Completed in 1775,[4] the two-story brick meeting hall was built for and is still privately owned by the Carpenters' Company of the City and County of Philadelphia, the country's oldest extant craft guild.

[5] Numerous dignitaries have visited Carpenters' Hall, including Supreme Court of the United States Chief Justice Warren E. Burger, King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia of Sweden, Czech Republic President Václav Havel, Latvian President Guntis Ulmanis, Texas governor and future U.S. President George W. Bush, and Governor of Pennsylvania Tom Ridge.

[1] The carpenters' guild held their first meeting there on January 21, 1771, and continued to do so until 1777 when the British Army captured Philadelphia.

[11][12] The federal Custom House in Philadelphia was located at Carpenters' Hall between 1802 and 1819, except for a brief interruption between January and April, 1811.

Carpenters Company members finally selected a new building site in 1768 on Chestnut Street, a few hundred feet from Benjamin Franklin's home.

[16] Over the south door of Carpenters' Hall reads the following inscription: Within these Walls Henry, Hancock, & Adams inspired the Delegates of the Colonies With Verve and Sinew for the Toils of War