Port Republic Museum

01/15/2026

Join us at the Shenandoah Valley Civil War Museum this Saturday, January 17th, at Noon for a special program about the controversial Summers-Koontz Ex*****on presented by Shenandoah Valley Battlefields Foundation Ranger Wade Custer!

The program is included with Saturdays admissions to the Museum, Members of the Shenandoah Valley Battlefield Foundation are welcome to join us free of charge! We hope to see you all at our first program of 2026!

01/14/2026

On the afternoon of June 6, 1862, Brigadier General Turner Ashby was killed ten miles north, in Harrisonburg. Ashby's body was brought to the Frank Kemper House (the present day museum) where local women prepared the body for burial. Draped with a Confederate flag, Ashby's body was placed in a front room under the corner window where townspeople and troops paid their final respects to the fallen officer.

10/23/2025

07/26/2025

06/19/2025

Today we ALL celebrate FREEDOM! Happy Juneteenth!

Juneteenth (short for “June Nineteenth”) marks the day when federal troops arrived in Galveston, Texas in 1865 to take control of the state and ensure that all enslaved people be freed. The troops’ arrival came a full two and a half years after the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation. Juneteenth honors the end to slavery in the United States and is considered the longest-running African American holiday. On June 17, 2021, it officially became a federal holiday.

06/19/2025

A new exciting exhibit at the Virginia Museum of Culture and History! Open now through July 2027.

Un/Bound: Free Black Virginians, 1619-1865
On Display

📆 June 14, 2025 to July 4, 2027
📍 Virginia Museum of History & Culture, 428 N. Arthur Ashe Blvd., Richmond

Bringing together artifacts and rich stories from across the Commonwealth, Un/Bound: Free Black Virginians, 1619-1865 tells the stories of free Black Virginians from the arrival of the first captive Africans in 1619 to the abolition of slavery in 1865, and it is one of the first museum exhibitions to cover the subject in depth.

Through powerful artifacts, first-person accounts, and more than 200 years of stories, visitors will discover how Virginia’s people of color achieved their freedom, established communities, and persevered within a legal system that recognized them as free but not equal. Featured alongside artifacts spanning hundreds of years will be newly commissioned portraits by award-winning photographer Ruddy Roye, who TIME named Instagram Photographer of the Year, of some of the descendants of free Black Virginians who shared their stories and objects to help create the exhibition.

Details: https://buff.ly/eMCFMlW

06/07/2025

Today is the 163rd anniversary of the death of Confederate General Turner Ashby during fighting outside Harrisonburg. Ashby is the only Civil War general to have a post mortem image taken. We traveled to the home where he was laid in state to hear the story. That home is now a museum as well. Check it out via the link below!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pt9EjHDaVFI&list=PLm0U6xIHaOs9D1F2JVCheGAm7DoaUWXh0&index=23

05/10/2025

Our new Harrisonburg, Cross Keys, and Port Republic unigrid brochure is now available! You can pick one up at the Hardesty Higgins House Visitor Center, Mill Creek Country Store, or the Port Republic Museum when you're in the Visit Harrisonburg Virginia area!

05/10/2025

163rd Anniversary Tours!

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