Independence Hall
Georgian brick state house where the Declaration of Independence and US Constitution were adopted.
Built between 1732 and 1753 as the Pennsylvania State House, the brick building on Chestnut Street was designed by the master carpenter Edmund Woolley working to ideas from the lawyer Andrew Hamilton. Its two-storey Georgian front of red brick with marble dressings, a central pediment and a projecting bell tower became the model for public buildings across the young republic. The Second Continental Congress met in the ground-floor Assembly Room, adopting the Declaration of Independence there on 4 July 1776.
The same room saw the Articles of Confederation debated and, over the summer of 1787, the drafting and signing of the United States Constitution. The steeple was rebuilt in 1828 by William Strickland after the original timber tower decayed, and the interiors were restored to their eighteenth-century appearance by the National Park Service from the 1950s. The building is the centrepiece of Independence National Historical Park and was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage list in 1979. Tours are led by park rangers.
Highlights
- The Assembly Room, with the Rising Sun chair used by Washington in 1787
- William Strickland's steeple of 1828 on the original 1750s tower base
- UNESCO World Heritage Site, inscribed in 1979
- Ranger-led tours and an early morning open house without tickets
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