PMT_Focus

Petersburg Museum of Technology
( PMT )

The Petersburg Museum of Technology attempts to cover in about thirty minutes, three hundred years of history in the area by employing today's latest technologies. Using a train station theme, prints, artwork, artifacts, business and church records plus the use of multimedia presentations the observer quickly moves from Fort Henry on the Appomattox River to Well's Hill and Bristol Parish, then witness the Battle of Petersburg in 1781. Next, shift from Fort to Fort of the Civil War, then see Petersburg as it looked in the 1850's, in the 1920's, then compare it with today.

Train Station Tour ( 15 mins. ) Before or After Multimedia Presentation The railroad ( 1850's ) was both a blessing and a curse to the City of Petersburg. Early opposition because of "water rights" forced the industrial revolution northward. The railroad prolonged the Civil War and moved the focus of the war to Petersburg. The railroad was instrumental in the development of electricity and communication and the railroads through Petersburg greatly assisted the war effort of WW II. The decline of the railroad after the war took it toll on Petersburg and today Petersburg seems to be frozen in time around the 1920's. There are not skyscrapers, highway flyovers, and you can still see one end of downtown from the other. This fact may prove to a great asset in the future.

Video ( 9 mins. )
1645: Major Peter Jones Indian Trading Post and Warehouse
1702: First Grave on Wells Hill ( Blandford )
1735: Blandford Church - Bristol Parish
1781: Reenactment Battle of the Revolutionary War in Petersburg
1865: Civil War, Fort to Fort, The Crater
1920: Train at Union Station, Streets of Petersburg
2009: Petersburg Today

Slideshow: ( 5 mins. )
Pre Civil War Buildings as they look today.

To understand Petersburg, you must see all of the city, the past and the present. The Petersburg Museum of Technology attempts to do this in a timely manner.
The PMT plans to change the displays and presentations regularly, highlighting other topics such at military importance, churches and religious life, railroad watches, black history, commerce and merchants.