Fredericksburg Opens New Local History Museum

Completed in 1927, the new Catherine W. Jones McKann Center, above, served most recently as the First Virginia Bank until the Museum purchased it in 2003.

(Christopher O. Uebelhor)

On December 11, 1862, Gen. Ambrose Burnside’s Union artillery reigned down 100 shells a minute for two hours on the small town of Fredericksburg, Virginia, destroying or heavily damaging every structure and killing 100 people. Despite such horrific damage, Fredericksburg held on, limping through three years of war and the several difficult decades of reconstruction. From the ashes rose a center of trade and industry: today, the town of 19,000 people draws a substantial source of its income from tourists who come to learn about its history. And on December 6, 2008, that just got easier. Nearly one and a half centuries after the bombardment, the Fredericksburg Area Museum and Cultural Center has more than doubled its exhibition space, opening the 19,500-square-foot Catherine W. Jones McKann Center on Princess Anne Street, which celebrates Fredericksburg’s 300-year past, from its humble beginning as a tobacco inspection station through some of the most turbulent years in American history.

The expansion opened its doors following a four-year renovation of a three-story Greek revival bank building, located one block east of the 9,000-square-foot Town Hall/Market House that served as the sole museum building for 23 years. Nestled within the spacious 2nd-floor exhibition area is the original vault, which now contains an exhibit on 19th and early-20th century currency. Renovation was extensive, resulting in the almost-complete replacement of the water-stained molding. Five new exhibits describe the daily lives of the region’s former Algonquian Indian inhabitants, the river town’s emergence as a center of trade, the devastation of the Civil War, and the post-war growth of industry.

The largest and most impressive exhibit, located on the front of the 2nd floor, is Fredericksburg at War, a tribute to the city’s role in each of the major American wars. “The city of Fredericksburg has seen many of the ups and downs that any other town has experienced,” says Museum President Edwin Watson. “But there are very few cities in America that were so totally devastated by war.”

Founded in 1730, Fredericksburg became an important river town, and during the Revolutionary War was constantly on alert for raiding British dragoons. The exhibition’s starting point features a letter written by the Marquis de Lafayette, a French general and American alley, expressing to Gen. George Washington his concerns for the city’s defense.

Much of the exhibit is devoted to the Civil War period when Union and Confederate clashes laid waste to the city, known today as the “Vortex of the Civil War,” in reference to the four major battles staged within a 20 mile radius of the town at Chancellorsville, The Wilderness, Spotsylvania Courthouse, and in Fredericksburg itself. Interactive computer consoles enable visitors to browse through and hear a wide range of eye-witness testimonies from civilians, soldiers, and slaves who lived in Fredericksburg. Freed slaves, like the eloquent diarist, John M. Washington, welcomed Union soldiers in jubilation, while their former masters despair to watch their fortunes collapse overnight.

Local residents donated each of the artifacts in the 3,000-item collection, originally passed down as heirlooms. Among the featured gems, which were hitherto unavailable, are a four-panel door splintered by the devastating bombardment of December 11, 1862, and the journal of local resident Jane Beale, who witnessed that day’s horror. “The new building has a wonderful space and color,” says Watson. “It highlights the objects in the collection so beautifully.”

The Fredericksburg Area Museum is an hour and a half’s drive south of Washington, DC and an hour north of Richmond and is located within convenient walking distance of the town’s many historical heritage sites such as the colonial-era Kenmore and Chatham Mansions, Rising Sun Tavern, and the Civil War Fredericksburg Battlefield. Admission prices are $5 for adults, $1 for children between 6 and18 (children 5 and younger enter for free). For more information call (540) 371-3037 or visit http://www.fredericksburgareamuseum.com.

—Jennifer J. Rodibaugh is the Assistant Editor of American Heritage Magazine.