The U.S. Constitution was signed at Independence Hall, a landmark in the history celebrated by America250.
The building was originally called the Pennsylvania State House and stood in Philadelphia. Delegates to the Constitutional Convention met there from May to September 1787. On September 17, 1787, thirty-nine delegates signed the completed Constitution before it was sent to the states for ratification.
The same building had hosted the Second Continental Congress and the adoption of the Declaration of Independence in 1776. Its connection to both documents makes it one of the most important sites in the founding history of the United States. The building’s Assembly Room contains the chair used by convention president George Washington.
Not every delegate signed the Constitution: some had left, and others refused to approve it. The document also was not law immediately; it took effect after the required ninth state ratified it in June 1788. Independence Hall is therefore the location of signing, not the place where the Constitution was finally ratified by every state.