New panels have gone up at the President’s House, the Old City historic site that has been at the center of a legal dispute between City Hall and President Donald Trump’s administration.
The replacement materials were installed in the early morning hours Wednesday, less than a month after a panel of federal appeals court judges permitted changes to the exhibit, reversing a lower court decision and ruling against Mayor Cherelle Parker’s administration.
National Park Service (NPS) employees in January took down 34 panels at the President’s House in response to a 2025 executive order directing the agency to remove “descriptions, depictions, or other content that inappropriately disparage Americans past or living (including persons living in colonial times).”
The original exhibit examined the paradox of freedom and slavery during the nation’s founding, with a particular focus on the nine individuals George Washington enslaved when he lived in Philadelphia as the country’s first president.
In February, a district court judge ordered NPS to restore the panels. Crews began that work but paused when the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit halted portions of the preliminary injunction. For months, and through the Fourth of July holiday, the President’s House remained in a state of partial installation.
Representatives from the Avenging The Ancestors Coalition (ATAC), a leading group opposing the alterations, said they were notified of activity around the President’s House at 5 a.m. Wednesday.
Parker highlighted the timing, noting that the replacement materials were hung “under the cover of darkness.”
“It was allowed to do this by the decision of the federal court, but that it did so at night shows it understands this action is shameful, that it violates community trust,” she said in a statement. “Which it is, and which it does.”
Parker said her legal team is planning to file a motion for a rehearing “on serious legal issues” in the Third Circuit’s June 18 decision.
City attorneys unsuccessfully attempted to delay enforcement of the ruling while they considered their options for appeal. An order entered late last week formally cleared the way for the NPS to redesign the exhibit.
A spokesperson for the Department of the Interior, which includes the park service, told Metro that the new panels, which have been posted on the NPS website for months, “are full of historical context and highlight the momentous events that took place in the President’s House and the other sites at Independence National Historical Park.”
“They acknowledge the evils of slavery, including its injustices and hypocrisies, and, by telling the stories of the nine slaves that Washington kept in the President’s House, remind us of their essential humanity,” the spokesperson added.
ATAC’s leader, Michael Coard, characterized the replacement exhibit as a “complete whitewashing of American history” that downplays the brutality of slavery.
“I don't care whether you're a Republican or Democrat, liberal or conservative, right wing or left wing. This is some scary sh--,” he told reporters. “This is a frightening time, people, and I hope you all are really, really afraid.”
As Coard spoke Wednesday afternoon, tour groups and individual visitors perused the panels and U.S. Park Police officers — an unusual presence at Independence National Historical Park — tried to find shade.
Brick walls at the President’s House outline the original footprint of the executive mansion, a long-demolished residence that was home to Washington and John Adams from 1790 to 1800. It opened in 2010 at 6th and Market streets, near the entrance to the Liberty Bell Center.
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