Where was the Constitutional Convention held?

The Constitutional Convention met in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in the Pennsylvania State House on Chestnut Street, the same building where the Second Continental Congress had adopted the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776 and where Congress had drafted the Articles of Confederation. The building came to be called Independence Hall in the nineteenth century. Delegates assembled in the Assembly Room on the first floor, the same chamber where the Declaration had been signed, and worked there from May 25 to September 17, 1787.

Philadelphia was chosen for several practical and symbolic reasons. It was the largest city in the United States with about 40,000 inhabitants and the most important commercial port in North America after the war. It sat at a roughly central location among the 13 states, accessible by post road from New England, the Middle States, and the Upper South, and reachable by ship from the Carolinas and Georgia. Pennsylvania's quaker tradition of toleration and the city's printing industry made it a natural meeting place for political bodies.

The Pennsylvania State House had hosted Congress from 1775 onward and had the necessary chamber and offices. Independence Hall remained available because Congress had moved north to New York City after the war and was sitting at City Hall on Wall Street in 1787. Pennsylvania authorities lent the chamber to the convention, which paid for guards and supplies.

Delegates took rooms at boarding houses around the city. George Washington stayed at Robert Morris's house at Sixth and Market Streets, James Madison lodged near Fifth and Market, and Benjamin Franklin lived a few blocks away on Market Street between Third and Fourth where he sometimes hosted afternoon gatherings of fellow delegates. The Indian Queen tavern on Fourth Street housed a contingent of southern delegates including James Madison and South Carolinians.

The convention conducted its business in strict secrecy. The doors were guarded, the windows kept shut despite the Philadelphia summer heat, and members were forbidden to copy or publish proceedings.

The Pennsylvania State House had appropriate space and the precedent of revolutionary deliberation that lent the convention symbolic weight. After signing on September 17, 1787, the delegates dispersed and Congress sent the document to the states. The State House and the surrounding Independence National Historical Park, including Carpenters' Hall where the First Continental Congress had met, are preserved as the cradle of American government. Philadelphia served as the nation's capital from 1790 to 1800 while the new federal city of Washington was being built.