Independence Hall was the Philadelphia meeting place of Congress when it adopted the Declaration of Independence.
The building, originally called the Pennsylvania State House, hosted the Second Continental Congress during the American Revolution. The Declaration of Independence was adopted there on July 4, 1776, and the United States Constitution was later debated and signed in the same building in 1787.
Its dual association with independence and constitutional government made Independence Hall a natural symbol for later national anniversaries. The United States Semiquincentennial Commission held its first organizing meeting there in November 2018.
Independence Hall is often confused with nearby Congress Hall, where the federal government met in the 1790s, and Carpenters’ Hall, which hosted the First Continental Congress in 1774. Those buildings are historically important but were not the site of the Declaration’s adoption.