State Bond Sale Will Pay for New Yorktown Victory Center

Friday, May 13, 2011

Governor Bob McDonnell announced Thursday the state will offer $41 million in bonds to fund the new Yorktown Victory Center.

The news was shared at the semi-annual meeting of the Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation Board of Trustees. The Foundation, which began planning the project in 2007, raised $1.6 million in additional funding for the new 80,000-square-foot center that will feature expanded exhibition galleries, classrooms and support functions as well as reorganization of the 22-acre site. Construction should get underway this year with an estimated completion date in 2018.

“We have an extraordinary opportunity in building this new generation of the Yorktown Victory Center,” McDonnell said. “Virginia is where the Revolutionary War was won and a young nation’s independence was secured. Yorktown should be the first place tourists from all across the globe come to learn about a War that forever changed the world.

“The new Victory Center will go far to enhance its status as the nation’s only living-history museum dedicated to telling the entire story of the American Revolution, and will result in a significant investment in the economy of the Jamestown-Williamsburg-Yorktown Historic Triangle.

“This project aligns with my ongoing initiative to grow Virginia’s tourism industry. Increased tourism means good jobs and more revenue, which positively impacts all of Virginia. About 80 percent of the Yorktown Victory Center’s individual visitors come from outside Virginia, and the new museum is expected to generate an estimated $47 million annually in expenditures in the Historic Triangle. This is a smart investment in Virginia’s past and future.”

The new center will be located adjacent to the Yorktown Battlefield, with its entrance facing Water Street. The current building will be in use during construction, but will eventually be demolished. The new exhibition design will be customized to suit the five permanent exhibition areas, focusing on the British Empire; the changing relationship between America and Britain; the Revolution; the new nation; and the American people.

The exhibits will have interactive displays, a 4-D, circular movie theater, an enhanced outdoor Living History program, a new education center and additional meeting and event space. Read more about the new design in a previous story.

“We are grateful for the exceptional support from the Governor’s Office and General Assembly,” said Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation Chairman H. Benson Dendy III. “The Yorktown Victory Center has an essential role, along with Colonial Williamsburg, the National Park Service and other partners, in interpreting events that transformed 13 British colonies into the United States of America.

“The Commonwealth’s support is critical to realizing our vision for the future and helps galvanize efforts of the Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation, Inc., to seek private donations to fund components of gallery and outdoor exhibits and educational resources.”

Over the last 35 years, the museum has hosted five million visitors and has served more than 800,000 students with curriculum-based educational programs. In the early 1990s, the museum’s focus was broadened to include events that led to the Revolutionary War and the subsequent formation of a new national government and to interpret the Revolution from diverse points of view and experiences.

Critical short-term exhibit renovations were completed in 2006 in time for the 225th anniversary of the American victory at Yorktown and 400th anniversary of the founding of Jamestown.