The 1,000-foot center near Colonial Beach will be built of modern materials such as steel, glass, insulated roof panels and concrete siding but will look like an 18th-century tobacco barn.
Milton Martin is a planning consultant for Westmoreland County. He says the center will be completed next year in time for Monroe's 250th birthday celebration.
The county is forking out about $300,000 for the center and Martin says another $200,000 came from federal grants.
G. William Thomas Junior is president of the James Monroe Memorial Foundation. Thomas says a replica of the house where Monroe was born in 1758 may be built next year near the center on the buried foundations of the original house.
(Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)