Survey on historic properties progresses

A survey of historic buildings in Amherst County is well under way, with dozens of nominations made so far.

“We do four submissions, and we submitted our first batch of 75 properties to the Department of Historic Resources in January,” said Scott Smith, principal of Lynchburg-based firm The Antiquaries LC, a historic preservation consulting firm heading the project.

A total of 75 more properties will be submitted March 1, he said. The survey will include more than 275 properties.

“We’re working in neighborhoods and back roads,” Smith said. “We’re finding some pretty neat stuff.”

Smith and other officials will discuss their work at 10 a.m. Saturday at the Amherst County Museum and Historic Society on South Main Street in Amherst.

“We do work like this around the state,” Smith said. “We do a lot of National Register of Historic Places nominations.”

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:

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

w Educating property ow-ners about preservation incentives and the mechanisms of registering and preserving the historic re-sources.

w Promoting historic tour-ism.

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

w Creating a heritage trail system within the county.

Smith’s survey team has three members, and from the 25 submissions he gathered, his favorite had a personal connection.

“One of the first houses we went to, it was my old baby-sitter’s house,” he said, on Peters Hollow Road, west of Amherst between Craw-fords Store and Hicks Store.

The members conduct an intensive survey, including measurements and interior work, Smith said.

“We need help from people, whether they have something on their property they want us to look at,” or their own home or structure, he said. “We need those connections.”

For more information or to ask for a survey, call (434) 946-0432 or visit www.

theantiquaries.com.