The Bill of Rights Arch

The Bill of Rights Arch, erected and dedicated on November 20, 1989, honors New Jersey as the first state to ratify the Bill of Rights and Perth Amboy as New Jersey’s first capital and the designated place where the Bill of Rights was first ratified in the old Court House, present City Hall. Built on the site of the Public Square, it authentically reconstructs the south portal entry of the original market building, a roof-covered open-air structure about 20 feet wide and 100 feet long. That market building was erected because the Proprietaries stipulated fairs and market days, and the city’s 1718 Act of Incorporation directed two market days weekly throughout the year on Tuesdays and Saturdays in the market place near the Court-house or City Hall and nowhere else, while also authorizing two annual fairs in May and November. The market building was known to have been erected much earlier, and during the Revolution it was closely boarded up and transformed into a barrack for troops. It still stood on November 20, 1789, when the General Assembly of New Jersey met in the adjacent Courthouse to ratify the Bill of Rights. The arch was chosen to symbolize the spirit, life, and purpose of the nation’s history in a simple but powerful form, and it was funded by contributions from citizens throughout the city, county, and state, with labor generously donated by the Middlesex County Building and Construction Trade Council, particularly Bricklayers Local 35.

Perth Amboy, New Jersey · United States