Project seeking historic places

Hundreds of historic Amherst County properties soon will be surveyed, many of which could be added to state and national registers of such structures.

Amherst County and the Virginia Department of Historic Resources will hold a public meeting at 5:30 p.m. Nov. 17 in the county government building at 153 Washington St., Amherst, to discuss plans for the architectural survey of more than 275 historic properties.

The project is being paid for by the state and the county through the Department of Historic Resources’ Survey and Planning Cost Share Program. Sweet Briar College’s Tusculum Institute serves as fiscal agent for the project. 

When Amherst County adopted a new comprehensive plan in 2007, one of the listed goals was to recognize and promote local history by identifying and preserving historic sites, structures, objects and areas.

Among the strategies identified to achieve that goal are:

-Conducting a survey of historic sites and structures with the Department of Historic Resources.

-Educating property owners about preservation incentives and the mechanisms of registering and preserving the historic resources.

-Promoting historic tourism.

-Incorporating historic preservation incentives into the county’s zoning ordinance.

-Creating a heritage trail system within the county.

The survey will be an educational tool for county residents and those who have an interest in the county as the county prepares to commemorate the 250th anniversary of its founding, said Joe Bondurant, the county’s director of tourism.

The survey will assist the Board of Supervisors and the Planning Commission by identifying historic structures and resources that should be considered for preservation when deciding where growth should or should not be encouraged.

“Much of the rural area of the county remains in large tracts of land with the original home and many of the original auxiliary structures still in use,” Bondurant said. “The survey could be a tool to help maintain the rural character of our community.”

The survey will be conducted under the supervision of the Department of Historic Resources by W. Scott Smith, Sandi Esposito and Jesse Adams Doolittle of the Antiquaries of Lynchburg, with assistance from Dan Pezzoni of Landmark Preservation Associates of Lexington.

The local consultants will attend the Nov. 17 meeting to explain how they will conduct the survey and how residents can participate.

Bob Carter, director of community services for the Department of Historic Resources and head of the department’s Sweet Briar College satellite office, said the survey will help to identify places in Amherst County that could be eligible for listing on the Virginia Landmarks Register and the National Register of Historic Places. To date, 18 places in Amherst have been listed on state and national registers. Designation on the state or national registers places no restrictions on property owners but does qualify owners to seek federal and state tax credits for historic rehabilitations.

Carter said Amherst County is home to a number of communities of historic significance that could take advantage of the historic rehabilitation tax incentives but that have not yet been identified as eligible for register status.

Bondurant said the survey can also be expected to benefit heritage tourism and heritage trails in Amherst. Many of the Civil War defenses for the City of Lynchburg were constructed on the Amherst County side of the James River. Between Old Madison Heights and Fort Riverview are breastworks, which remain largely undisturbed.

“These features offer potential resources for understanding and appreciating the historic importance of the Civil War in Amherst and Lynchburg as Virginia and the nation observe the war’s 150th anniversary,” Bondurant said. “Civil War-related sites, together with Old Madison Heights and the adjacent Central Virginia Training Center, will definitely be studied in the survey and the sites could be linked to the developing riverfront trail system and Riversedge Park in the southern end of the county.”

He said the Blue Ridge Railway Trail along the Tye and Piney rivers in the northern area of the county includes historic structures that could be incorporated into the interpretive signage along the trail when identified by the survey. 

Lynn Rainville, founding director of Sweet Briar College’s Tusculum Institute, said the survey will play an important role in raising awareness of historic places in the county that are associated with Native Americans and African Americans.

“Such places include the former Monacan School at St. Paul’s Mission, African-American cemeteries, churches and the slave cabin associated with the former Sweet Briar Plantation,” Rainville said. “They also include stories such as that of Frank Padget’s heroism, as honored in a recently dedicated historical marker, and the tragic story of Carrie Buck and the eugenics experiments conducted at what was formerly known as the Lynchburg Training School and Hospital.

“All these places and stories have contributed to the history of Amherst County and Virginia,” she said. “The survey will help further the understanding of those historic structures that have not received the recognition or publicity they deserve.”

In 1991 the Department of Historic Resources created the cost share program, which requires matching local funds, to assist localities in meeting a state mandate that they update their comprehensive plans every five years. The funding for the program is determined by the General Assembly each year.

Cost-share awards are highly competitive. Amherst County’s application ranked first among all applicants in 2008, Carter said.

The cost-share program also assists the state to establish an accurate database of historic resources in Virginia that is used everyday for planning purposes by local governments, regional planning commissions and federal and state agencies. Since its inception, the cost-share program has involved DHR in partnerships with more than 120 localities.