Independence Square

Established by a 1735 Act of Pennsylvania Assembly as a public open green and walks forever, the State House Yard, now known as Independence Square, was a place of both turmoil and tranquility in late-1700s Philadelphia. On the eve of the American Revolution, citizens gathered there for mass meetings to protest British policies. As protest gave way to war, soldiers drilled and drums echoed outside the State House while the Continental Congress deliberated inside. The most important result of those deliberations, the Declaration of Independence, was first read there publicly on July 8, 1776. When the Constitutional Convention met in 1787, the wartime noise had faded and the courtyard had become a peaceful garden, where winding walkways, grassy mounds, and a rich variety of trees and bushes formed a tranquil setting for the founding of the new government.

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania · United States