American Revolution Center announces 15-year building moratorium

By: Peter Crimmins

A proposed development complex in Valley Forge dedicated to the American Revolution has been pared down. The American Revolution Center announced a 15-year moratorium on a proposed hotel on the site inside the national park.

By: Peter Crimmins
pcrimmins@whyy.org
Caption: View across the Great Hall looking from third floor balcony. Rendering: Thomas Schaller.

A proposed development complex in Valley Forge dedicated to the American Revolution has been pared down. The American Revolution Center announced a 15-year moratorium on a proposed hotel on the site inside the national park.

Transcript:
A groundbreaking for a trailhead building is still scheduled for next month at Valley Forge. American Revolution Center CEO Bruce Cole says the moratorium putting off the proposed hotel and conference center will allow A.R.C. to focus its attention on its core mission of telling the complete story of the American Revolutionary War.

Cole: 15 years is a long way out. ARC will revisit this and decide whether the conference center is a good thing.  My vision for ARC is a museum and an educational mission.

Cole says the ARC does not yet know when construction will start on the new museum.

The state of Pennsylvania has contributed 8 million dollars toward the trailhead building and museum.

But the National Parks Conservation Association is suing to block the development. The NPCA says even without the hotel, the museum will be an unnecessary intrusion on national park land.

Listen:
Click on the play button below or right click on this link and choose “Save Link As” to download. [audio: arts20090408arc.mp3]