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All the United States Virginia Fredericksburg Abandoned National Slavery Museum
Abandoned National Slavery Museum is permanently closed.

This entry remains in the Atlas as a record of its history, but it is no longer accessible to visitors.

Abandoned National Slavery Museum

An overgrown garden stands as a grim marker of an unrealized dream.

Fredericksburg, Virginia

Added By
Josh Parks
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CAPTION
Mother Nature is quickly claiming this site.   hsoj4765 (Atlas Obscura User)
Powerful reminders still stand .   hsoj4765 / Atlas Obscura User
  sduffer1 / Atlas Obscura User
Vestigial statement of good intentions.   Anna Minster / Atlas Obscura User
  sduffer1 / Atlas Obscura User
This was 5/1/2020 and pretty much overgrown.   franknbing63 / Atlas Obscura User
This was the only sign barely readible   franknbing63 / Atlas Obscura User
  anderson1146 / Atlas Obscura User
Still standing!   hsoj4765 / Atlas Obscura User
Part of the site.   hsoj4765 / Atlas Obscura User
The walkways are still not too overgrown.   hsoj4765 / Atlas Obscura User
  anderson1146 / Atlas Obscura User
  sduffer1 / Atlas Obscura User
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About

Covered in thick snarls of thorns and vines, this overgrown garden still clings to the few relics of its former grand destiny. It’s a bleak place to encounter, a strangely fitting match to the grim history it was once meant to tell.

This unkempt patch of earth was supposed to be the United States National Slavery Museum, a monumental memorial to those who suffered during an ugly era in U.S. history. Instead, it’s an abandoned plot strangled by weeds and debt.

L. Douglas Wilder, Virginia’s former governor, unveiled his grand intentions to build the museum in 2001. An innovative building housing a full-scale slave ship replica, theater, and library was meant to dominate the landscape, which two million people were expected to visit each year. There were also plans for a small tobacco and cotton garden.

But the museum never came to fruition, just a garden created by Wilder in 2007. Though celebrities and civil rights groups donated money and people gave their own collections and artifacts, the land remains vacant. Wilder blames the 2008 recession for its failure to launch. The former governor has since turned his attention toward smaller, less expensive plans.

A few weathered signs and a slave auction box imprinted with footprints stand at the site like forsaken markers of a dream never destined to come true. Now, instead of millions of annual visitors, only the occasional urban explorer stumbles upon the small overgrown garden. 

Related Tags

Abandoned Black History Slavery History Gardens Museums Plants

Know Before You Go

It's located at the end of Gordon W. Shelton Blvd, a short drive past the amphitheater. Explorers can park right off the road and take in this site, though beware of thorns!

Community Contributors

Added By

hsoj4765

Edited By

cstrockbine, garypearlz, Kerry Wolfe, Anna Minster...

  • cstrockbine
  • garypearlz
  • Kerry Wolfe
  • Anna Minster
  • anderson1146
  • franknbing63
  • sduffer1

Published

February 5, 2018

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Sources
  • http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/21/arts/design/wilders-plan-for-slavery-museum-may-have-ended.html
  • http://www.peipartnership.com/projects/type/cultural/us-slavery-museum/
  • https://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/03/arts/design/who-will-tell-the-story-of-slavery.html
Abandoned National Slavery Museum
Gordon W. Shelton Boulevard
Fredericksburg, Virginia
United States
38.321912, -77.509044
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