Waite Boomhauer knows exactly what he wants for the Museum of the Confederacy branch under construction in Appomattox. He wants it to become the tourist destination that history created for the courthouse and surrender grounds.
It’s a destination, he said last week, that should attract more than a few visitors casually driving through the county. It should be its own draw.
And Boomhauer is determined to see that it becomes such a draw. He is, after all, the president and chief executive officer of the Richmond-based Museum of the Confederacy. That museum is expanding to Appomattox, where exhibits are expected to start moving into the new, $7.5 million branch beginning as early as December.
The 11,000-square-foot museum is located on eight acres near the intersection of U.S. 460 and Virginia 24. The site is a mile away from the Appomattox Court House National Park, which contains the McLean House and a number of other structures that date back to April 9, 1865, the day the bloody Civil War came to an end.
Boomhauer hosted a media tour of the museum, construction of which is nearly 90 percent complete, last week. He is enthusiastic about displaying the uniform worn by Gen. Robert E. Lee at Appomattox. He said that while many of the exhibits will need to be moved around to prevent light from fading or damaging them over time, Lee’s uniform will be an exception to that.
Boomhauer wants the uniform to be on perpetual display because the museum expects visitors from far and wide and he wants the museum’s centerpiece to remain in view. He said the display case will be dark so that light is not shining on it all the time. But when a visitor approaches, a motion detector is going to turn the light on “so it’s going to give a little bit of a dramatic effect.”
At the same time, a recorded voice will play a recitation of Lee’s farewell address to his troops.
The museum, Boomhauer said, should encourage visitors to spend more time in Appomattox. And if they do that, he continued, they will spend the night there and eat at restaurants in the town and near the surrender grounds. That’s the effect he hopes the museum will have on the local economy and tourism in Appomattox.
And he’s not taking any chances on travelers missing the museum as they drive by on U.S. 460. Fifteen flags will be waving from in front of the building, which he hopes will be an eye-catcher. “When the flags go up outside of here … anybody who misses this site has got to be either blind or brain dead,” he said.
County Economic Development Director Jeff Taylor is looking forward to the boost the museum will give to the town and county. He said the combination of visitors coming to the museum and then the Appomattox Court House National Historical Park and vice versa will “make the visitor experience to Appomattox much greater, much stronger.”
Taylor wants to make the combination a better destination for visitors with restaurants and a hotel center.
With the sesquicentennial observance of the Civil War well under way, the Museum of the Confederacy offers town and county officials a marvelous opportunity to take advantage of the potential for tourism. The Museum of the Confederacy’s satellite can only help with that exciting endeavor.
