Historic Westville in Columbus takes another major step toward reopening
Expanding its name and its vision, a popular Columbus tourist attraction that closed two years ago has taken another major step toward reopening.
Historic Westville Village has hired a new executive director, April Kirk, to lead the living history museum into reimagined ways of demonstrating 19th-century Southern culture.
Kirk has worked in cultural arts or nonprofit management for 25 years. She most recently was executive director of Mission San Luis, a living history museum in Tallahassee, Florida, from 2022-24. Her previous employment positions, according to her resume, include:
- Executive director of Historic Stranahan House Museum in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, from 2011-22
- Cofounder and chief financial officer of Native Reel Cinema Festival in Fort Lauderdale from 2014-22
- Development director for Ann Storck Center in Fort Lauderdale from 2009-11
- Women’s way manager for United Way of Broward County in Fort Lauderdale from 2006-09
- Development director for the Fort Lauderdale Children’s Theatre from 2003-06
- Senior development associate for Comprehensive AIDS Program in West Palm Beach, Florida, from 2001-03
- Development associate and grant writer for the North Carolina Shakespeare Festival in High Point from 1999-2000.
Kirk earned bachelor’s degrees in art history and studio art from Queens College in Charlotte.
Westville chairman Thornton Jordan told the Ledger-Enquirer why the board selected Kirk among the 22 candidates who applied and the four who interviewed after they were screened by Our Fundraising Search of Atlanta.
“We really liked April’s experience and her appreciation for not just Westville but our whole town’s commitment to historic preservation and the arts,” said Jordan, a retired Columbus College (now Columbus State University) associate professor of English. “… She’s extremely competent in just about every direction you can think of, handling finances, making budgets, hiring and training, tourism, development, marketing. She’s done it all.”
Kirk told the Ledger-Enquirer she was compelled to apply for the Westville opening because “I really wanted to move to a community that had a sense of place. … When I met Thornton and the board, and they had me come to Columbus, I saw how much Columbus values history and the cultural arts. It was exactly the type of community that I was looking for.”
When will Westville reopen?
The Ledger-Enquirer reported eight months ago Westville had raised about $750,000 to jump-start its reopening. Westville closed in 2023 due to financial problems stemming from the decreased ticket sales amid the COVID-19 pandemic and the $9.5 million cost of moving from Lumpkin, about 40 miles south of Columbus. The relocation project was completed in 2019.
With an estimated annual budget of approximately $500,000, Westville now has enough money to fund its first year of operation when it reopens. No reopening date is set, but it will be done in phases.
The first phase will be this summer. The visitors center will open along with a gallery, gift shop and children’s activity room. Westville also will use outdoor spaces for programs.
“We need to do some work on the site to make it safe for guests,” Kirk said. “That’s a priority. … Once we get that done, we’re going to reopen in sections.”
The second phase is expected in the fall, when a stretch of four buildings would reopen to accommodate more activities.
Kirk said it’s unclear how many more phases would be needed to fully reopen Westville because two years of being closed has taken a toll on the 27-acre property comprising 17 historic buildings predating 1850.
“Every time you open a door or you walk up a set of stairs,” she said, “you discover something new.”
Admission during the first phase will be free. Ticket prices and membership fees for the second phase and beyond haven’t been finalized.
Westville’s new name and new vision
An anonymous donor has pledged to match every donation up to $5 million for a fund at the Community Foundation of the Chattahoochee Valley. Jordan and Kirk are scheduled to meet with prospective donors Thursday at the Columbus Museum, where they will present their vision for a reimagined Westville.
“We at the Community Foundation are, as always, excited to help people use philanthropy to support great work that makes our community stronger,” Betsy Covington, the foundation’s president and CEO, told the Ledger-Enquirer in an email. “The Living History Fund is a non-endowed Field of Interest Fund to help facilitate Westville’s progress. Its grantmaking will be guided by the attainment of specific operational criteria by Westville — and, of course, by the level of funding it attracts. Down the road, the Fund may have potential to support other public interpretive historical programming. As always, donor interest will determine its potential.”
Donations may be made to the fund via credit card at the foundation’s website, cfcv.com, or at the following address: The Living History Fund, Community Foundation of the Chattahoochee Valley, 1147 Sixth Ave., Columbus, GA, 31901.
Checks should be made payable to either “Living History Fund” or to “Community Foundation of the Chattahoochee Valley,” including a note on the memo line that they are meant for the Living History Fund.
The new vision for Westville is summarized in the slightly new name. Instead of Historic Westville, the board expanded it to Historic Westville Village, emphasizing a multidimensional simulated experience of 19th-century life.
When it was called Historic Westville, Jordan said, some potential visitors thought it was “just a single historic home,” so adding “Village” to the name “tells you exactly what it is.”
Key to Westville becoming more dynamic, Jordan said, will be offering more hands-on opportunities for visitors.
“I would like to see Westville become more of a teaching institution as well, not just witnessing but also learning these crafts,” he said. “I’d like to see us give cash prizes for contests to demonstrating these crafts, especially for students, but for others as well.”
The goal for reopening Westville is to produce “an immersive experience,” Kirk said.
“I believe museums should be loud,” she said. “I want children to learn and laugh and show their excitement. People should interact, and they should be able to touch things when appropriate. … Everyone should walk away from the museum at least learning something that they can share with other people at the end of the day.”
They also hope Westville becomes a cultural arts center, so visitors can take classes to learn these crafts and the site could host festivals featuring music and storytelling.
“There aren’t a lot of places that you can go to learn the traditional crafts,” Kirk said. “If we can be that place, Westville will be more than just a museum.”
Westville plans to hire more staff
Kirk plans to hire administrators to oversee educational programming, the visitors center and the gift shop, plus about a dozen artisans to demonstrate crafts.
“I’d like to engage with a few initially to start doing some gallery interpretation this summer and also help prepare the programming that we’ll be doing in the fall,” she said.
Precise job descriptions haven’t been determined, but Jordan said he wants Westville artisans to include blacksmiths, woodworkers, leatherworkers, jewelry-makers and textile workers, doing “everything from ginning cotton all the way up to weaving.”
Kirk wants to contact local schools to plan field trips. She hopes donors are willing to help pay their expenses.
For more information about working or volunteering at Westville, or to make a donation, email Kirk at HistoricWestville@gmail.com.
Westville’s visitor numbers
The peak for annual visitors at Westville while it was in Lumpkin was nearly 50,000, Jordan said, but that figure declined to 13,000 before it moved to Columbus. So a reasonable goal for Westville’s first year after it reopens, he said, is 25,000 visitors, considering the numbers at nearby attractions in south Columbus.
“That’s modest because Oxbow Meadows gets 75,000 and the (National) Infantry Museum gets 200,000,” he said, “so I don’t think we’re going to have trouble meeting our goal.”
In fact, Jordan said, Westville had around 17,000 visitors during its first few months in Columbus before closing when COVID hit.
After it fully reopens, Westville shouldn’t have any problem generating 75,000 visitors per year, Jordan said, “and once we get tour buses back on the circuit, I’d say over 100,000.”
Jordan explained such confidence in the revived Westville’s potential. Other than Colonial Williamsburg in Virginia and Old Sturbridge Village in Massachusetts, he said, Westville will offer a rare experience.
“These are all authentic buildings from the 1840s, where people lived and worked, had babies and went off to war,” he said. “So it has a unique appeal, and I think our location is just perfect. We were getting business from Atlanta and Florida. That was our kind of region. … Here we are in a town of 200,000 with 2.3 million visitors a year. I mean, everything’s in our favor in this location.”
And having Kirk as the executive director is a big piece in that puzzle, Jordan said.
“I think hiring her and getting her in a position of leadership has just taken a huge load off my shoulders,” he said. “It’s reaffirmed what a wonderful opportunity we have and what we’re about to give to Columbus.”
Kirk welcomes input from the community to improve Westville.
“There’s so many things we haven’t even explored yet,” she said. “So just being able to meet people and hear people’s stories and memories and what they’re interested in is helping us build the future of this place.”
Westville’s impact on Columbus tourism
VisitColumbusGA CEO Ashley Woitena told the Ledger-Enquirer in an email that Westville’s pending reopening is “a remarkable turnaround for an attraction that many feared was lost forever when it closed.”
It will be “a significant enhancement to Columbus’ cultural landscape and tourism offerings,” she said. “Before Westville closed, we enjoyed working to bring veteran groups, car clubs, student groups and leisure travelers there. With this news, our team is ready to meet with the new leadership, hear their goals and see how our efforts can help raise awareness and drive demand.”
Woitena considers Westville’s location near the National Infantry Museum and the Oxbow Meadows Environmental Learning Center “a critical mass of attractions that encourages longer visitor stays, benefiting our hotels, restaurants and other businesses,” she said.
She noted Westville’s impact does beyond economics
“Westville plays a vital role in cultural preservation, offering immersive educational experiences that bring 19th-century Southern history to life,” she said. “Their demonstrations and interactive programs not only enrich visitors’ understanding of the past but also position Columbus as a premier destination for group tours and educational excursions.”
Woitena also expects the reopening of Westville to boost the diversity of the Columbus tourism industry,, “spanning history, outdoor recreation, arts and culinary exploration,” she said. “We anticipate that Westville will once again become a popular destination for school groups, history enthusiasts and families looking for an immersive experience.”
This story was originally published May 20, 2025 at 9:18 AM.
