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Following a path through history
When the Fort Necessity and National Road Interpretive and Education Center opens Oct. 8, Maryellen Snyder expects visitors will "follow a path through history."
Snyder, chief of visitor services at the historic site in Farmington, Fayette County, and other officials gave a media tour Friday of the center, which is still under construction.
The $12 million project is a joint effort by the National Park Service and the Pennsylvania State Heritage Parks Program.
It will include a 60-seat auditorium and theater; a classroom; interactive kiosks linking visitors with information on other regional historic, cultural and recreational attractions; a bookstore and gift shop; and museum storage and office space.
The center will be the only one in the National Park Service dedicated to telling the story of the French and Indian War.
"This is the site of George Washington's first battle and his only surrender," Snyder said.
The center was unable to open for the 250th anniversary of the July 3, 1754, battle at Fort Necessity, but its opening this fall coincides with the 250th anniversary of Maj. Gen. Edward Braddock's ill-fated meeting with a French and Indian force.
In 1755, Braddock's British and Colonial troops built a road to mount a campaign to expel the French from Fort Duquesne, at the Point in Pittsburgh. At present-day Braddock, the regiment was surprised and annihilated by the French and their Indian allies.
The centerpiece at Fort Necessity National Battlefield in Wharton Township is the re-creation of a rounded stockade Washington built at the "Great Meadow." It was where the 22-year-old colonel and his Colonial troops met defeat. This opening battle of the French and Indian War began the seven-year struggle between Great Britain and France for control of North America.
Visitors will also learn about the National Road and its role in the nation's development.
The National Road, the first federal highway, was the way west for early pioneers. It replaced a road Washington cut through the forest to transport troops, weapons, supplies and livestock over mountainous terrain.
Later replaced by Route 40, it played an important role in the economy and lifestyles of the nation's earliest residents. Visitors will encounter a moving display of travelers, livestock and goods using the roadway, as well as the commerce that eventually sprang up along the way.
After the automobile became the favored mode of transportation, Route 40 remained a well-traveled road, dotted with motels, restaurants, stores and filling stations.
"The National Road is finally going to have a very strong interpretive site along the corridor," said Donna Holdorf, executive director of the National Road Heritage Corridor.
Joanne Hanley, executive director of national parks of western Pennsylvania, was involved with the early planning for the center.
"We had a vision," said Hanley, former supervisor at Fort Necessity. "We wanted this to not be your father's visitors center."
To that end, the center will include murals, films, sensor-tripped battle scenes -- complete with thunder, gunshot and simulated rainfall -- and full-size fiberglass cast figures that will talk aloud to each other and to visitors about the politics of the time.
"This building has a great deal more exhibit space" at 14,000 square feet, said Leroy Renninger, project manager.
Staff members have been working out of a center that comprises 3,000 square feet.
More than 150 artifacts will be displayed, including the frayed handle of an 1850s-era French musket, Braddock artifacts, bayonets, the top of a teapot, and an officer's wine bottle.
Also on exhibit will be wampum belts and reproductions of war and treaty documents.
The project was financed with a mix of federal and private money as well as state capital development funds.
Generations of tourists, schoolchildren and history buffs have visited the site.
A new classroom, targeting third-, fourth- and fifth-grade students, will offer hands-on activities, from doing chores children might have done hundreds of years ago to bartering with furs for goods. "They are not just going to sit here and be lectured to," Snyder said.
The new center, she said, could accommodate 15,000 to 20,000 students a year.
The site will also offer the first interpretative playground in the National Park Service. A small reproduction of the fort -- with slides in and out, a stockade surrounding the fort, and a Conestoga wagon for climbing -- will be available for toddlers and young children.
According to the National Park Service, nearly 100,000 people visit Fort Necessity annually.
Officials said they hope the new center will attract more visitors and educate them about the role the region played in shaping American history.
