The Continental Congress met in Philadelphia when it adopted the Declaration of Independence.
The Second Continental Congress convened in Philadelphia in May 1775, at the Pennsylvania State House, the building now known as Independence Hall. Delegates used that city as the revolutionary government’s principal meeting place while coordinating the war, managing diplomacy, and debating independence.
Congress voted for independence on July 2, 1776, through the Lee Resolution, then approved the Declaration’s wording on July 4. The document was therefore adopted in Philadelphia, although the later formal signing of the engrossed parchment occurred primarily on August 2 in the same building.
Philadelphia is sometimes confused with Washington, D.C., because the original signed Declaration is now displayed at the National Archives there. Washington, D.C., did not yet exist in 1776. Boston was central to the Revolution’s opening crisis, and New York later became the national capital for a short period, but neither was the meeting place for the Declaration’s adoption.