The Second Continental Congress was meeting in Philadelphia when it adopted the Declaration of Independence, honored by America250.
Congress convened at the Pennsylvania State House, a building later renamed Independence Hall. Philadelphia was a major colonial city and an important center of printing, trade, and political activity. The Congress debated independence there during the summer of 1776.
The Declaration was sent to John Dunlap’s printing shop in Philadelphia after adoption. The resulting broadsides were distributed throughout the colonies, allowing the news to travel beyond the congressional meeting room. The first public reading in Philadelphia occurred at the State House on July 8, 1776.
Philadelphia was also the meeting place for the Constitutional Convention in 1787. The federal government later moved to New York City and then Philadelphia before Washington, D.C., became the permanent capital. That later history can cause confusion, but Washington, D.C., did not yet exist as the national capital in 1776.