Independence National Historical Park

520 Chestnut St, Philadelphia, PA 19106, USA

Pennsylvania

state

PA - Philadelphia

county

PA - Philadelphia

city

MUSEUM

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Independence National Historical Park is a federally protected historic district in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania that preserves several sites associated with the American Revolution and the nation's founding history. The centerpiece of the park is Independence Hall, where the Declaration of Independence and the United States Constitution were debated and adopted. Next to Independence Hall is Carpenters' Hall, the 1774 meeting site for the First Continental Congress, and Congress Hall, the meeting place of the United States Congress in the 1790s. Nearby are the Liberty Bell, First Bank of the United States, the first bank chartered by the United States Congress, and a recreation of City Tavern.

SITE FEATURES

Surviving Structures, Gift Shop, Restaurant, Programs, Tours, Exhibits

On this site...

By the spring of 1729, there were proposals to build a state house in Philadelphia, and 2,000 pounds sterling were committed to the project. By October 1730, they had purchased lots on Chestnut Street for the building. The State House was built between 1732 and 1753, designed by Edmund Woolley and Andrew Hamilton, and built by Woolley. It was initially inhabited by the colonial government of Pennsylvania as its State House, from 1732 to 1799.

STATE HOUSE

EST. 1732

From May 10, 1775, to 1783, the Pennsylvania State House served as the principal meeting place of the Second Continental Congress, a body of representatives from each of the thirteen British North American colonies. On June 14, 1775, delegates of the Continental Congress nominated George Washington as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army in the Assembly Room of the Pennsylvania State House. The United States Declaration of Independence was approved there on July 4, 1776, and the Declaration was read aloud to the public in the area now known as Independence Square.

The Congress continued to meet there until December 12, 1776 after which the Congress evacuated Philadelphia. During the British occupation of Philadelphia, the Continental Congress met in Baltimore, Maryland (December 20, 1776 to February 27, 1777). The Congress returned to Philadelphia from March 4, 1777, to September 18, 1777. In September 1777, the British Army again arrived to occupy Philadelphia, once again forcing the Continental Congress to abandon the State House. It then met in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, for one day (September 27, 1777) and in York, Pennsylvania, for nine months (September 30, 1777 to June 27, 1778), where the Articles of Confederation were approved in November 1777. The Second Continental Congress again returned to Independence Hall, for its final meetings, from July 2, 1778, to March 1, 1781. Under the Articles of Confederation, the Congress of the Confederation initially met in Independence Hall, from March 1, 1781, to June 21, 1783. However, as a result of the Pennsylvania Mutiny of 1783, Congress again moved from Philadelphia in June 1783 to Princeton, New Jersey, and eventually to other cities.

The Constitutional Convention took place in Philadelphia from May 25 to September 17, 1787. The delegates elected George Washington, proponent of a stronger national government, to become President of the convention. The result of the convention was the creation of the Constitution of the United States.