Manassas Might Join Historical Program

Partnership Could Help Boost Tourism

Manassas area historians want to tap into the city's rich past, and the region's, in the hopes of boosting tourism and stuffing local pocketbooks.

The city's Historic Resources Board plans to endorse a resolution next month to join the Journey Through Hallowed Ground Partnership, which calls attention to a 175-mile stretch between Gettysburg and Charlottesville. The journey highlights historic districts and attractions, presidents' homes and Revolutionary and Civil War battlefields.

"It will help promote tourism in the area, and it will bring dollars in," said Suzanne Parker, chairman of the Historic Resources Board, who added that many visitors will stop at the sites, as well as eat, shop and sleep locally.

The journey, which roughly follows Route 15, features nine presidential homes, including James Madison's Montpelier, Thomas Jefferson's Monticello and Theodore Roosevelt's Pine Knot, all in Virginia.

Tourists can learn about the Revolutionary War by visiting Willow Grove in Orange, Va., which served as a headquarters for U.S. generals, and the Hessian Barracks in Frederick, Md., which served as a prison.

Gettysburg, Antietam and other Civil War battle sites are all along the route. John Brown's failed raid on Harpers Ferry, W.Va., and Loudoun County's first African American high school -- Douglass in Leesburg -- are two of several black history sites on the trail.

The partnership, which is asking Congress to designate the route a National Heritage Area, has published a guide that points out local haunts and history and includes several maps to lead visitors through the region. The journey has been featured on the History Channel and in National Geographic, said Roxana Adams, acting director of the Manassas Museum System.

"At a time when, in Virginia anyway, museums and historic sites are seeing declining attendance, this opportunity comes at a very good time," she said.

The Manassas Museum had to rely on private businesses and residents to fund two of four educational interpreters after the City Council cut its 2008 budget.

The partnership's Web site, http://hallowedground.org, lists the Manassas Museum System's educational programs and field trip kits, which will help promote the area to teachers, Adams said. The museum's staff position that promoted educational opportunities in Manassas has been vacant for nearly a year, and revenue from school groups has fallen, Adams said. About 480 children have participated in outreach programs this school year or visited the museum, half the number in 2005-06, according to the museum.

With a National Heritage Area designation, the region can apply for federal grants for educational programs and museum exhibits and promote each area's historical aspects, said Cate Magennis Wyatt, president of the Journey Through Hallowed Ground Partnership.

"It is very difficult for any one site to do, but it is incredibly successful and easy to achieve that goal by working collaboratively," she said. Working together on a traveling exhibit, for example, "benefits more citizens and allows the funder more exposure for their generosity and a higher probability of that type of program getting funded."

The Manassas City Council will have final approval on the resolution to join the partnership.

"It is a good initiative to join. We are definitely on the short list of municipalities who are within the area and haven't joined," said Andrew L. Harrover (R), the council's representative to the Historic Resources Board. Harrover said he does not foresee problems in approving the resolution.