Reclaiming Independence Park

hen the National Park Service recently removed signs that had made George Washington the most heavily criticized individual at Independence Park, critics accused the Trump administration of “censorship.” Now that the Park Service has unveiled replacement signs, the administration stands accused of “whitewashing” and “sanitizing” history. In truth, the Trump administration is rescuing a prominent historical site from radical activists and presenting American history in a much more accurate, nuanced, and informative way – just in time for the Quarter-Millennial anniversary of American independence.

A block north of Independence Hall, the President’s House Site features ruins of the house where Presidents Washington and John Adams lived from 1790 to 1800. After the Park Service took down panels there in January, the City of Philadelphia sued, claiming the Park Service violated a previous agreement. District Court Judge Christina Rufe likened the signs’ removal to something out of “1984” and ordered them rehung. Some were reinstalled before Third Circuit Court Judge Thomas Hardiman stayed Rufe’s order, ruling that no further signs could be hung until that court hears the case on expedited appeal.

The displays at the President’s House Site focused myopically on slavery, with the link being that Washington had brought several slaves north with him to Philadelphia. When the site opened in 2010 during the Obama administration, then-New York Times and current Wall Street Journal Critic at Large Edward Rothstein wrote that it “overturns the idea of history, making it subservient to the claims of contemporary identity politics.” He noted that “Washington and Adams were shaping the new country” at that house, yet it was presented “almost as if it were the Slave Market of Charleston.”

Indeed, 25 of the site’s 30 signs focused on slavery or race relations, as I found during an August 2025 visit in advance of an essay that I wrote for the Claremont Review of Books. Washington and other founders stood accused of “injustice” and “immorality.” Sign headings read, “Washington’s Deceit” and “Washington’s Death and a New Hope for Freedom.” The biggest hero of the American Revolution was portrayed as the chief villain at Independence Park.