The Declaration of Independence was adopted in Independence Hall, the founding document’s historic setting behind America250.
In 1776, the building was known as the Pennsylvania State House. The Second Continental Congress met there in Philadelphia and adopted the Declaration on July 4. The building acquired the name Independence Hall in the nineteenth century because of its association with independence and the founding era.
The site is especially significant because it was also used by the Constitutional Convention in 1787. That convention drafted and signed the United States Constitution, linking the building to both the Declaration and the Constitution.
Independence Hall is part of Independence National Historical Park. The Liberty Bell is displayed nearby, but it is not the building in which Congress adopted the Declaration. Carpenters’ Hall hosted the First Continental Congress in 1774, making it another Philadelphia site that is sometimes confused with Independence Hall.