I love Philadelphia, but I’d never taken the City Hall tours. Don’t make the same mistake.

As I walked through Philadelphia City Hall last week, a woman was singing with gusto in the exterior north corridor about how she “Don’t have to worry about Betty no more.”

She wasn’t singing for money, just for herself and the acoustics. In that moment, it felt like City Hall was as much hers as it was the mayor’s or City Council’s.

During my nearly 18 years in Philly, I’ve wandered through City Hall’s courtyard and corridors countless times, attended news conferences in the Mayor’s Reception Room, and covered civil cases in the building’s courtrooms.

But I’ve never taken a tour of City Hall, even though it’s long been on my Philly bucket list. Last Friday, I finally checked it off.

Rather than focus on facts — City Hall is the largest municipal building in the U.S., it took 30 years to build, and has 700 fully occupied rooms — I’m going to tell you how the tours made me feel and whether I think they’re worth your time and money.

Two tours are available: one of the building, which lasts about an hour and costs between $20 and $26 per person (depending on your age and military status) and one of the tower, which runs 15 to 30 minutes and ranges between $10 and $16 per person. I did both, and with a $2 service fee online, the total was $44.

The public tours, which began in 1991 and were developed by retired director Greta Greenberger (who still gives one a week), are now run by the Philadelphia Visitor Center which is currently operating out of a temporary trailer in City Hall’s courtyard due to renovations (the City Hall Visitor Center is slated to reopen this spring).

Inside, the space was tight but the mood was light. I joined Richard, a lovely retired gentleman from North Jersey whose wife was attending a conference nearby, and George Evans, our building tour guide, a retired Washington, D.C., city planner and Philly transplant who’s volunteered leading tours here for 22 years.

I didn’t identify myself as a journalist in advance because I wanted the real-deal experience. I wanted to Craig LaBan this thing and taste it as the people do. That being said, I’m not Nellie Bly and I wasn’t undercover, so if it came up, I had to be honest about what I do.

Evans first took us to the north exterior, where he talked about the architecture (French Second Empire style), and how every side of City Hall tells a story.

I must have walked under the north arch hundreds of times, but it was only during the tour that I noticed William Penn’s face is the keystone of that arch. I felt a spark of wonder, like I’d found an Easter egg, but I was also struck with the painful realization that I may be the least observant journalist ever.

As Evans spoke, his passion for Philadelphia and City Hall was evident.

“I love this building, how can you not?” he said. “There’s nothing like it in the country.”

Evans told us he used to stare at a framed photo of Philadelphia City Hall he hung in his Washington home. When he retired, he moved to Florida but hated it, so he came here instead. It made me proud to know that someone who loves this city so much is showing it off to people from around the world.

We briefly toured the courtyard and exterior corridors and my mind was blown when Evans showed us the building’s cornerstone, which, once again, I’ve walked by countless times but never saw before. It’s in what resembles a shallow well, at the bottom of which are hundreds of pennies symbolizing hundreds of wishes. I couldn’t help but wonder how far they dated back — both the pennies and the wishes — and I hoped that at least a few came true.

At one point, Evans highlighted statues of children playing marbles high above us and said that behind them was a sculpture of a penny farthing, and asked if we knew what that was. When I said it’s a bicycle with a big wheel in front and a small one in back, Evans insisted I tell him how I knew this, as he encounters few people who do.

It was then I had to confess I write for The Inquirer and once profiled a man who rides a penny farthing around Philadelphia (because that’s the kind of dapper metropolis we live in).

Inside City Hall, we visited the Mayor’s Reception Room, City Council Chambers, Conversation Hall, and the City Council Caucus Room. Evans provided insight on the building’s architecture and construction; on Philly’s political history, from William Penn to its current government; and on City Hall’s cameos in movies and its greatest urban legend (the curse of William Penn), but I loved when he gave me new insight on things I’ve already seen.

When we got off the elevator on the second floor, Evans told us to look straight ahead. That hallway is the length of a city block, he said, as are all the hallways (which explains why when I’ve gone the wrong direction, it takes what feels like three city blocks to get to the bathroom).

Our hour was soon up. I was left wanting more but luckily, my tower tour was next, so I met up with my volunteer tower tour guide, Hilary Easley, and my fellow guests, a young Philly resident and her friend from South Korea.

Easley, a retiree, was as enthusiastic about City Hall’s tower as Leslie Knope was about running Pawnee’s Parks and Recreation Department. She radiated infectious joy and told me her favorite part of giving these tours, aside from the spectacular views, is meeting people from all over the world.

We took the standard elevators in City Hall as far as we could then walked through some “nonpublic areas,” which felt like being backstage at a theater. In one hallway, Easley pointed out City Hall’s first switchboard, which we got to check out up close.

An escalator then took us up to the elevator that led to the tower. There, in a circular room, was a small exhibit about City Hall and its iconic statue of William Penn by Alexander Milne Calder, which is 37 feet tall and 53,000 pounds (of course, Easley told the legend of the curse of William Penn, too).

Tower tours are limited to four guests, and as we packed into the tiny elevator to head to the top, I saw why. If you’re claustrophobic, this tour probably isn’t for you.

I’ve taken the glass express elevator at the Comcast Technology Center 60 floors up, which is stunning and feels Willy Wonka-esque, but this was completely different. It felt secret and oldfangled, like I was in an Indiana Jones movie, especially when we went through the middle of the tower’s clocks, which Easley told us are bigger than those in London’s Big Ben (26 feet in diameter vs. Big Ben’s 23 feet).

When the elevator opened, I was awed by the 360-degree view of Philadelphia and by the massive statue of Penn and his outstretched hand directly above my head.

“Dear Lord, he is large,” I thought. “And my God, this city is beautiful.”

Easley heard me gasp.

“You see why I do this! This is my happy place,” she said.

Easley pointed out major landmarks for us and offered to take our photos. We probably got about five minutes on the deck before she got a call that the next tour was ready and we had to head back down.

When I got home that night and told my husband about my adventures, it spurred us to research additional information about City Hall. The tours and my guides made me even more curious about the building and its history, and I can’t think of a higher compliment than that.

But I did have some questions. Mainly, if my guides were volunteers, where did my $44 go?

Maita Soukup, vice president of experience and engagement for the Philadelphia Visitors Center, said admission fees support staff who coordinate the tours, work with the 35 volunteer tour guides, and lead tours when volunteers aren’t available.

“The staff at the Visitor Center are there to serve volunteers and connect their passion with guests because that’s when the magic happens,” she said.

One of the few complaints I saw online is that tours are only held on weekdays. Soukup said that’s because City Hall isn’t open on weekends, but prior to the pandemic, tours ran one Saturday a month and she’s hopeful that could happen again.

Last year, 8,025 people toured the tower and 3,861 went on the building tour. That doesn’t count visiting dignitaries and officials who toured it as well, Soukup said.

She called City Hall tours “the quintessential hidden gem for Philadelphians.”

“The biggest reaction we get from locals is ‘Oh my gosh I’m so shocked it took me this long to take the tour of City Hall,’ or ‘I didn’t know I could take it,’” she said.

I’m in the “shocked it took me this long” category, but I’m proud to say I’ve now crossed it off my Philly bucket list and will be recommending it to others, including you.

For more information or to sign up for tours of City Hall, visit phlvisitorcenter.com/CityHall or call (267) 514-4757.