Admission Fee to Independence Park, Statue Blocked

Interior Secretary Donald P. Hodel said Wednesday that admission fees will not begin this year at Philadelphia’s Independence National Historical Park, in deference to the Constitution’s 200th birthday.

In a related development, the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee voted Wednesday to rescind a new $1 entrance fee at the Statue of Liberty.

Hodel said in a letter to Rep. Sidney R. Yates (D-Ill.), chairman of the House Appropriations subcommittee on the Interior, that the decision not to charge park visitors $2 was based on opposition to the plan in Congress.

Linked to Celebration

“I understand that the full committee is determined to delay entrance fees at Independence until Jan. 1, 1988,” Hodel said in the letter. “The delay is in recognition that 1987 celebrates the bicentennial of the U.S. Constitution and that Independence National Historical Park is uniquely associated with that celebration.”

Rather than have the committee act to postpone the entrance charges, Hodel said he would rather issue his own administrative order forbidding the fees until next year.

The National Park Service announced last December that it would impose entrance fees at 73 parks, monuments and other installations for the first time beginning Feb. 2 and raise admission charges at 61 other sites. Included on the list for first-time fees were the Statue of Liberty and Independence park, home of Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell.

Fees Imposed

Fees at many of the parks were delayed while the Park Service set up collection systems and weighed congressional objections. But a $1 fee began as scheduled at the Statue of Liberty, and fees have since started at other sites.

The Senate committee unanimously approved the proposal by Sen. Bill Bradley (D-N.J.), rescinding the $1 entrance fee at the Statue of Liberty.