whose object should be “to obtain instruction in the science of architecture; to assist such of the members, or the widows and Children of members, as should be by accident in need of support,” as well as “the adoption of such a system of measurements and prices that everyone concerned in a building may have the value of his money, and every workman the worth of his labor.”

At first the meetings were held here and there, probably in taverns. In 1768 the Company decided to build a home. A lot was secured on Chestnut Street, between Third and Fourth streets, for which an annual ground rent of “ 176 Spanish milled pieces of eight” was to be paid. The sum of three hundred pounds necessary to begin operations was subscribed in about a week.

The Company’s annual meeting of January 21, 1771, was held within the walls, though the building was not entirely completed until 1792.