Independence Hall was the building where Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence, making it central to America250.
The building was completed in 1753 as the Pennsylvania State House. The Second Continental Congress used its Assembly Room when it debated and adopted the Declaration in 1776. The Constitutional Convention also met there in 1787 and produced the United States Constitution.
The name Independence Hall became common after the American Revolution. The site is part of Independence National Historical Park in Philadelphia and is preserved as a major symbol of the country’s founding era.
Independence Hall is sometimes confused with the National Archives Building, which houses the surviving engrossed Declaration today. The two sites have different roles: Philadelphia’s hall is the historic meeting place, while the National Archives in Washington, D.C., is the document’s modern repository.