The Senate met in a room on the upper level of Philadelphia’s Congress Hall, the building previously used as the Philadelphia County Courthouse. The Senate's chamber offered accommodations considerably more elegant than those available to the House. In addition to a double row of members' desks and chairs upholstered in red leather, the room's furnishings included a large handwoven carpet brightly designed with an eagle clutching an olive branch and 13 arrows, two fireplaces, and the presiding officer's desk and red leather chair under a crimson damask canopy lined with green silk. The chamber's only illumination came from candles on each member's desk.
Congress Hall underwent two major modifications in the mid-1790s. The growth in population, indicated by results of the 1790 census, increased the number of House members from 65 to 105 and made necessary a 26-foot extension of their chamber. That extension also expanded the Senate Chamber and doubled the office space available to staff and committees. Initially, the Senate had met in closed sessions, but in 1794 senators voted to open legislative sessions to the public, prompting construction of a gallery that opened to visitors in December of 1795.
