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Contact: Beth Parnicza, 540-623-5861
FREDERICKSBURG, VA — The National Park Service will begin closing the grounds of Chatham Manor at 5pm each day, starting November 6, 2022. Chatham’s grounds will reopen each day at 9am.Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park’s highest priorities are to ensure visitor safety and protect park resources. Recent use of the Chatham grounds in the evenings has increased the risk of damage to the historic resources.
The Chatham grounds are a sensitive commemorative area with historic resources as important as the house itself. Before the Civil War, the forced labor of generations of enslaved people cultivated these grounds to create wealth for Chatham’s owners. During the Civil War, United States soldiers occupied the grounds while the building served as a US Army headquarters and hospital. In the 1920s, the gardens, designed by famous landscape architect Ellen Shipman, turned this former slave plantation into a picturesque place that people were eager to visit.
Keeping the grounds open in sync with the building ensures that park staff will be present at Chatham Manor to protect park resources and help visitors have a meaningful visit to this special place.
About the park. Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania County Battlefields Memorial National Military Park includes the sites of four major battles spanning eighteen crucial months of the Civil War. The battles caused more than 100,000 casualties. The constant presence of armies left Fredericksburg and the surrounding landscape devastated and ended bondage for thousands of enslaved people in the region. Learn more at www.nps.gov/frsp, and on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube.
Last updated: November 5, 2022