Visting Tredegar Iron Works

VISITING
TREDEGAR IRON WORKS
Home of the National Park Service's Richmond Vistors Center
and the American Civil War Center at Historic Tredegar

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Tredegar Iron Works (2002)

The Richmond National Park Service's main visitors center is located at 470 Tredegar Street on the James River in downtown Richmond Virginia. Its main purpose is to assist visitors wishing to go to the 1862 and 1864 Civil War battefields located around Richmond.

At the same site, in the Foundry building at 490 Tredegar Street, is the American Civil War Center at Historic Tredegar (ACWC), a privately funded museum that looks at the whole Civil War from Confederate, Union, and Black perspectives.

To locate the NPS Visitors Center and the ACWC simply:
1) Travel to Richmond;

2) Go to 5th street, (which cuts across the city from North to South); and

3) Follow 5th street south until it stops at Tredegar Street. Turn right onto Tredegar street. The entrance to the parking lot for both the National Park Service's Visitors Center and the ACWC is at the second right turn.

The NPS Visitors Center and the ACWC are open from 9:00 a.m. till 5:00 p.m. daily. The NPS is closed on Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years days. I am not sure what days, if any, that the ACWC is closed.

At the time of this writing the ACWC, which runs the parking lot, charges a $3.00 per hour fee for parking ($12 max). However when you pay the entrance fee to enter the Museum, they will validate your parking ticket so that you do not have to pay parking.

The current entrance fee for the ACWC is; for Adults: $8; Students/Seniors (w/ID): $6; Children ages 7-12: $2; and Children 6 & under: FREE.

The American Civil War Center's phone number is 804 780-1865

Entrance to the NPS Visitors Center is free, however, contributions are accepted ($3.00 is the recommended contribution). If you hold a National Park Service pass of any type the Park Service can validate your parking also. The National Park Service Richmond Headquarters phone number is 804 226-1981

The Tredegar facilities are leased from the New Market (formerly Ethyl) Corporation which owns the site.

VISITING THE NPS VISITORS CENTER

When you park your car in the lot you will see an outside elevator, and steps.

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Tredegar Iron Works (2002) - Elevator & Steps are circled.

You can take either the elevator or the steps to the second level and then follow the walk around to the main entrance to the NPS Visitor's center.

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Main Entrance to the Visitor's Center/

When you enter the visitor's center, go to the back of the building, to the Map Room, where the main counter is located. There, Park Rangers will describe the three floors of exhibits and provide you with information regarding the Civil War battlefield parks located around Richmond including Cold Harbor, Glendale, Malvern Hill, Fort Harrison, and Chimborazo, the N.P.S. medical museum at the location of the former Confederate Civil War hospital by that name. They will also direct you to the twenty-two minute film depicting the Civil War battles around Richmond, that is shown in the first floor war room hourly.

Finally; here are the answers to two of the most often asked questions: 1) The large white building at the top of the hill is the headquarters of the New Market Corporation and was built in the 1950's. 2) "Tredegar" is a Welsh name brought here by the original owner. It is pronounced "Tre-dee-gar" over there, but it is pronounced "tred-e-gar" over here. (Hope you understand my phonetic spelling - Ed.)

Oh, by the way, there is an Eastern National Book Store located just to the right of and behind the counter at the Tredegar Visitors Center. (I should know, I work there! - Ed.) and, to be fair, the ACWC also has a book store located near its entrance.