The U.S. National Slavery Museum might still be planned for Fredericksburg, but it's based in Richmond.
The project led by former Richmond Mayor L. Douglas Wilder listed a local post office box and phone number as contact information in a recent filing with the Virginia Office of Consumer Affairs.
The registration form, received March 23 and pending approval, is supposed to be filed annually for the museum to legally seek contributions in Virginia. The group's prior filing expired Aug. 15 and listed the group as based in Fredericksburg.
Wilder, a distinguished professor at Virginia Commonwealth University, has for weeks not returned calls seeking information on the museum's status.
Last week, a call to the number listed with the state was answered by Ruth M. Jones, Wilder's executive assistant at VCU. She answered, "hello," without immediately identifying herself with the slavery museum. She offered to pass a message to Wilder that was not returned.
The annual registration form was signed by Jones as the museum's secretary and by Wilder as its executive director, although he is listed elsewhere as chairman of the board of directors.
The museum's Web site continues to list the museum's office in Fredericksburg and Vonita W. Foster as its executive director.
On the state registration form, only Jones and Wilder are listed in the section for officers, directors and salaried executive officers. The form submitted in late 2007 was signed by Wilder and Foster, and it also listed the museum's 10-member board of directors.
In its recent filing, the museum showed $577,173 in contributions and $61,910 in fundraising expenses in 2007.
In a blog post this month, Wilder acknowledged fundraising difficulties but offered no insight on the museum project. He said the museum's board is committed "to its stated and moral obligations" to building the museum in Fredericksburg despite interest among some officials in Richmond in having the project or something similar in Shockoe Bottom.
"Our architects, engineers, planners and contractors have brought us to the point of the eventual construction of the first phases, to accompany the Freedom Garden there on display," Wilder said, referring to the museum's 38-acre site on the Rappahannock River. "The only thing that delays us is the next funding."
The Rev. Lawrence A. Davies, a former Fredericksburg mayor who has served on the museum's board of directors, said he expected to hear something from Wilder after Wilder was interviewed by WWBT about two weeks ago. Davies said yesterday he hasn't heard anything.
"We just don't know what's going on," he said.
Contact Will Jones at (804) 649-6911 or wjones@timesdispatch.com.
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