Philadelphia - The Perfect Setting
There is no better site for the celebrations of the founding of the Navy and Marine Corps in 1775 than their birthplace – Philadelphia and the banks of the Delaware.
Independence Hall’s Assembly Room was “the room where it happened,” where the Second Continental Congress passed resolutions creating the Navy and Marine Corps.
Independence Hall still stands almost 250 years later, the central monument to the creation of the United States, and a World Heritage Site in America’s first World Heritage City. Independence Hall has been painstakingly preserved to represent its condition during the American Revolution. It is beautifully sited with Independence Mall to its front, and to its rear Independence Square, dominated by a dramatic statute of the Father of the U.S. Navy, Commodore John Barry.
Next to Independence Hall is Congress Hall, with the historic House and Senate chambers where the U.S. Navy and U.S. Marines were created. Independence Square and Mall are natural sites for conducting ceremonies and parades celebrating the birth of the Navy and Marine Corps.
Nearby are numerous significant and handsome historical sites in and around Independence National Park. Some are preserved from the founding of the Nation, including the Liberty Bell, Carpenters’ Hall where the First Continental Congress met, the Betsy Ross House, Old City Hall where the Supreme Court met, and the classic First and Second Banks of the United States, housing a portrait gallery of Revolutionary heroes. Other sites were recreated for the Bicentennial in 1976, including the Declaration House where Thomas Jefferson drafted the Declaration of Independence, the City Tavern where the Continental Congressmen often met, and the New Hall Military Museum that was the first home of the War Department and hosts exhibits highlighting the history of the Army, Navy, and Marine Corps. Other sites in the city include the Philadelphia Navy Yard, descendent of the first Navy yard, and the Naval Asylum, which housed the precursor to the Naval Academy. All these historical sites will add a unique and photogenic backdrop to the celebration of the 250th anniversaries of the Navy and Marine Corps at their birthplace.
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