Top 10 Amazing Facts About Independence Hall 

The north side of the Independence Hall. Photo By Mys 721tx – Wikimedia

Top 10 Amazing Facts About Independence Hall 

Independence Hall is a historic civic building in Philadelphia- Pennsylvania, that is considered the birthplace of America. Built to be the Pennsylvania State House, the building originally housed all three branches of Pennsylvania’s colonial government.

Independence Hall has a red brick façade designed in a Georgian style. It consists of a central building with a bell tower and steeple, that is attached to two smaller wings by arcaded hyphens. 

The highest point to the tip of the steeple spire is 168 feet 7+1⁄4 inches (51.391 m) above the ground.   

Construction started in 1732 but it took 21 years to finish the project. This is because money was not always available to pay for materials and labor.  

The building was completed in 1753 and it hosted the new U.S. government. 

Here are Amazing Facts About Independence Hall. 

1. Declaration of Independence was Signed here 

The Assembly Room, in which both the Declaration of Independence and Constitution were drafted and signed. By xiquinhosilva – Wikimedia

The document that was written by Thomas Jefferson announced the separation of 13 North American British colonies from Great Britain. It was approved by the Continental Congress on 4th July 1776.  

The Declaration was read aloud to the public in the area now known as Independence Square. This document unified the colonies in North America that declared themselves independent of the Kingdom of Great Britain and explained their justifications for doing so.   

A month later, On 2nd August 1776, an “engrossed” version of the Declaration of Independence was signed at the Pennsylvania State House (now Independence Hall) in Philadelphia. 

The Declaration of Independence states three basic ideas. The first is that God made all men equal and gave them the rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. The second one is that the main business of government is to protect these rights. The third is that if a government tries to withhold these rights, the people are free to revolt and set up a new government.   

2. America’s Constitution Birth Place 

The Independence Hall was the principal meeting place of the Second Continental Congress from 1775 to 1783. This was the site of the Constitutional Convention in the summer of 1787. 

It was at the convention that the United States Constitution was debated and adopted. It was the same room where the declaration of independence had been signed 11 years earlier. 

America’s Founding Fathers, who were delegates at the Constitutional Convention, created and signed this enduring framework of governance that is the United States Constitution. 

3. Home to the Liberty Bell 

The Liberty Bell (foreground) was housed in the highest chamber of the brick tower. Photo By Phil Roeder – Wikimedia

The Liberty Bell is an iconic symbol of American independence. It was previously known as the State House Bell or Old State House Bell. 

The Liberty Bell weighs 2,080 pounds. The yoke weighs about 100 pounds. From lip to crown, the Bell measures three feet. The circumference around the crown measures six feet, 11 inches, and the circumference around the lip measures 12 feet. 

The Liberty Bell, with its distinctive crack, was displayed on the ground floor of the independence hall from the 1850s until 1976. It is now on display across the street in the Liberty Bell Center. 

4. Lincoln’s Body Lay Here 

Abraham Lincoln’s body was moved from Washington, D.C. to Springfield, Illinois, for burial. The 1,654-mile (2,662 km) journey began at 8:00 am on Friday 21st April 1865 and arrived in Philadelphia the next day, Saturday 22nd April, at 4:30 pm.  

The president’s body was carried by hearse past a crowd of 85,000 people and was held in state at the Assembly Room in the east wing of Independence Hall. It had been escorted and guarded by a detail of 27 naval and military officers. 

Private viewing began for honored guests and the next day, Sunday 23rd April 1865, over 300,000 mourners viewed the body.  

The body left Philadelphia for New York City the next morning Monday 24th April 1865 at 4:00 am. 

5. Independent Hall was The State House 

Part of Independence National Historical Park, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Photo By National Park Service – Wikimedia Commons

Designed to house the Pennsylvania Assembly, the Governor’s Office, and the Supreme Court of the Colony of Pennsylvania, as well as a large hall for banquets and celebrations, the building was among the largest in America at the time of its construction. 

When the building was completed in 1753, it was the Pennsylvania State House. It served as the capital for the Province and Commonwealth of Pennsylvania until the state capital moved to Lancaster in 1799.   

6. Hosted the 3 Arms of Government 

The Independence Hall hosted the supreme court, The Statehouse, and Congress. Meaning that the executive, the judiciary, and the legislature were all under one roof at independence hall. 

Congress had the authority to create a federal district to serve as the national capital. There was a Residence Act that declared Philadelphia to be the temporary capital for ten years. 

7. The United Nations Formed in this Building 

A convention was held in Independence Hall in 1915. This meeting was presided over by former US president William Howard Taft. 

It marked the formal announcement of the formation of the League to Enforce Peace. This then led to the League of Nations and soon after, the United Nations. 

8. The Clock is not the Original 

The main clocktower. Photo was taken from the ground looking up. Photo By Gingi.2492 – Wikimedia Commons

Thomas Stretch erected a 40-foot-tall giant clock at the building’s west end. The grandfather clock had a limestone base and wooden case surrounding the clock’s face. It was removed in 1830. A new clock had been designed and installed by Isaiah Lukens in 1828.  

The Lukens clock ran consecutively for eight days, with four copper dials on each side that measured eight feet in diameter. The clockworks ensured sufficient power to strike the 4000 pounds bell to ring it. 

9. It is part of Independence National Historical Park 

The Independence National Historical Park is a federally protected historic district in the United States at Philadelphia in Pennsylvania. It preserves several sites associated with the American Revolution and the nation’s founding history. 

The centerpiece of the park is Independence Hall. The park represents the founding ideals of the nation and preserves national and international symbols of freedom and democracy like the Liberty Bell, the National Constitution Center, the Museum of the American Revolution, and others. 

The structure has been designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site.   

10. It is on America’s Currency 

2006 U.S. $100 bill. – Wikimedia

Independence Hall is pictured on the back of the United States 100-dollar bill, as well as the bicentennial Kennedy half a dollar.  

The Assembly Room is pictured on the reverse of the U.S. two-dollar bill, from the original painting by John Trumbull entitled Declaration of Independence.