About the Museum

Carpenters' Hall, in Independence National Historical Park in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, is the official birthplace of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and a key meeting place for colonial delegates during the early part of the American Revolution. Completed in 1775, the two-story brick meeting hall was built for and is still privately owned by the Carpenters' Company of the City and County of Philadelphia, the country's oldest extant craft guild. The First Continental Congress met at the building in 1774 and passed and signed the Continental Association. In June 1776, it was where the Pennsylvania Provincial Conference officially declared the Province of Pennsylvania's independence from the British Empire and established the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, mobilized the Pennsylvania militia for the American Revolutionary War, set up the machinery for the Pennsylvania Provincial Convention from July 15 to September 28 in 1776, which framed the Pennsylvania Constitution of 1776 and enabled the Declaration of Independence to be written and ultimately adopted. It was briefly occupied in 1777 by the British Army during the war. The site was designated a National Historic Landmark on April 15, 1970. On November 30, 1982, the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission succeeded in passing Pennsylvania General Assembly 166(R) HR180 to recognize "Carpenters' Hall as the official birthplace of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania". The building is free to enter and receives 120,000 visitors per year. Numerous dignitaries have visited Carpenters' Hall, including Chief Justice of the United States Warren E. Burger, King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia of Sweden, Czech Republic President Václav Havel, Latvian President Guntis Ulmanis, Texas governor and future U.S. President George W. Bush, and Governor of Pennsylvania Tom Ridge.