For Immediate Release
Date: April 30, 2021
Contact: Gene Stowe
Email: stowegene@gmail.com
Phone: 980.425.8633
Surplus Land Sale Will Boost Local History Museum’s Mission
The 30-year-old Museum of the Waxhaws is selling a portion of its vacant land in order to establish financial stability and accelerate its mission to preserve and share the rich history of the region known as the Colonial Settlement of the Waxhaw.
The Andrew Jackson Foundation, owner of the museum, has listed about 15 of its 22 acres off N.C. 75 east of downtown Waxhaw with Farms & Estates Realty. Money from the sale, expected to exceed $1 million, will be placed in a trust to endow the museum’s work, including displays, field trips, and special events.
“The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated trends that were already devastating small museums across the country, and many have had to close,” said museum board President Kris Morefield. “We are fortunate to have access to resources that will not only sustain but enhance our service to the community.”
The property, which borders Waxhaw Elementary School, includes the former amphitheater where the Listen and Remember outdoor drama was performed for decades. The museum will establish a memorial to honor the local writer, cast, and crew who presented the drama.
“We are not going to forget our own history,” Morefield said. “We will devote our resources to expanding our capacity to help more people gain a sense of this place – including the thousands of newcomers who will enjoy learning about their new home. We call them ‘the Second Wave of Northern Migration,’ since most of the early settlers came down the Great Wagon Road from the North.”
The museum focuses on the Colonial Settlement of the Waxhaws, named for the Native branch of the Catawbas, that comprised much of southern Union County and northern Lancaster County, S.C. Revamped museum displays will narrate the contributions of Natives, Europeans, African-Americans, gold miners, farmers, mercantilists, mill owners, and others.
“We have adopted a vision of a dynamic community of people from many backgrounds and cultures thriving together in The Waxhaws, across the country, and around the world,” Morefield said. “Our mission is to help build that community by engaging people in our full history, celebrating its successes, acknowledging its failures, and seeking reconciliation and inclusion in the present.”
The museum, which expects to reopen on Saturdays in June, is seeking funds to sustain its operation until the sale is complete. A GoFundMe campaign has been established by Roy Sansbury of Farms & Estates Realty.