Independence Hall, the meeting place associated with America250’s founding story, is in Philadelphia.
The building was originally known as the Pennsylvania State House. The Second Continental Congress met there, and Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence in the building on July 4, 1776. The Constitutional Convention also met there in 1787.
The name Independence Hall became common after the American Revolution, reflecting the building’s connection with independence and the creation of the United States. It stands in Philadelphia’s Independence National Historical Park, near the Liberty Bell Center.
Philadelphia was the meeting place of the Continental Congress and an important political center during the Revolution. It is not the present-day national capital; Washington, D.C., became the permanent capital decades later. Independence Hall is recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site because of its role in American constitutional history.