The Town Hall was built by the League for Political Education, whose fight for passage of the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution (women's suffrage) led them to commission the building of a meeting space where people of every rank and station could be educated on the important issues of the day. The space, which became the Town Hall, was designed by the architectural firm of McKim, Mead & White, to reflect the democratic principles of the League. To this end, box seats were not included in the theater's design, and every effort was made to ensure that there were no seats with an obstructed view. This design principle gave birth to the Town Hall's long-standing mantra: "Not a bad seat in the house".