About The Center
Transforming an existing regional museum into a major, statewide history center requires a tremendous amount of planning. The challenge is much greater when the museum’s mission is unique and its reach spans a state more than 500 miles in length.
In the case of the North Carolina Civil War & Reconstruction History Center, much of that planning has already been done. In 2007, the Museum of the Cape Fear Historical Complex Foundation received a planning grant from the North Carolina General Assembly. Foundation leaders immediately commissioned the Ohio-based museum consulting firm, Germann and Associates, to perform a benchmarking and assessment study. Because of the existing museum’s location on one of North Carolina’s most important Civil War sites and its ownership of the Reconstruction-era E. A. Poe House, Germann and Associates recommended that the new museum focus on the Civil War and Reconstruction in North Carolina. The Winston-Salem-based consulting firm The Winslow Group was commissioned to conduct a conceptual feasibility study, measure support for the more ambitious mission, and gauge interest beyond Fayetteville.
Over the next three years, The Winslow Group was joined by The Planning Edge (strategic plan, operating plan), Eisterhold and Associates (interpretive and digital master plans), and Vines Architecture (site and building master plans). The comprehensive plan that resulted from this concentrated expertise will transform the State-supported Museum of the Cape Fear Historical Complex into the North Carolina Civil War & Reconstruction History Center. As such it will be the first state museum in the nation to provide an interpretation of the Civil War and Reconstruction from the perspective of an entire state.
Featured Article
History of the Fayetteville Arsenal Site
Early in 2018, we commissioned two local university students, Dorien Caldwell from Fayetteville State University and Angel Garcia from UNC Pembroke, to produce a three-part video history of the Fayetteville Arsenal site. They did all the filming, research, and...

About The Center
Transforming an existing regional museum into a major, statewide history center requires a tremendous amount of planning. The challenge is much greater...

The Site
In 2018, the History Center engaged New South Associates, Inc. of Stone Mountain, Georgia to conduct a geophysical survey and archaeological investigations ...

Building The Museum Of The Future
The History Center is designed to be an educational center rather than a collecting museum. While hosting a respectable core collection, the History Center will ...

Project Scope
The Civil War and Reconstruction in North Carolina are important and complicated subjects. Early in the planning process, there was considerable debate over the merits of ...

Advisors/Directors
BOARD OF ADVISORS
Honorary Chairs: Governor James B. Hunt, Jr. and Governor James G. Martin
Co-Chairs: James A. Anderson, Ph.D. (Fayetteville) and James R. Leutze, Ph.D. (Wilmington)