YORKTOWN, Va., March
12, 2015 – With the completion of an 80,000-square-foot building – a
distinctive new Yorktown landmark – the Yorktown Victory Center has reached a
midpoint milestone in its transformation into the American Revolution Museum at
Yorktown.
The Yorktown Victory
Center and the museum replacement project are managed by the Jamestown-Yorktown
Foundation, a Virginia state agency that also operates Jamestown Settlement
history museum.
Museum operations
transitioned from the existing facility to the new building this week.
Visitors are welcomed in an expansive two-story entrance lobby, with access to
a museum gift shop and a café. Before entering the ticketed area,
visitors can watch a new Yorktown Victory Center orientation video and find
information about other area attractions.
In the 170-seat
museum theater, until the premiere of new introductory film in 2016, three
films will be shown on a rotating basis, each prefaced by a 60-second preview
of the American Revolution Museum at Yorktown. “The Road to Yorktown,”
which debuted with the opening of the Yorktown Victory Center in 1976 during
the national Bicentennial, and “A Time of Revolution,” shown daily since 1995,
focus on the 1781 Siege of Yorktown and events that led up to it, with emphasis
on the perspectives and personal stories of those involved. “Liberty’s
Call,” a new film produced by the Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation’s video
production team to be added to the rotation this spring, combines period images
with present-day interviews to explore the American ideal of liberty from its
inception to the establishment of a national government, and across time to
today.
Next to the theater
is a 5,000 square-foot space for future special exhibitions. A timeline
corridor leading to the museum’s outdoor living-history areas borders a 22,000
square-foot space where construction of permanent gallery exhibits, planned to
open by late 2016, is underway. The corridor provides a visual journey
from the 13 British colonies in the 1750s to westward expansion of the new
United States in the 1790s. A short video at the end of the corridor
introduces visitors to the museum’s outdoor re-created Continental Army
encampment and Revolution-era farm.
While work continues
on the new galleries, special visitor participatory experiences will be offered
in the corridor and nearby classrooms and on an outdoor event lawn.
Periodic topics include military tactics, nationalities represented at the
Siege of Yorktown, espionage, choosing sides during the Revolution, enlistment
in the Continental Army, and military medicine.
A section of the new
museum building serves as a venue for learning experiences for student groups
as well as the general public. A separate entrance to the education
center provides direct access to group check-in and five classrooms that
support segments of curriculum-based structured educational programming and
other museum special programs.
The building was
designed by Westlake Reed Leskosky of Cleveland, Ohio, and built by W.M. Jordan
Company, Inc., of Newport News. W.M. Jordan also is construction manager
for new parking areas and removal of pre-existing structures. In addition
to public spaces, the new building houses support functions – a meeting and
special event space with a panoramic view of the York River, staff offices,
library, historical clothing workshop, exhibit preparation and collection
storage, and building and grounds maintenance. The Jamestown-Yorktown
Foundation's central support complex, located midway between Jamestown
Settlement and the Yorktown Victory Center, continues to provide a range of
support services for both museums.
The 1976 museum
building will be demolished this spring after the transition to the new
building is complete, making way for construction of new outdoor interpretive
areas and amenities. A living-history experience in the encampment and
farm, currently in a temporary location, will remain available to museum
visitors throughout the transition.
Construction of the
American Revolution Museum at Yorktown began in mid-2012, and the entire
project is planned for completion by late 2016, when the new name will replace
“Yorktown Victory Center.” Major components of the project total
approximately $50 million. Planning, site renovations, and building and
exhibit construction are funded by the Commonwealth of Virginia. Private
donations, coordinated by the Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation, Inc., are
supporting elements of gallery and outdoor exhibits and educational resources.
The Yorktown Victory
Center is located at Route 1020 and the Colonial Parkway (200 Water Street) and
is open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily. For more information, visit www.historyisfun.org.
