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Announcement on Westville Facebook site:https://www.facebook.com/#!/historic...96589427052681
Historic Westville
A New Chapter in the Westville Story Begins!
Historic Westville is excited to announce it has reached an agreement with the City of Columbus which will bring the unique cultural heritage institution to the Fountain City. The agreement, which was approved yesterday by vote of city council, calls for the living history ...museum to relocate to a spacious isolated and undeveloped tract of land along South Lumpkin Road. The property is adjacent to Oxbow Meadows Environmental Learning Center and near the National Infantry Museum and bounded by the Chattahoochee River and Fort Benning. The property will be gifted to Westville by the city.
“The move to Columbus presents Westville with dynamic opportunities for growth,” noted Westville director Leo Goodsell. Goodsell says that while the core of what Westville is known and loved for—authentic portrayals of the region’s history—will remain a vital part of the new living history village, the organization is planning to interpret a much broader slice of the region’s past at the new site. The area’s Native American inhabitants, frontier settlers, slaves, and freedmen will be a part of the Westville story as never before. Pivotal events in the area’s past that shaped its development, such as the conflicts of the Creek Wars era, the societal and economic transformation brought about by the Civil War and Reconstruction, and even the local impact of the World Wars will be explored more frequently.
“Engaging first-person educational programs and innovative interpretive exhibit techniques will be at the heart of the visitor experience,” Goodsell observes. He says the proposed site plan for the new Westville calls for an interpretive center and an exciting new layout for the village in which the iconic Chattahoochee County Courthouse will truly be the center of town. Situated on the highest point of land, it will be surrounded by historic structures offering picturesque sight lines that are destined to become one of the most photographed spots in the region. Surrounding the village will be several period-specific interpretive “hubs,” allowing visitors to explore in depth daily life among this region’s inhabitants in several distinct periods in appropriate settings. Demonstrations of crafts important in each era, such as woodworking, cloth-making, open-hearth cooking, and pottery production, will help bring the park to life. The plan even calls for the creation of small farms where certain crops can be grown. “Their production will add a new element to the visitor experience, notes Goodsell.”
Goodsell is also quick to point out the suitability for film production at the new Westville. “The pastoral setting of the Columbus site, combined with the nearby amenities in the growing city, will better position us to attract opportunities for film production” said Goodsell. Crucially, included in the Columbus site plan is plenty of room for future growth, in the form of spots for additional structures and interpretive spaces. The Westville board is also exploring options for additional recreational features adjacent to the village property, as well, such as a potential custom-designed secluded RV park and a scenic primitive camping area among moss-draped trees on a portion of the property. A city-owned lake with a pier lies on the southern end of the new Westville property, which the organization will facilitate access to for the public. “All of these opportunities are working together to make us a world-class destination,” observed Goodsell.
Westville traces its origins to the Atlanta area in the 1920s and John West’s “Fair of 1850.” For West, the Fair was the Deep South version of Williamsburg and Greenfield. From 1932 to 1934, he moved the oldest buildings in his collection to the Fair’s site. He filled out the display with numerous other buildings and artifacts. When West died in 1961, many thought the Fair would die with him. Fortunately, however, a group of visionary citizens from Columbus and Stewart County worked together to rescue and reinvent the village. With much encouragement and leadership from Joseph Mahan, curator of the Columbus Museum, a board comprised of Columbus and Stewart County citizens established Westville Village on June 16, 1966 on land donated by the Julian Singer family of Lumpkin. The Village was laid out in the county seat grid pattern of such area towns as Blakely, Hamilton, Buena Vista, Cuthbert, Lumpkin, Americus, and Talbotton.
Though it enjoys support from throughout the state of Georgia and beyond, Westville has been particularly hard hit during the financial setbacks of the past several years and declining attendance at its longtime home in the small Stewart County town of Lumpkin has challenged the organization. Key interpretive programs have been put on hold and plans for new features to attract a changing audience base had to be postponed. A recent strategic SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) analysis of Westville made it clear that if the organization was to thrive and grow, it was imperative to consider relocation to an area in which it would be more visible and better positioned to attract the visitors, school groups, skilled interpreters and private financial support that are its lifeblood. Westville’s board and advisors accordingly have been hard at work over the past several years to determine the best scenario that would ensure the organization’s long-term success. During this time, it brought in a number of outside professionals to help evaluate several possibilities which would enable it to achieve its full potential, including investigating the feasibility of moving outside of the Chattahoochee Valley area. The board was approached by the City of Columbus during this process. Mayor Teresa Tomlinson, who was instrumental in discussion to provide a Columbus home for Westville, says “It was important to us that this cultural treasure stay in this region. We welcome Westville to its prior neighbor, longtime partner and its new home!”
Columbus tourism officials support the move enthusiastically, as they think it will be a boon for the city as well as the institution. "Westville's re-location to Columbus is huge,” commented Peter Bowden, executive director of the Columbus Convention and Visitor’s Bureau. “It provides so many opportunities, as it compliments one of the key strategies of the Columbus Convention & Visitors Bureau; cultivating student youth tours. The synergy of the Village along with the National Infantry Museum, Oxbow Meadows Environmental Learning Center... is one element. Couple that with the other major attractions -- the National Civil War Naval Museum, Coca-Cola Space Science Center, the Columbus Museum, etc. -- certainly gives Columbus an advantage against the competition. And don't forget whitewater. Bundling all of this together will be big."
The decision to move Westville from Lumpkin was a difficult one for the organization’s board of trustees, and arrived at only after other options to ensure growth had been exhausted in Stewart County. The proposal presented by the City of Columbus was the very recipe for success Westville’s leaders had been seeking. The proposal was endorsed unanimously by the organization’s board of trustees, noted board chair Mike Bunn. Bunn points out that the fit is a natural one, as for many years a large percentage of the organization’s financial support, visitors, and volunteers have come from the Columbus area. “In recent years, Columbus and Phenix City citizens alone have accounted for as over 50% of Westville’s total financial support,” according to Bunn. Only 2 to 4% of Westville’s support comes from Stewart County, he noted. “The site offered us by Columbus is truly amazing and a perfect fit for our vision of what Westville could be, and the enthusiasm for the project is truly exciting. This move to Columbus, where the institution has long drawn so much of its support, is the best possible solution for its long-term stability and will allow it to continue to serve the southwest Georgia area for generations to come.”
Westville will continue to operate as normal in Lumpkin while the staff and board undertake a capital campaign to underwrite the costs of the move, finalize interpretive plans, and have the new site prepared. For more information or to be a part of the effort, please contact Westville at 888-733-1850, email info@westville.org, or visit www.westville.org.
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