Valley Forge Park currently welcomes well over a million visitors every year. Upper Merion’s own Anna Holstein was the force behind the formation of the first preservation effort, the Valley Forge Centennial and Memorial Association. The association raised $6,000 to purchase what we know now as Washington’s headquarters. The building was dedicated on June 19, 1878.
On July 4, 1890, when this photo of the Cope family was taken, the park was not yet a public park. But there was much interest in making it a park. In July, 1890, several newspapers throughout the country were printing this AP story:
VALLEY FORGE Colorado People Want Congress to Purchase It. By Associated Press
Washington July 3 [1890] – Senator Teller today presented a petition of several hundred residents of Colorado ordering that congress purchase the historic field and land surrounding the headquarters at Valley Forge and to convert them into a permanent public park. The petitioners suggest that the park be embellished by a grand column or memorial shaft to preserve the spot from the invasions of modern commerce and to remain one of the land marks for succeeding generations to look upon with pride and veneration.
It wasn’t until 1893, that the Pennsylvania State Legislature appropriated $25,000 to purchase 250 acres. In 1976, the park was established as a National Historical Park when 2,500 acres were transferred to the Department on the Interior, “for the purpose of securing a larger land base for the park and of placing the area under the continuing protection and management of the National Park Service…acting to guarantee that Valley Forge will continue to inspire Americans for long after the Bicentennial Year.” Today the park encompasses approximately 3,500 acres.
July 4, 1890, Cope family picnic at what is today Valley Forge National Historical Park
