Originally constructed between 1732 and 1756, the Georgian style brick building now known as Independence Hall was the State House of colonial Pennsylvania. In 1775 the Second Continental Congress used it as a meeting place. George Washington accepted command of the Continental army and Congress agreed to the Declaration of Independence (July 4, 1776) within its walls. The building remained the seat of the national government during much of the Revolutionary War (1775-93). Congress abandoned Philadelphia briefly in the winter of 1776-77 and again when the British captured the city of Philadelphia on September 26, 1777. After the British evacuation in June 1778, Congress continued to meet in Philadelphia until June 1783, when mutinous troops surrounded the building seeking back pay. Considering this action an insult, Congress decided to reconvene in Princeton.
Independence Hall, a name that did not come into common usage until much later, continued to function as the Pennsylvania State House until the state capital moved in 1799. The building, however, had been used in the summer of 1787 for the Constitutional Convention. After 1799 the building was abandoned for several years until Charles Willson Peale used it for his museum. Only after the visit of the marquis de Lafayette in 1824, and the resurrection of all things having to do with the Revolutionary War, did people in the United States begin to consider the structure a national shrine. The trademark
The Liberty Bell, Independence Hall, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
(Library of Congress) tower was redesigned and rebuilt after 1828, and for most of the rest of the 19th century the building was used for exhibitions and civic receptions. In 1943 Independence Hall became part of the National Parks system. Today it is one of the most visited historical sites in the nation, with its interior restored to its 18th-century appearance.
Further reading: Charlene Mires, Independence Hall in American Memory (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2002).
World History
