Land swap allows Revolution museum to build in Philadelphia, Valley Forge to preserve 78 acres

Revolutionary museum swap: Valley Forge for Philly

PHILADELPHIA — A land swap that will bring a Revolutionary War museum to Philadelphia and preserve 78 acres of land at nearby Valley Forge was heralded as a victory by those on both sides of what had been a contentious battle over the historic battlefield.

Under the agreement signed at a formal ceremony Friday afternoon, the National Park Service will hand over a site near Philadelphia’s Independence Hall, Liberty Bell and other landmarks to the American Revolution Center. In exchange, the Revolution Center will turn over 78 acres in Valley Forge to the National Park Service.

The ceremony, which included Colonial re-enactors, a boys’ choir, a color guard and guests from the Oneida Nation, marks the end to more than a decade planning and bureaucratic battles over what would be an appropriate location for the museum.

“It took many hands, many years and a tortuous trail for us to be here today,” said cable TV mogul and philanthropist H.F. “Gerry” Lenfest, chairman of the American Revolution Center. He praised the cooperation of city, state, federal and the center’s board to make the land exchange a reality.

Lenfest said the museum will be the first in the nation solely dedicated to the Revolution, with thousands of 18th-century objects, artifacts and manuscripts.

“Two iconic national parks will be strengthened as a result of this land exchange,” Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar said. “Valley Forge National Historical Park gains 78 acres of historic land, and Independence National Historical Park will benefit from a new museum commemorating the American Revolution.”

As early as 1999, the Park Service and the Revolution Center were collaborating on plans for a museum next to Valley Forge’s welcome center about 20 miles outside Philadelphia.

In 2005, however, the museum group announced plans for its own $375 million museum and conference center complex two miles from the welcome center on a parcel it bought across the Schuylkill River from where Gen. George Washington’s soldiers endured the bleak winter of 1777-78.

That proposal had called for a 130,000-square-foot museum, plus a conference center, classrooms and lodging.

The Park Service, some neighbors and preservation groups argued that the plans were too commercialized and would diminish the landscape and history of the encampment.

The squabbling went all the way from Lower Providence Township’s zoning board to U.S. District Court; the parties reached an agreement in July 2009 and have been hammering out details since then.

The Revolution Center also will get $3.2 million from the federal government — the price difference between the appraised values of $1.3 million for the Philadelphia site and $4.5 million for the Valley Forge land, officials said.

For the short term, the Revolution Center will use the existing red-brick building on its new site — an underused former visitors center from the 1976 Bicentennial — for small exhibits aimed at providing visitors with a taste of what is to come, Revolution Center president Bruce Cole said.

A timetable has not been set for razing the current building and starting work on the museum, said Cole, who declined to go into specifics about what happens next or how much it will cost.

Online:

American Revolution Center: www.americanrevolutioncenter.org

Valley Forge National Historical Park: www.nps.gov/vafo