Read entire story in CityView Magazine by Rachel Heimann Mercader.

********************************************************************************************************

With a crane lifting the final steel beam into place behind them, state and local leaders on Tuesday described the future North Carolina History Center on the Civil War, Emancipation & Reconstruction as a long‑overdue effort to tell a fuller story about one of the most turbulent periods in the state’s history.

“We wanted to tell the truth about this period—all of its ugly parts and all the problems,” said board chair Mac Healy. “When it’s all said and done, they may not like what is said, but it’s factual and it’s the truth, and it’s accurate.”

The event marked the topping‑off of the 60,000‑square‑foot main building—a project more than 15 years in the making and now entering its final phase of construction. About 30 people attended the ceremony, signing the beam before a Balfour Beatty crane hoisted it into place. 

The center is expected to open in spring 2028.

A Project Built on Historic Ground

The center sits on a hill overlooking downtown Fayetteville next to Martin Luther King Jr. Freeway. It’s located on land once home to a federal arsenal that changed hands between Confederate and Union forces during the Civil War. The site is adjacent to the Museum of the Cape Fear and the Reconstruction‑era E.A. Poe House.

The project is expected to cost about $87 million, funded through contributions from the City of Fayetteville, Cumberland County, the state, private donors, and foundations.

Organizers have said the museum will help educators teach a nuanced, data‑driven account of the Civil War era—including the economy of slavery, the end of enslavement, and the political and social upheaval that followed—at a time when unresolved racial and political divisions continue to shape the country.

Pamela Brewington Cashwell, secretary of the N.C. Department of Natural and Cultural Resources, told attendees the center will fill a gap in how the state presents this history. “It will be the first museum in North Carolina that tells the piece of the story of Reconstruction,” she said. 

She added that the site is expected to draw visitors from across the state and beyond, bringing economic benefits along with educational ones. 

The main building is the final phase of a three‑part plan that began with the VanStory History Village and continued with an outdoor pavilion and classroom. 

Construction on the main facility began in July. Once complete, the center will include classrooms, an auditorium, a library, a café, a community meeting room, and 16,000 square feet of exhibition space.

It will be turned over to the N.C. Department of Natural and Cultural Resources and become part of the state’s museums division.