National Park Service retracts plans to remove William Penn statue from historic Philadelphia park following backlash
By Danny Freeman, CNN
(CNN) — When you think of Philadelphia’s iconic historic landmarks, you might think of Independence Hall or the Liberty Bell.
But for the past week, federal, state and local officials have been focused on a lesser-known open air museum smaller than a city block.
Over the course of four days, the National Park Service proposed and then retracted plans to change Philadelphia’s “Welcome Park” after outrage spread from social media to the governor’s office.
The park problem began Friday, January 5, when the NPS announced it wanted the public’s input on its plan to change the city’s “Welcome Park,” which is a small park built on the historic site of William Penn’s home.
The park — which is part of the same larger park that includes Independence Hall, the Liberty Bell and other historic Philadelphia sites — honors Penn, the English Quaker who founded Pennsylvania and sailed to Philadelphia on his ship named “Welcome.”
The park features a grid of Penn’s original plan for Philadelphia and a small statue of Penn in the center of the historic site.
However the NPS said its proposed “rehabilitation” of the park would include an “expanded interpretation of the Native American history of Philadelphia.”
This plan would include removing both the statue of Penn and a model of his original house.
The original post made by the NPS quickly drew hundreds of critical responses — many from conservative voices.
“The decision by President Biden and his administration to try and cancel William Penn out of whole cloth is another sad example of the left in this country scraping the bottom of the barrel of wokeism to advance an extreme ideology and a nonsensical view of history,” said PA Republican State House Leader Bryan Cutler in a statement.
On Monday evening, NPS reversed course.
“My team has been in contact with the Biden Administration throughout the day to correct this decision,” Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro posted on X from his official government account. “I’m pleased Welcome Park will remain the rightful home of this William Penn Statue—right here in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Penn founded.”
In a new statement, NPS said that the “Independence National Historical Park has withdrawn the review of a draft proposal to rehabilitate Welcome Park and closed the public comment period.”
“The preliminary draft proposal, which was released prematurely and had not been subject to a complete internal agency review, is being retracted,” said the NPS, adding the William Penn statue will stay.
The decision was met by relief from both Republicans and Democrats like Shapiro.
“I heard concerns that there were plans to permanently remove William Penn’s statue from Welcome Park,” posted Democratic Sen. Bob Casey.
“After checking in with the Department of the Interior, I’m pleased to report that there are no plans to remove William Penn at this time,” said Casey.
CNN has reached out to the National Park Service for comment.
In its statement, the NPS said it remained “committed to rehabilitating Welcome Park” in preparation for the 250thanniversary of the Declaration of Independence signing and other festivities expected in Philadelphia in 2026.
The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2024 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.
