Notice the red brick and white trim of this most important building in American history. Independence Hall was built between 1732 and 1753 as the Pennsylvania State House, a handsome Georgian brick building designed to house the colonial legislature and courts of the Province of Pennsylvania. In the summer of 1776, the Second Continental Congress met in the Assembly Room inside and debated, amended, and signed the Declaration of Independence.
Twelve years later, in the same room, the Constitutional Convention met for four months in the summer of 1787, drafting the Constitution of the United States behind closed windows and a vow of secrecy. Thirty-nine delegates signed it on September 17, 1787. The Liberty Bell hung in the steeple of this building for decades before it cracked.
George Washington presided over the Constitutional Convention from a high-backed chair on the dais; Benjamin Franklin, at 81 the oldest delegate, pointed to the carved sun on the back of Washington's chair at the signing and said he had wondered throughout the convention whether it was a rising or a setting sun. He said he now knew it was a rising sun. Walk around the building and look at the red brick and white Georgian trim; this is the room where the experiment began.