The National Park Service

With such a setting provided at the rear of the buildings to the south, attention focused on the northern approach. As the AIA completed its restoration of Congress Hall and prepared to make plans for restoring Old City Hall, two Philadelphia architects, Albert Kelsey and D. Knickerbacker Boyd, presented a preliminary study for a "new setting" for Independence Hall, a relatively modest public open space on the north side of Chestnut Street, running halfway to Market Street. It included a Classical Revival pavilion and formal gardens. Additional impetus to these plans came from three coincidental events of 1926: the Sesquicentennial of the Declaration of Independence, the opening of the Benjamin Franklin Bridge, linking Philadelphia with New Jersey, and publication of the first regional plan for the Philadelphia area. A variety of plans was put forward over the next decade, some sensible, some not. Among the latter was a proposal from Dr. Seneca Egbert, professor of hygiene at the medical school of the University of Pennsylvania. It called for clearance of the three blocks from Chestnut to Race Street between Fifth and Sixth Streets. Half of the first block would be developed by the City of Philadelphia and the United States government. The space at the north end, at the entrance to the Benjamin Franklin Bridge, would be allocated to the State of Pennsylvania. In between, a concourse to be developed by the city would be flanked by plots allocated to each of the other twelve original states. Egbert hoped that each state would erect a replica of one of its historic buildings of the colonial era to serve as a museum and archives of its role in the founding of the nation. Egbert was a physician, not an architect or planner; had his vision been realized, the result could have been ludicrous in design and scale. One aspect of his concept, however, did command serious attention: the creation of a three-block mall north of Chestnut Street. In a prophetic interview in 1935, George E. Nitzche, recorder at the University of Pennsylvania, suggested that the three blocks to the north be transformed into a national park, so that Independence Hall could have "a setting worthy of its pre-eminence."

At about the same time, a prominent Philadelphia architect, Roy F. Larson, began, in his words, to "play with" a setting for Independence Hall. He was expanding on the work of a senior partner in his firm, the noted architect Paul Phillipe Cret. Cret was among those who had produced schemes for a small park across Chestnut Street from Independence Hall in the mid-1920s. Larson enlarged Cret's design, not only to the north, but also, in a modest way, to the east of Independence Square. Larson was not the first to consider an enhanced setting for the historic buildings east of Independence Square. In the 1930s interest in the area was undoubtedly sparked by the building of the new federal Custom House at the southwest corner of Chestnut and Second Streets. In 1933 A. Raymond Raff, in his dual capacity as Collector of the Port and president of the Carpenters' Company, proposed a series of improvements for the neighborhood around the Custom House, among which was a "Congress Plaza," which would have created a formal landscaped park along Third Street west of the Custom House. West of Third Street three buildings -- the First Bank of the United States, Carpenters' Hall, and the Second Bank of the United States would be preserved. The buildings between them and along Chestnut Street would be removed and replaced by plantings. Another scheme, put forward by Emerson C. Custis, whose real estate office was in the Merchants' Exchange, would have created office buildings around the Custom House and a mall running from the new development to Independence Hall. Although the First and Second Banks and Carpenters' Hall would remain, banks, insurance companies, and other businesses were expected to construct new buildings running back from Chestnut and Walnut Streets to the mall.

Few of these early schemes dealt with the issue of implementation. Those that did assumed that the projects would be privately funded or would be carried out through the initiative of the City of Philadelphia. When the Depression of the 1930s appeared to preclude financial support from either private philanthropy or the municipality, proponents of enhancement of the historic scene turned to a new potential source of assistance: the federal government.

A series of events in the early 1930s increased the National Park Service's role in historic preservation. Although components of the National Park System had previously included what were classified as historic sites, most of these were actually prehistoric Native American ruins in the southwest. In 1930, however, two historic areas in Virginia were added to the system: Colonial National Monument at Yorktown and the George Washington Birthplace at Wakefield. In 1933 the country's first National Historical Park was created at Morristown, New Jersey. That same year a reorganization dramatically increased the National Park Service's stewardship of federally owned historic properties. It incorporated into the National Park System the national capital parks, which included such buildings as Ford's Theater and the Custis-Lee Mansion; the national memorials, giving the Service custody of such monuments as the Statue of Liberty and the Lincoln Memorial; the national military parks, which included twenty-three Revolutionary and Civil War battlefields; national military cemeteries; and national monuments. The reorganization almost quadrupled the number of historic areas administered by the National Park Service. Its role as the agency charged with the federal government's historic preservation responsibilities, and the acquisition and management of historic properties, was recognized and expanded by passage of the Historic Sites Act of 1935. The act placed the National Park Service in the forefront of preservation activity by authorizing it to engage in research and educational and service programs. Most importantly for the future of Independence, the act provided that the Secretary of the Interior, through the National Park Service, could "contract and make cooperative agreements with States, municipal subdivisions, associations, or individuals ... to protect, preserve, maintain, or operate any historic building, site, object, or property used in connection therewith for public use, regardless as to whether the title thereto is in the United States."

Philadelphians were quick to recognize the opportunities afforded by the 1935 act. Even before the act was passed, Sen. Joseph E. Guffey drafted a bill calling for the creation of a national monument at Carpenters' Hall. George Nitzche recommended that Guffey's bill be amended to provide for the inclusion of Independence Hall and other adjacent historic structures. Proposals for a larger park continued to be discussed. In 1939 Struthers Burt contacted the National Park Service about a project aimed at razing nonhistoric structures within a radius of three or more city blocks of Independence Hall. Burt had returned to Philadelphia after living for many years in Wyoming. He was well known to the National Park Service for his role in interesting the Rockefellers in purchasing land at Jackson Hole, Wyoming, to add to Grand Teton National Park. His suggestion produced a flurry of activity, but Burt became discouraged, believing that Philadelphians would never provide sufficient support. Fiske Kimball, the respected director of the Philadelphia Art Museum and an influential member of the National Park Service Advisory Board, doubted that the necessary components of a park could be assembled. He thought it unlikely that the city or the Carpenters' Company would yield control of their buildings, and viewed the mall scheme as liable to abuse by real estate speculators.