The National Park Service has withdrawn the review of a renovation plan that included the removal of the statue of William Penn from the site of his former Philadelphia home.
The NPS asked for input on the future for the park, located near the intersection of 2nd and Walnut streets off Sansom Walk in Philadelphia's Old City neighborhood, and they certainly received it -- at least online.
The online site where the public was supposed to provide comment on the Welcome Park proposal went live on Monday — the first day of a planned 14-day period where the NPS expected to receive public input on the plan.
But, by 6:30 p.m. Monday night, the NPS said the public comment period was closed.
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And, Governor Josh Shapiro said his office had a hand in making sure the statue stayed put.
"The preliminary draft proposal, which was released prematurely and had not been subject to a complete internal agency review, is being retracted. No changes to the William Penn statue are planned," the NPS said in a statement.
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A social media post noting the proposed renovations had thousands of comments on the plan.
The majority of online opinion seemed to oppose the idea with commenters focusing on the part of the plan that mentioned the proposed removal of the William Penn statue from the site of his former Philadelphia home, the Slate Roof House.
In a statement on the plan, the NPS said the goal of the proposed renovations were intended to create "a more welcoming, accurate, and inclusive experience for visitors."
The park is not just located on the site of Penn's former home, it is also named for the ship, Welcome, which transported Penn to Philadelphia.
The design and construction of Welcome Park was funded by the Independence Historical Trust and was completed in 1982, noted the NPS in the statement.
The withdrawn plan to renovate the park, NPS officials said, was "developed in consultation with representatives of the indigenous nations of the Haudenosaunee, the Delaware Nation, Delaware Tribe of Indians, the Shawnee Tribe, and the Eastern Shawnee Tribe of Oklahoma."
It had called for the William Penn statue and a model of the Slate Roof House at the park to be removed and not reinstalled.
NPS officials claimed the reimagined Welcome Park would have maintained "certain aspects of the original design such as the street grid, the rivers and the east wall while adding a new planted buffer on three sides, and a ceremonial gathering space with circular benches."
An existing timeline of Penn's life would have also been removed as part of the proposal.
After the proposal was withdrawn the NPS said it would still plan to renovate the park "in the coming years."
"The National Park Service (NPS) remains committed to rehabilitating Welcome Park as the nation prepares to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence in 2026. Upon completion of all the necessary internal reviews, the park looks forward to engaging in a robust public process to consider options for refurbishing the park in the coming years," a statement from the NPS read.
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