Philadelphia’s historic district is getting a major glow-up ahead of this summer’s celebrations of the nation’s 250th birthday — down to the smallest details.
Hundreds of patriotic women gathered on Independence Mall Thursday morning to celebrate their contribution to that sprawling effort.
The occasion was a $108,000 gift from the Pennsylvania State Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution to fund historically accurate, handwoven window treatments in two rooms inside Independence Hall.
Those spaces include the first floor Assembly Room, where the Declaration of Independence and U.S. Constitution were debated and signed.
“This project ensures that the building’s interior continues to reflect its 18th-century appearance, restored to the period when these foundational events occurred,” Independence National Historical Park Superintendent Steven Sims told a crowd of DAR delegates from around the state.
“These carefully crafted shades, replicated using period-appropriate materials and techniques, do more than dress a window. They contribute to the authenticity of this space. They shape how light enters these rooms, how visitors experience them and how we all connect to the past,” he said.
A project “about authenticity”
Ahead of the upcoming anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the National Park Service last year launched a rehabilitation of structures in the park in Old City, including Independence Hall, Congress Hall, and Old City Hall.
The work has focused on restoration of damaged masonry, wood, plaster and metal elements, as well as historically accurate painting and construction of accessibility ramps. Independence Hall closed for four months for the work and reopened in January.
Several other projects have also been completed or are under way in the 54-acre park, including a $27 million reopening of the long-closed First Bank as a museum and renovations of Declaration House, Welcome Park and Carpenters’ Hall.
The federal government is funding much of the work, but some projects depend on substantial support from the nonprofit Independence Historical Trust, which partners with NPS to maintain and improve the park, and other organizations.
“What may seem like a simple upgrade, new window treatments for Independence Hall, is something much more significant,” said Jonathan Burton, the trust’s director of development. “This project is about authenticity. It is about restoring these spaces in a way that allows visitors to experience them as they were at one of the most important moments in world history.”
Helping visitors step into 1776
The Daughters of the American Revolution has a three-part mission of historic preservation, education and patriotism, with preservation being the focus for this Semiquincentennial year, said Gail Cooper, regent of the 175-member Independence Hall Chapter in Philadelphia.
“We’ve been raising money for this last year to fund the project of the new window treatments in Independence Hall,” Cooper said. “They are currently fabric shades, so they will all be remade in a historical process.”
The group has collected $70,000 so far and hopes to raise the rest by July 1.
The existing shades date to the 1990s and are worn and faded, Sims said. Karie Diethorn, the park’s chief curator, researched historical accurate designs and materials and found a manufacturer to fabricate new window treatments that complement the rooms in Independence Hall.
“From identifying the correct materials to sourcing an American company capable of hand weaving them, this was a thoughtful and meticulous process,” Burton said.
The new shades will be installed in the Assembly Room and in the Long Gallery on the hall’s second floor.
“The light, the materials, the textures, all of it helps tell the story. When visitors walk through these rooms, we want them to feel as though they are stepping back into 1776, not just observing it from a distance,” Burton said.
Key sites around Philly and the nation
About 550 of the state’s 7,000 DAR members are in the area this week for their annual state conference in King of Prussia, said Susan Gillette Meer, a Pittsburgh member who serves as the group’s Pennsylvania State Regent.
Two hundred signed up for bus trips into Philadelphia and another 75 local members came on their own to attend the ceremony held on the Chestnut Street sidewalk across the street from Independence Hall.
Against the backdrop of a color guard of women holding up large flags, Meer presented a large facsimile check to Sims and Burton, to cheers and applause from the DAR delegates.
Cooper noted that the nation is commemorating not only the signing of the Declaration on July 4, 1776, but also an ongoing series of historic events, given that the Revolutionary War lasted for several years.
Those range from the battles of Lexington and Concord that began the war in April 1775 through the Siege of Yorktown that effectively marked its conclusion in 1781.
She also noted that her DAR chapter has supported the placement of markers at historic sites around the city. They include one at Carpenter’s Hall, a key meeting place for the American revolutionaries and the site of the First Continental Congress in 1774.
“Pay attention to all of the America250 markers that you see around town and throughout the state and throughout the country,” Cooper said. “We’ve been putting up a lot of them, to remember those patriots who gave their lives and fortunes for American independence.”
