The Fairfax County Park Authority has given a preliminary thumbs-up to plans to locate a permanent Cold War Museum in Lorton.
Museum founder and president Francis Gary Powers Jr. announced the agreement at a ceremony Tuesday, March 22 at the Fairfax Museum and Visitor’s Center in the City of Fairfax, where a temporary exhibit on the Cold War is on display until April 15.
"The U2 incident is the catalyst for moving toward the permanent museum," said Powers, whose father was shot down and captured while piloting a U-2 spy plane in 1960. "Envision the same type of exhibit (as the U-2 exhibit), on the end of World War II … and the Cuban Missile Crisis. That’s the type of exhibits we’ll have."
Powers and the board of directors for the non-profit museum, which was founded in 1996, have been looking for a permanent location nearly since its inception. They have their sights set on a 20-acre plot of land near the intersection of Hooes and Furnace roads in Lorton, on the site of the former NIKE missile defense control center. The land is part of a large tract given to the Fairfax County Park Authority, of which a portion was designated as a Cold War Heritage Park and Cultural Museum from the beginning. Powers said Tuesday he is in discussions with the Park Authority about the terms of the contract, most notably what land his museum will be responsible for. Powers also announced that the museum had been awarded a $125,000 grant from the Virginia General Assembly to help with start-up projects for the museum’s permanent location.
ALSO AT the ceremony, Harold Closter, director of the Smithsonian Museum Affiliates program, spoke about the relationship between his museum and the Cold War Museum, which has been an affiliate of the Smithsonian since 2001.
"We’re delighted to be part of this," said Closter. "In various places across the country, there are efforts to tell the Cold War story. It’s significant that it is being done here in Fairfax County, though, because there are so many important events which happened here."
In addition to several buildings that would be used for the museum's main exhibit halls, the site also contains six Nike-Hercules missile bunkers, part of the U.S. strategic defense system during the Cold War. The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors set aside land for a Cold War Heritage Park and Cultural Museum in its master plan for the Laurel Hill area in July 2004.