Lancaster, Pennsylvania, was the U.S. capital for one day.

Lancaster street sign
Credit: © Paul Nichol/Alamy
Author Michael Nordine
August 20, 2026

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Washington, D.C., was officially established as the U.S. capital on July 16, 1790, when the Residence Act moved it from Philadelphia. The capital had moved a few other times during the Revolutionary War: Among the country’s lesser-known  seats of government are Baltimore from December 1776 to February 1777, Princeton from June 1783 to November 1783, and, strangest of all, Lancaster, Pennsylvania, for a single day. 

The date in question was September 27, 1777, just a few weeks after British troops seized the then-capital of Philadelphia. The Continental Congress fled the City of Brotherly Love, first crossing the Delaware River en route to New Jersey before arriving in Lancaster. The Declaration of Independence was brought along for safekeeping, as was the Liberty Bell; the latter had to be left in a church in Allentown after the wagon carrying it broke down, however. 

Not much actually took place legislatively in Lancaster — the Continental Congress mostly just rested for a day before traveling another 25 miles to York, which became the de facto capital until June of the following year — but Lancaster secured its place in the history books nevertheless.

By the Numbers

Did you know?

A president is buried in Lancaster.

James Buchanan’s presidency isn’t recalled fondly, what with him failing to prevent the Civil War, but Pennsylvanians have plenty of reasons to consider him a proud son of the Keystone State. Buchanan represented Lancaster County in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives from 1814 to 1816, the third and fourth districts in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1821 to 1831, and served as one of the state’s two senators from 1834 to 1845 before assuming the presidency. He also moved to Lancaster after college and is buried there, at Woodward Hill Cemetery.

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