Independence Park

For people throughout the United States and the world there are few more important historic sites than Independence National Historical Park. In the assembly room of Independence Hall, visitors listen raptly as national park rangers tell the dramatic story of how the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution came to be. At the Liberty Bell pavilion, children wait, sometimes a little impatiently, for their chance to touch the famous cracked...

Mary Bomar, superintendent of the Oklahoma City National Memorial and the Washita Battlefield National Historic Site, will be the next superintendent of Independence National Historical Park, the National Park Service announced yesterday. Bomar, who joined the Park Service in 1990 after more than a decade in various Defense Department administrative posts, will assume her new duties Feb. 10. She will succeed Martha Aikens, who left Philadelphia about a year ago to run Park Service training and development programs in Washington.

Dennis Reidenbach, superintendent of Independence National Historical Park since late 2005, has been named head of the National Park Service's busy Northeast regional office. Reidenbach will oversee the doings at national parks and monuments in 13 states that combined draw 55 million visitors a year. Mary Bomar, head of the park service and a former superintendent at Independence Park, praised Reidenbach, a 24-year park service employee, as "an effective leader" and manager.

Your editorial of Feb. 4 objecting to "user fees" for Independence National Historical Park represents a dangerous attitude toward government. A user fee essentially says: Only if you choose to tour the park do you have to pay. The Inquirer's idea of a "free" park says: Whether or not you choose to tour the Park you must - through taxes - pay. There is no such thing as a free lunch. The Inquirer's conception of government - with its hostility to individual choice and the free market - simply shifts the burden of government services from those who benefit from such services to the taxpayers as a whole.

National Park Service officials in Washington plan next year to charge entry fees for the first time at Independence and Valley Forge National Historical Parks as part of a national effort to boost park service revenues. The federal official in charge of Independence Park has warned that any charge would be "disastrous" - particularly in light of the forthcoming celebration of the bicentennial of the U.S. Constitution. But the regional director for both Independence and Valley Forge declined to oppose park service policy.

Independence Park is supposed to be available for all the people all the time. Vice President Nelson Rockefeller once asked Park Superintendent Hobie Cawood if he could use Independence Hall for a day-long conference on urban problems. The answer was immediate and straightforward - NO. Cawood didn't even apologize. The park was for everyone, all the time. The family from Nebraska visiting Philadelphia for the day was every bit as important to Cawood as any vice president. So, Rockefeller went up the street to a hotel for his conference, and the park remained open to all. Now it appears budget cuts might close much of the park to everyone.

John Adams onced sniffed, "The history of our Revolution will be one continuous lie from one end to the other. The essence of the whole will be that Dr. Franklin's electrical rod smote the earth and out sprang Gen. Washington, fully clothed and on his horse. Franklin then proceeded to electrify them with his rod and thence forward these three - Franklin, Washington and the horse - conducted all the policy, negotiations, and war. " Although Adams' sarcasm was reflective of his infamous jealousy for being overshadowed by the other Founding Fathers, it is doubtful that the National Park Service could conjure a better image to sell Philadelphia's history.

With the sun shining and temperatures in the 70s, it was an ideal day for seeing beyond the immediate gloom of a shortage of funds threatening Independence National Historical Park. While most of the park's visitors yesterday were free to stroll leisurely along leafy lanes or wander in and out of restored buildings, one small group was diligently taking notes and asking questions. In preparation for next year's celebration of the 200th anniversary of the adoption of the Bill of Rights by Congress, nine staff members from the tourism and communications departments of the Philadelphia Convention and Visitors Bureau were in training.

The National Park Service, as part of its review of the July 4 mishap at the National Constitution Center, will consider whether to require a safety inspection for all special events at the park. There was no such inspection before the opening ceremony at the Constitution Center, when a heavy, unsecured stage prop fell over at the event's climactic moment, striking several dignitaries and narrowly missing the event's honoree, Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor. Such a requirement could affect parks nationwide.

AS LAST WEEK'S thwarted terrorist plan to blow up airplanes departing from London once again open the floodgates of debate about security, the mother of all security questions is right here in Philadelphia: How do we protect our symbols of freedom without imprisoning them? The National Park Service is proposing a plan for Independence Park that would erect a seven-foot-high iron fence in the middle of Independence Square that will essentially bisect the park behind Independence Hall.

The National Park Service is set to pay the private American Revolution Center, known as ARC, $3.2 million as part of a land-exchange deal, after which the center plans to operate for at least several years in a portion of the old Independence Park visitor center, according to documents obtained by The Inquirer under the Freedom of Information Act. Under the broad terms of the swap, announced last year, the park service will receive 78 acres of...

Independence National Historical Park's popular public archaeology lab, which recently lost its quarters in a land swap pending between the park and a private museum, has been designated one of nine Preserve America Stewards by the federal government. The program honors both public and private efforts nationwide that have incorporated volunteers "in preserving the nation's historic places," said Wayne Donaldson, chairman of the federal Advisory Council on Historic Preservation, one of several federal agencies and departments cooperating on Preserve America.

The popular public archaeology lab at Independence National Historical Park, forced from its long-time home at Third and Chestnut Streets by a land deal undertaken by the park and a private group, will not reopen in its new quarters for up to two years, park officials said this week. When they closed it in June, the officials predicted a late-summer reopening for the lab, which is analyzing a million artifacts unearthed in the park a decade ago. Although the move from the old park visitor's center to the First Bank of the United States building directly across the street has been contemplated for almost a year, park officials said they belatedly determined that the bank's electrical and cooling facilities were inadequate.

TODAY, Dec. 7, 2009, marks the 10-year anniversary of President Clinton's signing of the Independence Visitor Center Authorization Act, which empowered the secretary of the interior to execute a detailed and long-term management agreement with the Independence Visitor Center Corp. to construct and operate the Independence Visitor Center on federally owned land at Independence National Historical Park. But after 10 years, the National Park Service still hasn't entered into a management agreement with the Independence Visitor Center establishing fair and transparent policies and procedures for the management of the center.

Independence National Historical Park will hold a public session Monday on the proposed land swap by which the private National Center for the American Revolution would assume ownership of the southeast corner of Third and Chestnut Streets in the heart of the park and the city's historic district. The site is occupied by the Independence Living History Center, home of Independence Park's popular public archaeology lab and the Once Upon a Nation gift shop and tour center. Once Upon a Nation operates a storytelling program around the park.

Grab your headsets and join the revolution tonight at the Liberty Lights Show. Experience the American Revolution - as it happened, where it happened - through state-of-the-art technology on this tour. Take a journey through Independence National Historical Park as the story of America's history is told through hand-painted images that illuminate the buildings where the events actually took place more than 230 years ago. The history, which is recounted with the aid of five-story projections, is accompanied by a moving musical score by musicians of the Philadelphia Orchestra composed specifically for the show.

Cynthia MacLeod, the former superintendent of the Richmond National Battlefield Park and Maggie L. Walker National Historic Site in Richmond, Va., has been named superintendent at Independence National Historical Park, the National Park Service announced yesterday. MacLeod will succeed Dennis Reidenbach, who was named head of the park service's Northeast Region in September. Darla Sidles has served as acting superintendent at the park since then. In announcing the appointment, Reidenbach highlighted MacLeod's ability to build relationships with independent and private organizations in support of park service efforts.

Dennis Reidenbach, superintendent of Independence National Historical Park since late 2005, has been named head of the National Park Service's busy Northeast regional office. Reidenbach will oversee the doings at national parks and monuments in 13 states that combined draw 55 million visitors a year. Mary Bomar, head of the park service and a former superintendent at Independence Park, praised Reidenbach, a 24-year park service employee, as "an effective leader" and manager.

It has been a long time coming - nearly a decade - but yesterday leaders of the Civil War and Underground Railroad Museum of Philadelphia formally announced a new home, the neoclassical First Bank of the United States on South Third Street. Standing in the bank's ornate three-story rotunda with its glass dome and Corinthian columns, E. Harris Baum, chairman of the museum's board of governors, declared it "one of the most significant days in the 119-year history of our museum. " A clutch of officials, including Mayor Street and Darla Sidles, acting superintendent of Independence National Historical Park, gathered for the announcement.