The Virginia Department of Historic Resources
is the State Historic
Preservation Office.
Our mission is to foster, encourage, and support the stewardship of
Virginia's significant historic architectural, archaeological, and cultural resources.
Historic Virginia
Site of the Month
The Anne Spencer Garden,
City of Lynchburg.→
Poet
Anne Spencer was associated with
the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s.
The cottage garden she and her husband created behind their Lynchburg home
was
a special sanctuary. See this slideshow about the Spencers,
their garden, and its restoration.
(See previous
slideshows.)
The restored arbor in the Anne Spencer Garden.
Post-Natural Disaster Advisory:
See this
webpage.
Recent News and Announcements
Photo: SVBF
June 9: “If This Valley is Lost”: Preserving the Legacy of Stonewall Jackson’s Valley Campaign:
Jackson’s historic Valley Campaign came to a thunderous climax at the Battles of Cross Keys and Port Republic in Rockingham Co. This June 9, the Shenandoah Valley Battlefields Foundation and the Virginia Sesquicentennial of the American Civil War Commission will commemorate
the Jackson campaign.
A barbecue dinner kicks off the event 6:00 p.m. Special activities include
living history by the 10th Virginia Infantry, Civil War-era
and youth games presented by the Virginia Museum of the Civil War.
Eric Campbell of the National Park Service will discuss and
interpret the
battle. Entertainment includes the Liberty Hall Fifes and Drums
playing period music, singer Scott Christopher Murray, and the Shenandoah Valley Minstrels.
Keynote speaker for the main program at 7:30 p.m. is Dr.
James I. “Bud” Robertson, Jr, renowned expert on Jackson. Other
speakers will be Lt. Gov. William T. Bolling, Speaker of the
House William J. Howell, Sec. of Natural Resources Douglas W.
Domenech, and DHR Director Kathleen S. Kilpatrick.
See
more . . .
Gov. McDonnell Announces Public-Private Partnership to Protect Mt. Defiance, Middleburg
Civil War Battlefield: During a ceremony May 9, 2012, at the National Sporting Library
and Museum in Middleburg, Gov. Bob McDonnell announced that the Commonwealth of
Virginia will provide a $432,000 Transportation Enhancement grant to assist in the
permanent protection of the Mount Defiance property, a five-acre battle site at the heart
of the Civil War Middleburg battlefield. See more and photos
here (PDF).
3 New Historical Markers Approved: A marker commemorating Henry County’s first courthouse, and signs
for Justin Holland, a black 19th-century classical guitarist and arranger, and Anthony Burns,
an escaped slave who inspired abolitionists in the 1850s, were approved in March by DHR.
(More information
here.)
New VLR: Bristol Warehouse Historic District:
Representing the industrial and commercial boom that Bristol experienced two decades after the Civil War,
the Bristol Warehouse Historic District has been approved for listing in the Virginia Landmarks Register by DHR.
Although today’s warehouse historic district consists of five buildings, the area was once densely packed
with warehouses and industrial and commercial buildings constructed from the 1880s through to the 1950s.
(More information
here)
Look! DHR's newest book publication:
Jordan's Point, Virginia: Archaeology in Perspective,
Prehistoric to Modern Times
by Martha W. McCartney.
If there is “a world in a grain of sand,” as the poet
William Blake writes, then imagine what archaeology can reveal
at a richly layered triangle of land known as Jordan’s Point,
situated along the James River, just down river from the City of
Hopewell. What archaeologists discovered there through careful
investigations sponsored by [DHR] ... is a path into the worlds of Virginia prehistory, colonial, and post-colonial history
... Anyone interested in Virginia history will want Martha McCartney’s book in his or her library.
— From the Foreword by Kathleen S. Kilpatrick, Director, DHR.
Generously illustrated and priced at $14.95, it is now available
through local bookstores or the
University
of Virginia Press.
