Sports Firm Buys Va. Site of Dormant Slavery Museum
June 2, 2015 | Read Time: 1 minute
A New Jersey company has purchased the 38-acre Fredericksburg, Va., property formerly intended as the site of the long-delayed United States National Slavery Museum, writes The Free-Lance Star of Fredericksburg.
The $400,000 purchase by a subsidiary of amateur-baseball firm Diamond Nation appears to be part of a settlement between the company and museum officials, who sued the firm late last year over the collapse of a previous $2.75-million sale agreement.
Museum officials had been counting on the sale to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in back taxes on the property that piled up as the projec,t launched two decades ago by former Virginia Gov. L. Douglas Wilder, foundered financially. Brenda Wood, Fredericksburg’s treasurer, said $411,622 remains outstanding on the tax bill but declined to say who is now responsible for paying it. Mr. Wilder is now pursuing plans to develop the museum in Richmond.
