Museum Of The Confederacy Breaks Ground
APPOMATTOX, Va. – “This is the biggest and most important project in the entire nation for the Sesquicentennial, the 150th anniversary of the Civil War, and Appomattox is the right place to put it,” announced S. Waite Rawls III at the Sept. 23 groundbreaking ceremony for Museum of the Confederacy — Appomattox. “We are going to break our necks to be open before April 9, 2012, the 147th anniversary of the surrender here,” he said. The new museum will be on eight acres of land near the intersection of Route 24 and the Highway 460 bypass, roughly one mile from the McLean House where Gen. Robert E. Lee surrendered to Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant on April 9, 1865. The 11,700-square-foot facility will include 5,000 square feet of exhibit space and a 1,000-square-foot multi-purpose room for meetings, lectures and educational programs. Rawls, the museum’s executive director and CEO, told the audience, “The MOC recognized six years ago that its one site — in downtown Richmond next to the White House of the Confederacy — would not work if we were to fulfill our mission of using our unbelievable collection to educate the public about the Confederate chapter of American history.” Three people brought the possibility of Appomattox as a museum site to the attention of the MOC. Rawls said State Delegate Watkins Abbitt Jr., former director of tourism Beckie Nix and Recreation and Parks Director Anne Dixon “represented the area very well and drove home to us this opportunity.” Rawls related that he and Rosewell Page III, then MOC Board of Trustees chairman, once were returning from a reception in Appomattox when Rawls asked him, “Why can’t we keep Richmond and add a new location to take advantage of the people who go there?” “That was the moment that the idea of the system of museum sites was hatched,” Rawls said. Appomattox is the first of three new museums planned. The other two under consideration are at Fort Monroe in Hampton and somewhere in the Fredericksburg area. This was the “inspiration” part. “Then came the perspiration part, which had to start with the money,” Rawls said. The total cost is $7.5 million “and we already have $6 million committed,” according to Rawls. The largest donation was $2.8 million from the Virginia Tobacco Commission. MOC trustee John Nau challenged the other trustees to raise $1 million and “led by Paul Bryant, Ivor Massey, Don Wilkinson and Sam Witt, they put $2.3 million of their own money where their mouth was,” Rawls said. Two other major donors were Joe Luter and Stan Pauley. The Town of Appomattox gave $350,000 as well. Landowner Fred Jones sold six acres and donated two for the site Rawls calls “perfect.” The town will provide water and sewer. To cover the $1.5 million gap, Rawls said he would ask the MOC general membership for help in the coming weeks. Naming opportunities for various components of the new museum are available for “significant gifts.” “God willing and the creek don’t rise, we will choose a contractor for the site and break ground for real before Thanksgiving,” Rawls said. “We’ll finish the building by the end of 2011, install the exhibits and open in the spring of 2012.” Exhibit design will go on parallel to the museum’s construction. Rawls said in addition to the end of the war and beginning of Reconstruction, there will be an overview of the start and general course of the war. The immediate aftermath of the war will be covered, such as “the concept of home to a woman refugee whose home was burned and husband killed” and what “home” meant for newly freed slaves, said Rawls. Delegate Abbitt, of the 59th District, spokes of tourism’s importance to the region. He said tourism in the surrounding counties in 2009 generated $286 million and over 3,300 jobs. Appomattox Mayor Paul D. Harvey said, “We anticipate this is going to increase visitation to the area by over 100,000 people in a year’s time.” He hopes the museum “will be part of the spark for igniting some economic development in the area.” At the close of remarks, Rawls and seven others picked up their ceremonial shovels and officially broke ground at the site. For more information about Museum of the Confederacy — Appomattox go to www.moc.org/appomattox
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