The National Historic Site

Fort Raleigh was transferred to the National Park Service of the United States Department of the Interior in 1940. On April 5, 1941, it was designated Fort Raleigh National Historic Site under provision of the act of Congress commonly referred to as the Historic Sites Act, approved August 21, 1935 (49 Stat. 666), to commemorate Sir Walter Raleigh’s colonies and the birthplace of Virginia Dare, first child of English parentage to be born in the New World. The area of the site in Federal ownership is 18.50 acres and embraces part of the settlement sites of 1585 and 1587 and the fort site. By a cooperative agreement between the Roanoke Island Historical Association and the United States, the play, the Lost Colony, continues to be given each season in the Waterside Theater at Fort Raleigh. This arrangement provides for the unhampered production of the play with all of its creative folk qualities. The income from the play is dedicated to the maintenance of the theater, the next season’s production, and the expansion and development of the historic Site.