Members of the National Park Service removed signage around the President’s House historic site on Independence Mall on Thursday afternoon, in what appeared to be the fulfillment of an executive order from the White House meant to remove displays in America’s national parks that “disparage” the nation.
The signage was part of the exhibition “The President’s House: Freedom and Slavery in the Making of a New Nation,” which was unveiled in December 2010. It provided information about the nine enslaved people who then-president George Washington brought with him to the Philadelphia presidential residence and Washington’s ties to slavery.
Starting after 3 p.m., placards were ripped from the wall around the site with crowbars as people walked by, some heading to the Liberty Bell Center. Signs were unbolted from the poles overlooking the dig site where America’s first “White House” had stood until 1832. They were stacked together alongside a wall, and then taken away around 4:30 p.m. in a park service truck. No indication was provided where the signs and exhibition parts will go.
“It’s a damn shame,” said one onlooker who didn’t wish to be identified as he walked by. “All because of one man.”
Billy Penn reached out to both the National Park Service and the Department of the Interior by email Thursday, but neither had responded by the time this article was published.