Historic Preservation 0

The “American Revolution Center” project is moving to Philadelphia from Valley Forge.

Despite the patriotic hype at their website, this was not some altruistic proposal to celebrate the winter at Valley Forge in the interest of history..

It was a bleepin’ convention center disguised as a museum that the developers wanted to build on a stray plotch of private land in the middle of the national historical park.

Like we need another convention center.

Good riddance.

Aside: It must have looked good on paper, but holy moly it was doomed. The site is virtually inaccessible by public transportation and almost an hour from the airport and 45 minutes from the train station in anything approaching non-rush-hour traffic on the Sure Kill Depressway.

And persons attending conferences and meetings on the road aren’t interested in museums. Nor are they interested in $50.00 cab rides to get to the hotel (it’s been a long time since I took a cab in Philadelphia–it may even be a hundred dollar cab ride to get from the airport to Valley Forge; it must be at least 25 miles).

I know. I spend a good part of my career on the road.

They are interested in getting the meetings over with, having dinner, maybe a few drinks, and going home when it’s all over.

I suspect that, had it been built, the developers and the landowners would have walked away with the bucks and that, within five years, the “museum” owners would have been crying for help from the guv’mint “to preserve jobs.”