The First Continental Congress met at Carpenters’ Hall in Philadelphia in 1774.
Delegates from 12 of the 13 British colonies that would later join the American Revolution gathered there from September 5 to October 26. Georgia did not send delegates because local Loyalist sentiment and military concerns made participation difficult.
The meeting responded to the Coercive Acts, which Parliament had passed after the Boston Tea Party. Delegates debated colonial rights, adopted a Declaration and Resolves, and created the Continental Association, a coordinated boycott of British goods.
Carpenters’ Hall is often confused with Independence Hall, then called the Pennsylvania State House. The Second Continental Congress met at the State House beginning in 1775, and the Declaration of Independence was later associated with that building. The first Congress’s meeting place was therefore a different Philadelphia landmark.