Monocacy Battlefield Plans New Visitor Center
By Deborah Fitts
Feb/March 2003

FREDERICK, Md. - A 1950s dairy barn will be the unusual new home of the Monocacy National Battlefield visitor center, once construction is completed in a couple of years. The nearly $3 million project will take the present visitor center out of historic Gambrill Mill and move it a mile to the Best Farm on the northern edge of the park, along Route 355.

A half-century-old dairy barn on the Best Farm will be dismantled and moved a quarter-mile to the road to create the new facility at the north end of the farm.

"It'll be much nicer," said Superintendent Susan Trail. "It's a better location in the park and a lot easier to find, and we'll have expanded exhibits to tell the story of the battle."

Gambrill Mill, built in 1830, lies in the Monocacy River floodplain and has been flooded half-a-dozen times in the 10 years since the park opened. Also, with only 400 square feet of exhibit space, and a park staff that's expanded from five to 14 in the last few years, it's cramped, Trail said.

The administrative offices will stay in the mill, but the four interpreters will move to the visitor center, which will feature an expanded bookstore and 2000 square feet of exhibit space.

The facility will also be easier for visitors to find, at the edge of Frederick's commercial area. And unlike the low-lying mill, the Best Farm dairy barn will have a view of much of the battlefield. Since the July 9, 1864, battle virtually started on the Best Farm, the visitor center in this location will make "a good starting point," Trail said.

The park considered building a new structure, but Trail said the "classic" look of the gambrel-roofed barn was "more in keeping with the historic landscape than something modern. We wanted to have something that's distinctive." The neighborhood is rife with "big box" stores and shopping malls.

Park officials also considered leaving the barn in place among the other buildings of the historic farm, but they felt having a visitor facility there, with attendant parking, would compromise the
battlefield. The park is working with an exhibit consultant, Exhibits A of Brooklyn, N.Y., to design the museum, which will be located in the barn loft. The lobby, offices, restrooms and bookstore will be on the first floor.

Trail said the exhibits will be a combination of traditional, artifact-rich displays and "vignettes," where visitors will have a taste of life at the time of the war. For instance, plans are under way to recreate the Baltimore office of John Garrett, president of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad. Concerned about his railroad bridge over the Monocacy, Garrett conveyed to Washington the news reaching him by telegraph from his stations along the line about the movement of the Confederates into Maryland and Frederick prior to the battle.

Trail said there will also be hands-on experiences for visitors, like a telegraph key that they can manipulate. The park is working on construction documents this winter and hopes to secure a contractor for the barn move by next fall. Construction is scheduled to start in spring 2004. The park comprises 1650 acres, of which 95 percent belongs, or is under easement to, the National Park Service.

Trail became the superintendent in November when Monocacy National Battlefield was administratively separated from Antietam National Battlefield. She had been assistant superintendent for both parks for six years and will direct Monocacy's future management and operations while Antietam Superintendent John Howard will continue as her supervisor, according to the Friends of Monocacy Battlefield newsletter.