Memorial Foundation of the Germanna Colonies in Virginia, Inc.

Grant Application: Germanna Historic Site Improvement Project: A Visitor Center, Entrance Drive and Interpretive Trail
An ISTEA Project of the Virginia Department of Transportation
The Germanna Historic Site Improvement Project is intended to bring an influx of tourists, historians, and research students to this Historic Site to rediscover the history shaping events that occurred at this western outpost of 18th-century Virginia. Located on Route 3, the Germanna Highway, fifteen miles east of Culpeper and twenty miles west of Fredericksburg, the Germanna Historic Site remains largely unknown to the traveling public. Expansion of Route 3 into a four lane freeway in the 1980's removed convenient access to the site, so that today it can only be approached via a poorly marked gravel road. This rich historic place is virtually lost in the 20th-century Virginia landscape.

To increase public awareness, this project's first objective is to create a convenient automobile access road to the Historic Site. By constructing a new Entrance Drive, the Germanna Historic Site will become easily accessible and also convenient to the neighboring Germanna Community College facilities. Cars and tour buses will have clear and convenient access in and out of the Germanna Historic Site, with safe transition to Route 3.

The project's second objective is to establish a Visitor Center and Library at the entrance to the Germanna Historic Site so that tourists can become acquainted with the historic significance of the setting, use the restroom facilities, research their genealogy and history, and begin their Interpretive Walk around the multifaceted Historic Site. Artifacts uncovered by ongoing archaeology work at the Enchanted Castle dig will be displayed and interpreted at the Visitor Center. Germanna's fascinating history will be presented in exhibits, in artifacts, and in orientation talks. The Visitor Center will provide the historical overview to tourists before they begin the Interpretive Walk. The Visitor Center will also include a Library to house the Germanna Collection of over 400 published and over 1000 non-published books, and research collections. The Library will be open to all with an interest in Germanna and its people.

The project's third and final objective is to construct an Interpretive Trail that will wind around the Germanna Historic Site, touching on ten "Points of Historic Interest". At each of these destinations an interesting exhibit will present a piece of the Germanna story. These exhibits will highlight the original Germanna Fort Settlement of 1714, the "Knights of the Golden Horseshoe" Expedition to the Shenandoah Valley of 1716, and the construction of Governor Spotswood's "Enchanted Castle" Mansion in 1724. For military historians, the crossing of both Lafayette and Grant's Armies at the Germanna Ford will be marked at the precise points of crossing on the Rapidan. Reenactment of the Union cavalry building a pontoon bridge at Germanna Ford is under consideration as an embellishment to this Interpretive Trail marker. As the interest in the Civil War continues to grow on an international level, the dramatic river crossing by Grant's Army of the Potomac at the Germanna Ford will attract many who are drawn to Virginia to retrace that war's great campaigns. The Interpretive Trail will encompass two expansive centuries of Virginia history. It will tell a compelling story of this early colonial settlement, its westward expansion, and its ultimate demise after suffering the ravages of the Civil War.

Construction Completed