Independence Hall
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How it came to be
Independence Hall was built in Philadelphia between 1732 and 1753 as the Pennsylvania State House, home of the colony's Assembly. It was designed by the lawyer Andrew Hamilton and Edmund Woolley, who also built it. The brick building carries a wooden steeple.
On 14 June 1775 the Second Continental Congress, meeting here, created the Continental Army and appointed George Washington to lead it. On 4 July 1776 it adopted the Declaration of Independence. From 25 May to 17 September 1787 the Constitutional Convention met in the building and framed the Constitution of the United States.
In 1816 the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania sold the building to the City of Philadelphia. The present steeple, by William Strickland, was added in 1828. On 23 April 1865 more than 300,000 mourners passed Abraham Lincoln's body as it lay in the Assembly Room. Independence National Historical Park was created in 1948, and the hall was inscribed in 1979.
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