On March 4-5, Lafayette returns to Fayetteville NC, the first city named for him and the only namesake city he visited. Walk in his footsteps along the Lafayette Trail Tour, marked with bronze plaques during his 250^th birthday celebration in 2007, take part in a historic reenactment of Lafayette’s arrival by carriage, tour local museums, and delight in an elegant dinner theatre and a lively Regency period ball where you can Party like it’s 1825!

The Committee of Arrangements has designed a flexible schedule. You can do just some of the events if you choose, but you can easily do them all. We have built-in some flexibility that affords you the chance to relax a little, enjoy a leisurely lunch, or do a little shopping in our Historic Downtown using your “Downtown Dollars” from Lafayette Bank.

Please see the details and registration links below. 

Many events are AFL-exclusive!!

Monday, March 3 (6 pm to 8 pm) $25       

Barbecue Reception AFL EXCLUSIVE EVENT (Not open to the public)

We have prepared a warm Southern welcome with a dinner of Eastern North Carolina barbecue (and yes, we will explain how it differs from the Western style!), possibly the best banana pudding you have ever tasted, and a tour of the historic buildings at Heritage Square. The main building is the circa 1800 Sanford House, a grand home that served as a private residence at the same time that it housed the State Bank of North Carolina.  Heritage Square on Dick Street.  You can register by clicking: HERE 

Tuesday afternoon, March 4 (Noon)

FREE and open to the public

Lafayette arrives in a horse-drawn carriage accompanied by the Fayetteville Independent Light Infantry – his bodyguard 200 years ago! Reception with Lafayette afterward with coffee and croissants. 12 noon at the Lafayette statue in Cross Creek Park on Ann Street.

Tuesday, March 4 or Wednesday, March 5 – $20

9:00 am to 10:30 am, or 2:00 to 3:30 pm

(Optional, available BOTH days)

Guided Tour of the Lafayette Trail – AFL EXCLUSIVE EVENT (Not open to the public)        

Walk in Lafayette’s footsteps and see the sites he visited in 1825. Most of the original structures were lost in the Great Fire of 1831 and later rebuilt, but these sites will come alive with Major Bruce Daws of the Fayetteville Independent Light Infantry as your guide. Learn fascinating details about the events at each stop along the trail and their historical context then and in the two centuries that followed.  Fayetteville History Museum, Franklin and Maxwell Street.  You can register by clicking: HERE (four different times to choose from).

Tuesday, March 4 or Wednesday, March 5 – FREE

Open 2-4 pm.

(Optional, available both days)

Tour of the Fayetteville History Museum

Tour the Fayetteville History Museum, housed in the fully restored 1890 Cape Fear and Yadkin Valley Railway Station. Explore this area’s history from European settlement to the colonial era to the early 20th century. Visit the Lafayette exhibit, which includes the original handwritten speech in response to his welcome here, with edits by Lafayette himself. You will even see the bed Lafayette slept in, handed down through the generations of descendants of his host Duncan McRae.

 No registration required, visit at your leisure.

Tuesday evening, March 4 – (6 pm to 9 pm) $75

Dance Master Charles Steplively of Virginia and the historical musical group Syllabub will help you polish your dance moves at an authentic Regency Period costume ball at the Cape Fear Botanical Garden.  Dress in period attire to make this a truly magical experience!

Register by clicking: HERE (please note online registration is through the Fayetteville Chamber of Commerce, so when registering, please look to the right-hand side of the page at NOT A MEMBER and proceed to Click here to continue your event registration. 

Tuesday, March 4 and Wednesday, March 5 – Free

Explore Downtown Fayetteville’s rich history at your leisure with several free options available. At the local history museum, view the Liberty Point Resolves (signed a full year before the Declaration of Independence), Lafayette’s hand-written speech responding to his welcome, and the four-poster bed he slept in as a guest of Duncan MacRae. See his carriage at the Fayetteville Independent Light Infantry armory.

   Visit the Lafayette-related sites along the Lafayette Trail using the TravelStorys app on your phone. View the Lafayette collection at Methodist University anytime from 1-5 pm on Wednesday, March 5. Downtown Fayetteville and Davis Memorial Library at Methodist University

(A guided tour of the Lafayette Trail and a private tour of the Lafayette Collection just for the AFL members is available – see above)

Wednesday, March 5 (8:00 am -12:30 pm) – $25    

A Lafayette Escadrille Experience –AFL EXCLUSIVE EVENT (Not open to the public)        

Take a tour bus to nearby Carthage NC for a personal tour of the James Rogers McConnell Air Museum by the museum founder himself, Roland Gilliam. Roland built his museum as a tribute to a hometown hero who flew for the Lafayette Escadrille in WWI. On display are numerous documents and artifacts, but the star of the show is a 7/8 scale replica of McConnell’s biplane, a Nieuport XI. We will stop in downtown Carthage to view a large and most interesting mural dedicated to McConnell.  Meet at Fayetteville History Museum. Coffee and pastries.  You can register by clicking: HERE 

Wednesday evening, March 5 (6 pm to 9 pm) $95

Enjoy an elegant dinner at the Cape Fear Botanical Garden along with live music and an original dramatic performance staged as theater-in-the-round and directed by Jeremy Fiebig, Founder of Sweet Tea Shakespeare and Director of the Drama Department at Fayetteville State University, an HBCU and North Carolina’s second oldest publicly supported college.  Register by clicking: HERE

Thursday, March 6 (9 am) $25  

A morning with Lloyd and the Lafayette Treasures – AFL EXCLUSIVE EVENT (Not open to the public)        

Wrap up your visit at Methodist University’s Davis Memorial Library.  The morning will start with a full breakfast at 9 am, followed by a unique presentation by Lloyd Kramer, Professor Emeritus of History at UNC Chapel Hill. “Lafayette, after the Tour” will provide you with key insights into those nine years after his 1824-1825 visit, during which time he remained politically active in France and internationally. Includes an up-close and behind-the-scenes look at the treasures in the Lafayette Collection.  You can register by clicking: HERE 

About the Methodist University Lafayette Collection

The Methodist University Lafayette Collection contains over seventy-five plates, pitchers, snuff boxes, and other memorabilia items that celebrate not only Lafayette’s 1824-1825 visit to the United States as “The Nation’s Guest” but also his later life and legacy. It also includes some original letters written by Lafayette, postage stamps, music scores, medals, several hundred books, and over two hundred newspaper and magazine articles. For more information, visit the collection website at https://libguides.methodist.edu/lafayette.

Reminder: Use your “Downtown Dollars” from Lafayette Bank! Available at the reception on Monday or Tuesday. This schedule provides flexibility for shopping or taking lunch in Historic Downtown Fayetteville.