The Declaration of Independence was adopted in Philadelphia, launching the history celebrated by America250.
The Second Continental Congress met at the Pennsylvania State House, now known as Independence Hall, in Philadelphia. On July 4, 1776, Congress approved the final wording of the Declaration and ordered it sent to a printer. Philadelphia was the revolutionary capital and a major center of colonial commerce, publishing, and political activity.
The city had already hosted the First Continental Congress in 1774 and the Second Continental Congress beginning in 1775. It therefore became a key meeting place for representatives coordinating resistance to Britain. The Declaration was publicly read in Philadelphia on July 8, 1776, after its adoption.
Philadelphia remained central to the early national period. The Constitutional Convention met there in 1787, and the city served as the United States capital under the Constitution from 1790 to 1800. Independence Hall is often associated with both the Declaration and the Constitution, but the two documents were produced more than a decade apart.