Portal:Philadelphia/Selected picture archive/5

South facade of Independence Hall, 2015

Independence Hall is the building where both the United States Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were debated and adopted. It is now the centerpiece of Independence National Historical Park. The building was completed in 1753 as the colonial legislature (later Pennsylvania State House) for the Province of Pennsylvania and was used in that capacity until the state capital moved to Lancaster in 1799. It became the principal meeting place of the Second Continental Congress from 1775 to 1783 and was the site of the Constitutional Convention in the summer of 1787. A convention held in Independence Hall in 1915, presided over by William Howard Taft, marked the formal announcement of the formation of the League to Enforce Peace, which led to the League of Nations and eventually the United Nations. The building was listed as a World Heritage Site in 1979.