Project Scope
…over the merits of approaching the interpretation from the perspective of southeast North Carolina or from that of the existing museum’s regional focus area.
Planners concluded that the whole state’s story is the most compelling one. A conceptual feasibility study validated this finding, demonstrating that the History Center will attract wider attention and stronger support by reaching beyond Fayetteville and Cumberland County to tell the larger story.
The result is an $80 million project involving a phased, multi-year approach to both fundraising and the History Center’s overall development.
The site will include a 60,000-square-foot main facility built outside the Fayetteville Arsenal’s archaeological footprint, protecting the remnants of the asset seized by Confederate forces in 1861 and leveled by General William T. Sherman’s engineers four years later.
The existing 1896 E. A. Poe House–described by one visitor as “a delightful step back in time”–and the three Civil War-era structures that form History Village are incorporated into the larger interpretive plan. This project offers North Carolinians and others of inquisitive mind a repository, not merely of artifacts, but of information and a context for it.
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)