Historical Highway Markers
Marking History on Virginia Roadways: The State Historical Highway Marker Program
Today more than 2,000 historical highway markers along Virginia's roadways provide travelers with information about noteworthy people, places, or events in the Commonwealth's history. The earliest markers, erected in 1927, typically focused on Virginia's "great men," colonial buildings, and events of the American Revolution and Civil War. However, beginning in the late 1970s, the marker program's focus expanded to cover a much wider array of important but previously neglected historic topics, themes, and sites. In recent years the Department of Historic Resources also has made a concerted effort to shape a program that reflects the full diversity of Virginia's rich historic legacy by developing markers that deal with significant people, places, and events in African American, Native American, and women's history, among other groups.The guiding criteria for establishing a highway marker is that it must commemorate an person, place, or event of regional, state, or national significance. In the latter category, for example, is the Robert Russa Moton High School marker in Farmville. This marker recalls when African-American students at the segregated Moton high school began a strike on April 23, 1951, to protest inadequate and unequal school facilities. This event led to the court case Davis v. County Board of Prince Edward County, which was eventually combined with a number of other court cases to go before the U. S. Supreme Court as Brown v. Board of Education. The Supreme Court’s 1954 landmark decision of Brown v. Board struck down the “separate but equal” doctrine governing public education.
Robert Russa Moton School, Prince Edward County.
Many other historical markers focus on otherwise little known, but significant topics in Virginia’s history. A marker in Abingdon describes the Barter Theatre during the Depression. Established in 1933 by Robert Porterfield, the theater offered a unique purchase option—theatergoers could pay with the amount of food equivalent to the price of a ticket. The Barter Theatre
was designated the State Theatre of Virginia in 1946, attracting then unknown, aspiring performers such as such as Gregory Peck, Ethel Merman, and Ernest Borgnine.
Documenting the Cold War, three historical markers were erected for the Clifton, Great Falls, and Lorton Nike missile sites in Fairfax County. The county housed the Nike anti-aircraft missile sites from the 1950s until the early 1970s. The three Fairfax sites and 10 other installations in the metropolitan Washington and Baltimore areas were built to protect the United States against a potential Soviet air attack.
Fairfax County Nike anti-aircraft missile sites were built to protect the
United States from Soviet attack. Credit: Washington D.C. Public Library.
A number of markers feature people who were once prominent in American society but are not as well known today. One such marker in Amelia County honors Marion Virginia Hawes Terhune (pen name Marion Harland). She was the "Betty Crocker" of the 19th century, renowned for the best-selling cookbook in America, Common Sense in the Household, published in 1871. Popular for more than 50 years, the book was translated into French, German, and Arabic. During the 19th century, cooking was an all-day chore, and previous cookbooks had been difficult to understand. Based on personal experiences, Harland developed a cookbook that was easy to read and use. In addition, she wrote 24 novels, 25 books on domestic life, 12 books on travel, biography, and history, and syndicated columns about women for the Philadelphia North American and the Chicago Tribune. She died in 1922, writing until her death.
Since 1996, the marker program has used federal funding to update historical markers that are damaged, missing, or outdated, because the state no longer funds their replacement. To improve the accuracy of the markers about Virginia Indian tribes, DHR program staff, historians, the historical highway marker committee, and the Virginia Council on Indians review the texts. Early markers frequently misrepresented the Indians and referred to them in derogatory ways. Several recent replacement markers reflect today’s clearer knowledge of Native American history.
One marker that was recently replaced using federal funding describes the 1680s migration of the Rappahannock Indians in Essex County. Marker program staff, with the assistance of the Rappahannock Tribe and its historian, researched and wrote new text for the marker. The replacement marker now describes how the Rappahannock Indians were forced to move by the Virginia General Assembly from the fort they built "to defend themselves from hostile settlers and other Indians during Bacon’s Rebellion." The previous text simply stated that the Rappahannocks moved. This marker is located northwest of the town of Tappahannock.
These are just a few examples of the close to 2,000 markers found along Virginia’s roads. Other examples include Booker T. Washington’s Birthplace; the Pamunkey Indians; Mary Randolph, author of the first regional cookbook in 1824; and the song “The Wreck of the Old 97.”
A Guidebook to Virginia’s Historical Markers, compiled by John S. Salmon, is an excellent reference tool to locate state highway markers when traveling the Commonwealth’s roads. Copies of this book are available at bookstores and museums throughout Virginia, or by contacting the University of Virginia Press.
Marker Program Application Process
Anyone can submit a proposal for a Virginia historical highway marker. Applicants will often work with local government officials and historical organizations to sponsor a marker topic. A sponsor has to be able to pay the cost of the marker, currently $1,350 (Note: in some cases the sponsor also may be responsible for paying expenses associated with the erection of the sign). To qualify for a state historical marker, a person, place, event, or institution must have state or national significance. No marker can be erected for a living person. In order to be eligible for a marker an event, place, or person must have occurred and attained its significance at least 50 years ago.
Each proposed marker text is reviewed and edited by the manager of the marker program, the staff of the Department of Historic Resources, other historians, and the marker editorial committee. The marker text and general location are submitted for approval to the Board of Historic Resources. Historical marker texts must be 100 words or less to fit on the sign that is approximately 42 inches by 40 inches in size.
Patrons of the Barter Theatre, Abingdon, could pay for a ticket with the equivalent amount of food. Credit: Barter Theatre.
Only the seal of Virginia, marker identification code, title, text, name of the Department of Historic Resources, and year the marker was approved appear on the marker. Markers are erected in safe locations, at or close to the places or events being featured, where they will be visible to the traveling public. Markers are placed in public rights-of-way and maintained by the outdoor advertising division of the Virginia Department of Transportation.
History of Virginia’s Historical Marker Program
There are many stories about who first envisioned marking Virginia’s roadways with historical signs, but the program began after the Virginia General Assembly created the Conservation and Economic Development Commission in 1926. The original intent of the program was to foster interest nationwide in Virginia's history and to encourage tourism through a uniform system to mark historic events. Dr. H. J. Eckenrode was selected by the Conservation and Economic Development Commission to direct a program to determine the most prominent historic sites and mark them. Notable Virginia historians such as Douglas Southall Freeman, H. R. McIlwaine, and E. G. Swem served on a History Advisory Committee and assisted Eckenrode in selecting topics and writing the texts for the markers. The first markers were erected along Route 1 from Fredericksburg to Richmond by the end of 1927.
Markers were placed along major roads to reach the largest number of travelers. Care was taken to place the markers so motorists could easily read them and not impede safe travel. Each sign was assigned a letter and number code. Initially the letter referred to a specific roadway, but now the letter refers more often to the region in which it is found. The original signs were cast in aluminum. These signs did not weather well, so they were replaced with iron markers. Today the markers are made out of a stronger aluminum alloy. Also, as automobile speeds increased, a guidebook containing the inscriptions on the markers was needed, so the Commonwealth published a Key to Inscriptions on Virginia Highway Markers in 1929.
By 1934, 1,200 markers were in place and during this period “pull-offs” were created so the motorist could stop and read the text. By the 10th anniversary, the program was widely regarded and featured in a number of publications, including the New York Times. The program served as a model for a number of other states, including North Carolina. It was suspended during World War II and resumed in 1946. Responsibility for the erection and maintenance of markers was subsequently transferred to the Virginia Department of Highways in 1949, while the responsibility for researching and approving new markers was assigned to the Virginia State Library in 1950. By the 1940s, some politicians and historians believed that almost all important historical topics had been covered on the signs and the elimination of the program was discussed. Popular public interest in the markers during this period and in later in the 1960s prevented its ending.
The State Library continued to manage the marker program until 1966, when it was transferred to the newly created Virginia Historic Landmarks Commission, the predecessor agency for the current Department of Historic Resources that still manages the program today. The Virginia Department of Transportation retains responsibility for the erection of new markers and the maintenance of existing ones.
In 1976, the Commonwealth stopped funding new markers. Now private organizations, local governments, and individuals pay for them. About 40 new markers are erected each year. This number does not include markers that are replaced by federal funding that the Department of Historic Resources and the Virginia Department of Transportation receives to replace missing, damaged, and outdated markers. Since 1996 federal funding received through the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act (ISTEA) and Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century (TEA-21) has replaced more than 271 markers.
Virginia’s historical highway marker program remains an important tool to educate the public on the Commonwealth’s history and an important way to promote tourism in Virginia. The success of the program is evident in the correspondence the state receives on the program, the number of stories that appear about markers in various media outlets, and demand for the current edition of A Guidebook to Virginia’s Historical Markers, one of the best-selling books of the University of Virginia Press.