About the Museum

On March 13, 1817, the first City Council meeting was held in the City’s newly constructed Town Hall / Market House. This building, along with the adjacent Market Square, became the heart of the City where social, commercial and legal activity intersected. The upper floors hosted Council meetings, government offices and tax collections. The open-air ground level comprised the Market House where a variety of goods were bought and sold by local farmers and craftsmen. Appropriately, the structure and square that represented the confluence of a community’s culture for so many years was later identified as an ideal site for a Museum paying homage to that history.

Though rooted in Fredericksburg’s historic past, the story of the Museum really began when local government operations moved into a newer municipal building in 1982. At that time, a group of community leaders came together to preserve the historic building and its legacies. Through their efforts, the Fredericksburg Area Museum and Cultural Center was chartered by the Commonwealth of Virginia in 1985, establishing the first Board of Directors and the Town Hall Committee that same year. Fredericksburg residents began donating items to be preserved even before the museum officially opened. The first item donated to the Museum was a Fredericksburg currency note, dated 1861. Since that first gift, more than 3,000 objects have been donated to the Museum by supportive area residents recognizing the value of the region’s heritage.

The collection of objects now housed in the Museum spans over ten thousand years of area history, from a c. 8,000 BC Clovis point to materials from the 2004 Embrey Dam demolition. As a history museum, we excel not only in the variety of objects we preserve, but also in conveying the stories these objects tell about the people who have lived in Fredericksburg and the surrounding counties.To that end, the mission of the Museum is to “collect, interpret and present the history and culture of this region” to local citizens and visitors.

For the last twenty years, the Fredericksburg Area Museum and Cultural Center has produced award-winning work, including the exhibition The Write Stuff: Three Centuries of Fredericksburg on Paper and the History on Display collection catalog. In 1995, it was the youngest museum to receive accreditation by the American Association of Museums. Further, thousands of area school children have been served through free programs and tours through the sponsorship of our Corporate Partners.

In January 2004, the Museum acquired the historic bank building located at 1001 Princess Anne Street, across the street from the Town Hall / Market House, as a solution to its growing need for space. The building’s design was inspired in part by the work of 17th-century English architect Sir Christopher Wren. It was constructed in 1927 as the Planters National Bank, the last financial institution built in the City before the Great Depression. The building housed banking institutions that served local residents and businesses for three-quarters of a century and is thus a fitting addition to a Museum dedicated to Fredericksburg area history.

To fund the building’s renovation and adaptive re-use, the Museum organized the Banking on History Capital Campaign, which has raised over ten million dollars thus far. The Museum’s expansion project has garnered prestigious grants from the Kresge Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Institute of Museum and Library Sciences. In December 2008 the Catherine W. Jones McKann Center opened with five new permanent exhibitions, along with dedicated spaces for a Learning Center, two temporary exhibition galleries, collections storage and administrative offices.