Great Central Fair

League House

At Broad and Sansom Streets stands the Union League’s purpose-built clubhouse, begun in 1864 and opened in May 1865 after wartime shortages delayed construction and prevented Abraham Lincoln from attending as its honored guest. Designed by John Fraser and later expanded by Horace Trumbauer, the building grew into a full city block and has since welcomed presidents, diplomats, and national leaders, remaining a living symbol of the League’s enduring mission of patriotic civic leadership.

Great Central Fair

In 1864, Union League members helped lead Philadelphia’s Great Central Fair, a massive Sanitary Commission fundraiser held on Logan Square to improve conditions for Union soldiers and raise money for medical supplies. Featuring elaborate pavilions, nearly thirty themed departments, and unprecedented leadership roles for women, the fair raised over $1 million and became one of the most important civic events of the Civil War, laying groundwork for the city’s Centennial Exhibition in 1876.

Octavius Catto and City Hall

At the memorial on the south side of City Hall, we see Octavius Valentine Catto, one of Philadelphia’s most prominent Black leaders, was an educator, abolitionist, and tireless advocate for Black enlistment and civil rights who worked closely with the Union League during and after the Civil War. After helping raise Black troops and champion voting rights under the 15th Amendment, Catto was assassinated on Election Day in 1871 while encouraging Black citizens to vote, and his funeral, organized in large part by the Union League, became one of the largest public gatherings in the city since Abraham Lincoln’s.

Union League, Concert Hall, and National Hall

As the Union League prepared to move into its clubhouse at 140 South Broad Street in 1864, it temporarily expanded across Chestnut and Market Streets, using Concert Hall and National Hall to host major public meetings during the war. Most notably, a July 1864 rally featuring Frederick Douglass called Black men to enlist in the Union Army, marking a powerful and unprecedented moment in Philadelphia when men and women, Black and white, gathered together in support of freedom and citizenship.

Supervisory Committee

In 1863, after the creation of the Bureau of Colored Troops, Union League members formed the Supervisory Committee for the Enlistment of Colored Troops to recruit, fund, and organize Black regiments for the Union Army. From establishing Camp William Penn to creating a Free Military School to train officers, the committee oversaw the raising of eleven regiments whose service and heroism, including fourteen Medals of Honor at New Market Heights, helped redefine military leadership and citizenship during the Civil War.