Source: Philadelphia Inquirer
Date: August 6, 2010
Byline: Stephan Salisbury

Philadelphia public archaeology lab at Independence National Historical Park closed for up to two years

The popular public archaeology lab at Independence National Historical Park, forced from its longtime home at Third and Chestnut Streets by a land deal undertaken by the park and a private group, will not reopen in its new quarters for up to two years, park officials said this week.

When they closed it in June, the officials predicted a late-summer reopening for the lab, which is analyzing about one million artifacts unearthed in the park a decade ago.

Although the move from the old park visitors' center to the First Bank of the United States building directly across the street has been contemplated for almost a year, park officials said they belatedly determined that the bank's electrical and cooling facilities were inadequate.

The Philadelphia Archaeological Forum, a professional association dedicated to preserving and advancing awareness of archaeological resources, expressed dismay about the delays.

"We believe the extended closure of the laboratory represents a serious setback" to its work, the forum said in a July 20 letter to park superintendent Cynthia MacLeod.

The letter, signed by forum vice president Lauren J. Cook, called the lengthy delay "unacceptable."

The move was forced by an agreement between the park and the private American Revolution Center, which had sought unsuccessfully to open a facility in Valley Forge National Historical Park.

Independence Park is transferring a parcel at the southeast corner of Third and Chestnut — home of the lab — to the Revolution Center; in return, the center is transferring 78 acres in Valley Forge to the National Park Service.

The deal is expected to close later this month.

MacLeod said Thursday that earlier predictions of a quick, seamless move were simply wrong. The public lab's work will now be done in a small classroom in a park building at 325 Walnut St. It's possible, she said, that a room next door will be added.

Park service archaeologist Jed Levin, who is in charge of the lab, said a smaller-scale Walnut Street lab would be open in about three weeks. MacLeod said that small numbers of visitors could be accommodated by appointment and that public programming — talks or lectures — might be established at the First Bank at a later date.

The archaeological forum's disappointment in the delay is significant because the group has a formal involvement in the lab's mission: completion of research and analysis related to the massive excavation that preceded the 2000 construction of the National Constitution Center on Independence Mall's northernmost block, between Race and Arch and Fifth and Sixth Streets.

The constitution center was required by federal law to perform the archaeological work, and it signed a contract, known as a programmatic agreement, spelling out what it would do and when.

More than a million artifacts ultimately were unearthed in that dig — from children's toys to still-legible newspapers — leading many to hail the work as one of the most important U.S. urban digs ever undertaken.

The archaeology lab was written into the programmatic agreement as a vehicle for public education; over the years, roughly 30,000 visitors annually have watched archaeologists and volunteers slowly piece together the physical debris laid down in the streets and yards of a remarkably diverse block.

The archaeological forum is a formal consulting party to the programmatic agreement, which means it may review and comment on matters affecting completion of the project, and it sees the public lab as an important element of that work.

MacLeod said the park did not learn until May or June that the First Bank building needed upgraded electrical and cooling systems.

That the archaeology lab will now be closed to large groups and families, all children, and anyone who does not have an appointment, she said, was an unfortunate byproduct of the extended work at the First Bank. At the same time, she said, the park was not required to have a public lab at all.

Members of the forum disagree. They say that the lab is very much a part of the 2007 agreement, and that lengthy interruption of its public activities amounts to a violation of the spirit if not the letter of the agreement.