Independence Hall
The Assembly Room witnessed both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution—two revolutions in government, separated by eleven contentious years.
Artwork inspired by Charles Willson Peale
Built as Pennsylvania's colonial State House, Independence Hall hosted two different national decisions. Congress debated and adopted independence here in 1776; delegates returned in 1787 to draft the Constitution. The Assembly Room gives those events a physical scale: tables, the presiding chair, and the proximity in which disagreement became a workable text. Ask what changed between those meetings, not only who sat where.
Entry is controlled through security on the building's south side. Tour tickets are free but usually carry a small reservation charge; an early open-house period may allow entry without one. A ranger-led account connects the room to unresolved questions of representation, slavery, and who the founding promises included.
- Originally
- Pennsylvania State House
- Key years
- 1776 and 1787
- Approach
- Security entrance south of the building
Quick guide
- Reserve first
- Check whether your visit date requires a timed tour ticket.
- Find the Assembly Room
- Consider how the same space served two distinct constitutional moments.
Know before you go
- Enter from the south
- Use the 5th Street security approach, not the grand north facade.
- Study the room
- Look for the presiding chair and the layout of delegates' tables.
- Hold two dates apart
- Independence and the Constitution were eleven years apart.
- Continue outside
- Walk the surrounding square and related park sites with the room's scale in mind.
Good to know
Arrive about 30 minutes before a reserved tour for security. The hall's public-facing north front is not the visitor entrance, and the late expanded tour includes an inaccessible second floor.
Notice these
- Assembly Room
- Georgian brick facade
- Clock tower