A story in this week’s Style magazine gives information on a new federal-local partnership for the Tredegar ironworks site.

The partnership between the American Civil War Center at Historic Tredegar and the National Park Service comes as regional planners continue spinning their wheels, quietly debating where to create a central visitor’s center in anticipation of next year’s commemorations of the 150th anniversary of the Civil War.

Tredegar, once the iron-smelting backbone of the Confederacy’s industrial effort, has long been a shared site between the National Park Service and the nonprofit civil war center. The new plan means Tredegar’s cohabitants become symbiotic partners on the site overlooked by Ethyl Corp.’s corporate headquarters on Byrd Street.

The partnership is unique within the National Park Service, says David Ruth, superintendent of the National Park Service’s Richmond National Battlefield Park. The federal government and the Civil War center will run jointly the museum’s day-to-day operations and retail functions. Ruth says the partnership with the center is even more comprehensive than the joint public-private effort that runs Gettysburg National Battlefield.

Gettysburg interprets a single battlefield, where Tredegar becomes a gateway to antebellum and war-era Richmond as well as all of the battlefield sites throughout the state. The private side of Tredegar has long focused its Civil War interpretation on a more rounded history of civilian and military life within the context of black, white, Northern and Southern experiences.

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