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.
For Mary Lynn Bryan, the board’s vice chair and one of the project’s driving forces, the mission has always been straightforward. “I just thought this community would grow if it knew the truth and if you could share it with young people,” she told CityView.
“No matter how it came down, we were going to tell what happened,” Bryan said, adding that the goal has always been clarity, not controversy.
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.
“People will come from across North Carolina and outside of North Carolina to visit this site,” Cashwell said. “That’s going to bring people who will visit restaurants in Fayetteville and hotels and all the things.”
Cashwell also introduced Felton Foushee as the site manager. She thanked the many partners involved—from city and county leaders to exhibit designers, architects, and engineers. “These things don’t happen without partnership,” she said.
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.
Partnerships Carry Project Forward
Cashwell reminded the crowd that while the topping‑off marks a major milestone, the project is still far from finished.
“Signing this beam is a really important part of the process, but we’re not there yet,” she said. “The fundraising is not done.”
She urged attendees to continue reaching out to their networks and emphasized that the same partnerships that carried the project this far will be essential in the final stretch.
“That’s how these projects happen,” Cashwell said. “It requires private money to bring it to full fruition.”
Healy echoed that message, using his remarks to recognize the people who kept the project moving long before the beam was lifted on Tuesday. He praised Bryan as the person whose steady vision and determination helped hold the effort together through years of uncertainty.
“They are the reason this is here,” he said of Bryan. “If it wasn’t for her, we would all be back at the office trying to make a living.”
Healy also thanked both the Fayetteville City Council and the Cumberland County Board of Commissioners for providing early support—a move he said was crucial to unlocking state support.
“Those two groups stood up,” he said. “Before we could get money from the state, both the city and the county had to make a commitment.”
Once those local commitments were in place, state lawmakers took the lead in securing the first major round of funding. Among them were former state Reps. Billy Richardson and Kirk deViere—both of whom attended Tuesday’s ceremony. DeViere now chairs the Cumberland County Board of Commissioners.
They, along with former Rep. John Szoka, who was not present on Tuesday, are credited with securing the initial state support. The state ultimately allocated $59.6 million in 2021 and another $10 million in later budgets.
“So it’s been a long journey,” Healy said, “but it’s worked out just as it was planned—and it’s going to take the same kind of partnership to carry it across the finish line.”
Government reporter Rachel Heimann Mercader can be reached at rheimann@cityviewnc.com or 910-988-8045.
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