An e-mail from the Pennsylvania
Historic and Museum Commission gave members of the Friends of The Brandywine
Battlefield another jolt. The message indicated the park would close—again—but
there has been a reprieve.

The park shut down for two
weeks in August of 2009 after PHMC stopped funding its operation. With the help
of contributions from various sources—including Delaware County, several
townships and the Chadds Ford Civic Association—the park reopened after a
temporary agreement was reached with the state, Chadds Ford Township and the
Friends.

Rich Bowers, the newly elected
president of the Friends group, said the e-mail from the Bureau of Historic
Sites and Museums Director Steve Miller came in November and sent the group
members scrambling to figure out a way to keep the park operating.

There was a one meeting among
members of the Friends’ board. Bowers said there was a great deal of concern
over the possible shutdown, even a temporary one, with no reopen date. He said
it would be like starting all over again.

“If we close with no definite
reopening date, it becomes a startup business which costs even more,” he said.
“…Even if we close down temporarily [but] with a definitive reopening date, at
least you can continue to market to the school groups and promote Summer
History Camp, which are our two biggest programs.”

The final decision, resulting
in an abbreviated operating schedule for school programs only January through
March, came during a Dec. 6 meeting in Harrisburg.

Attending the meeting were Dave
Woods, the chief of staff for state Sen. Dominic Pileggi who brokered the
temporary agreement last year, Bowers, Miller, PHMC Executive Director Barbara
Franco and Chadds Ford Township Supervisor George Thorpe.

“It was a positive meeting, by
the end result…The Friends’ group is signing a three-month extension to our
agreement with PHMC, which will keep us functioning to the end of March,” he
said.

It allows for the school
programs to continue and lets the Friends operate the gift shop. The
abbreviated hours wills save the Friends some money, according to Bowers, but
it doesn’t save the state any money. Its costs—maintenance and grounds keeping—
remain the same whether the park is open or closed.

Keeping the park open for
school groups for those three months isn’t significant in terms of attendance.
Bowers said there are usually very few groups that time of year.

“Once April comes around, we’ll
go back to the normal operations from April through the end of the year, open
most days and weekends,” Bowers said.

From January through March, the
park will be closed to the general public, even on the weekends.

Area residents who like to walk
at the park will likely be able to continue, he said. The chains will block the
driveways, but Bowers said people would still be able to park at the bottom of
the entrance.

“They’ve done that forever,” he
said.

Bowers said there is funding in
place to keep the park going for another year and PHMC understood that closing
it now, with no definitive date to reopen, would kill the momentum that’s built
up by volunteer efforts during the past 16 months.

Keeping the park operating is
important for people to understand a significant portion of the War of
Independence.

“There’s a lot of tourism that
comes to the region for the Philadelphia Campaign. They might go to Germantown
or they might go to Paoli or Valley Forge. Well, Brandywine was the beginning
and Valley Forge was the end. If you close one end, there’s no context…[PHMC]
definitely understands the importance,” said Bowers