Tredegar National Civil War Center To Unveil Its New Name, Logo & Plans
By Deborah Fitts
April 2005
RICHMOND, Va. - Officials planning a major Civil War
museum on the James River waterfront have scrapped plans for a new
building and instead will convert to their use the historic Gun
Foundry building at the old Tredegar Iron Works.
"We wanted to get going," explained H. Alexander Wise, president of
the nonprofit Tredegar National Civil War Center Foundation. "When
you do something you want to demonstrate that what you're doing is
real."
Wise has been working for several years to raise funds for the new
museum, which carried a $30 million price tag when fully built out.
Now Wise is reining in that earlier ambition and has set a goal of
$12.7 million to create a museum in the 1861 Gun Foundry.
The building is "an artifact in itself," Wise asserted, "so it's a
very appealing envelope for the exhibit. There's always been a strong
appeal on our board for using the historic building. It's been a
magnet drawing us back."
With more than $11 million in cash and pledges raised, the nonprofit
has scheduled a "groundbreaking" April 22. The invitation-only event
will feature the unfurling of a banner with a new logo and an new
name: instead of the Tredegar National Civil War Center, the new
museum will be called the American Civil War Center at Historic
Tredegar.
"It's a better name for people from out of town who don't know a lot
about the Civil War," Wise explained. The name of Tredegar "is known
to Civil War buffs, but we need to appeal to a general interest in
Civil War history."
Actual renovation of the foundry building will likely begin in May,
Wise said. He projected opening by early summer of 2006.
"We're going to be open before a very big year in Virginia," the
state's 400th anniversary in 2007. "We expect a lot of company and we
want to be ready."
The brick Gun Foundry was built in 1861 to manufacture cannon for the
Confederacy. Now owned by neighboring Ethyl Corp., it is one of five
historic buildings on the 8.3-acre Tredegar site. Across a courtyard
is the visitor center and museum of Richmond National Battlefield
Park.
Wise said the 12,000-square-foot foundry building was considered
early on for the museum, but "technical problems" convinced the
foundation that building new was a better idea. One problem was a
plan to create additional space by building underground, but now a
mezzanine will be built instead. And the problem of making the old
building climate-controlled for the artifacts has been solved by
making just the exhibit cases climate-controlled, Wise said.
The foundry will have 10,000 square feet dedicated to exhibits and
another 2,000 square feet for an "entry pavilion." The foundation
will keep its administrative space where it is now in Tredegar's
office building.
Wise had originally envisioned a new 28,000-square-foot building
between the Gun Foundry and the office building. Of that space,
11,000 square feet would have been dedicated to exhibits and much of
the rest to education. The education component is no longer part of
the plan, Wise acknowledged. Neither is a third phase originally
envisioned, a library and research facility.
"I want to do one phase at a time and make it succeed," he said.
Wise is planning a "big-picture approach" to the war, with exhibits
illustrating the causes of the war, the war itself and its legacy
through the viewpoints of Union, Confederate and African-American
sensibilities. "Only if you do that can you understand why the war is
so central to American history," he said.
To obtain artifacts for display, "We're talking to 50 institutions
right now" regarding loans. Chairman of the museum board John Motley
has pledged his extensive collection of African-American items from
the Civil War era.
Wise is also planning film, photos, sound and interactive exhibits.
"There are a lot of different ways of telling stories," he said. "It
will be a modern museum."
Wise has received about $3.5 million in city, state and federal
funding for the museum, with the rest coming from private sources.
Prospective donors may contact Wise at Tredegar National Civil War
Foundation, 490 Tredegar St., Richmond, VA 23219. |
For People With An Active Interest in the Civil War Today