Amherst County Historic Resources Survey Report July 2010 Prepared for: Prepared by: HistoryTech The County of Amherst & (formerly The Antiquaries, LC) The Virginia Department of Historic Resources & Landmark Preservation Associates Amherst County Historic Resources Survey Report Principal Investigator: W. Scott Smith, Principal HistoryTech, LLC (formerly The Antiquaries, LC) PO Box 75, Lynchburg, VA 24505 (434) 401-3995 Report Author: J. Daniel Pezzoni, Principal Landmark Preservation Associates 6 Houston St., Lexington, VA 24450 (540) 464-5315 Report Prepared For: County of Amherst 153 Washington Street, Amherst, VA 24521 (434) 946-9400 Virginia Department of Historic Resources 2801 Kensington Ave., Richmond, VA 23221 (804) 367-2323 July 2010 Cover Photo: James River, CSX Railroad, and Galts Mill Road (State Route 622). Galts Mill vicinity, Amherst County, Virginia. Amherst County Historic Resources Survey Report 2 Table of Contents Abstract ............................................................................................................................................. 5 List of Maps, Illustrations, and Tables ......................................................................................... 6 Introduction, Research Design, and Acknowledgements.......................................................... 7 Project Objectives & Research Design .................................................................................... 7 Previous Survey in Amherst County ........................................................................................ 8 Survey Report .............................................................................................................................. 9 Acknowledgements ................................................................................................................... 10 Historic Context ............................................................................................................................ 11 Overview .................................................................................................................................... 11 Description................................................................................................................................. 11 Ethnicity ..................................................................................................................................... 12 Architecture ............................................................................................................................... 17 Agriculture .................................................................................................................................. 27 Commerce .................................................................................................................................. 32 Industry....................................................................................................................................... 36 Transportation ........................................................................................................................... 40 Government ............................................................................................................................... 43 Education ................................................................................................................................... 46 Religion ....................................................................................................................................... 50 Funerary ...................................................................................................................................... 52 Survey Findings .............................................................................................................................. 56 Evaluation and Recommendations ............................................................................................. 59 Public Policy Initiatives ............................................................................................................ 61 Private Initiatives ....................................................................................................................... 63 Bibliography ................................................................................................................................... 67 Appendix I- Surveyed Historic Resources in Amherst County by DHR ID# .................... 76 Appendix II- Surveyed Historic Resources in Amherst County by Name ........................... 93 Appendix III- Mapped Surveyed Resources by USGS Quadrangle .................................... 111 Appendix IV- Pedlar Mills Rural Historic District Preliminary Information Form .......... 125 Appendix V- Sandidges Rural Historic District Preliminary Information Form ............... 137 Amherst County Historic Resources Survey Report 3 Amherst County Historic Resources Survey Report 4 Abstract The Amherst County Historic Resources Survey, conducted in 2009-10, was funded by the County of Amherst and the Virginia Department of Historic Resources (DHR) and was administered jointly by DHR and Sweet Briar College’s Tusculum Institute. The survey was undertaken by HistoryTech (formerly The Antiquaries), a preservation planning firm based in Lynchburg, with assistance from Landmark Preservation Associates of Lexington. The survey team members included Jesse Adams-Doolittle, Sandra F. Esposito, and W. Scott Smith of HistoryTech/The Antiquaries. Scott Smith served as the project administrator and principal investigator. J. Daniel Pezzoni of Landmark Preservation Associates wrote the project report. The main objective of the survey was to broaden the range of historic resources recorded in DHR’s database by documenting 275 mostly previously unidentified resources. The survey resulted in the documentation of a total 292 resources, primarily houses and farm complexes but also mills, stores, churches, and other building types. Survey was conducted in areas of the county outside National Forest lands, comprising approximately 75% of the county’s 475 square miles. Digital and hard-copy survey files were produced for DHR and the locality and two potential historic districts—Sandidges and Pedlar Mills—were proposed as eligible for listing in the Virginia Landmarks Register and the National Register of Historic Places. Figure 1- An overview of Amherst County, Virginia Amherst County Historic Resources Survey Report 5 List of Maps, Illustrations, and Tables Figure 1- An overview of Amherst County, Virginia ................................................................................................................................ 5 Figure 2- This one-room log cabin (005-5088) in the Wares Gap vicinity is similar to Monacan dwellings described in historic accounts. Many rural blacks and whites lived in similar dwellings. ....................................................................................... 14 Figure 3- Monacan Burial Ground (005-5089) ......................................................................................................................................... 15 Figure 4- The Zachariah Drummond House (005-5165) is representative of the stylishly appointed brick houses built by the county’s elite in the early nineteenth century. ........................................................................................................................................... 19 Figure 5- A representative Amherst County log house (005-5287) ..................................................................................................... 20 Figure 6- Chinking detail (005-5319) .......................................................................................................................................................... 21 Figure 7- A two-story center-passage-plan form and a Victorian porch decorated with sawn and turned ornament are features of the house at 1770 Boxwood Farm Road (005-5138) .......................................................................................................... 23 Figure 8- The Patch, a Colonial Revival style house (005-5315) .......................................................................................................... 24 Figure 9- A Tudor Revival style house in Madison Heights (005-5147) ............................................................................................. 25 Figure 10- A log tobacco barn (005-5097) ................................................................................................................................................ 27 Figure 11- A log corn crib (005-5062)........................................................................................................................................................ 29 Figure 12- Montrose Orchard Packing Shed (005-5094) ....................................................................................................................... 30 Figure 13- A gambrel-roofed barn (005-5075) ......................................................................................................................................... 31 Figure 14- Sandidges Post Office and Store (005-5067) ........................................................................................................................ 33 Figure 15- Store and service station at Faulconerville (005-5091) ........................................................................................................ 35 Figure 16- Bank, Monroe (005-5148) ......................................................................................................................................................... 35 Figure 17- Sandidge’s Mill (005-5069) ........................................................................................................................................................ 37 Figure 18- Amherst County as portrayed in J. L. Campbell’s Geology and Mineral Resources of the James River Valley (1882) ........ 38 Figure 19- Twentieth Century slate processing ruins, Snowden vicinity............................................................................................. 39 Figure 20- Amherst Traffic Circle (163-5006) .......................................................................................................................................... 42 Figure 21- Early Amherst County towns like Bethel (005-5336) had limited governmental powers (Virginia Board of Public Works Collection, Library of Virginia)....................................................................................................................................................... 44 Figure 22- The school at 2030 Boxwood Farm Road (005-5130) ........................................................................................................ 46 Figure 23- Detail of an 1868 plat for an African American school located between Bethel and Pedlar Mills (Amherst County Deed Book HH, p. 277) ................................................................................................................................................................................ 47 Figure 24- The school at 131 Old Colony Road, Madison Heights (005-5130) ................................................................................ 49 Figure 25- The antebellum Mt. Tabor United Methodist Church (005-5008) illustrates locally progressive brick construction of the era but retention of a simple gable-fronted nave form. .............................................................................................................. 50 Figure 26- The architecturally sophisticated 1945 Poplar United Methodist Church (005-5140) features artistic stonework and an unusual bell tower. ............................................................................................................................................................................ 51 Figure 27- Davies family monument in the Vault Hill Cemetery (005-5276) .................................................................................... 52 Figure 28- Rucker Cemetery (005-5278) .................................................................................................................................................... 53 Figure 29- Charles and Roservelt Jackson monument in the Jackson Cemetery (005-5129) .......................................................... 54 Figure 30- This chart displays the resources identified in the 2009-10 survey by DHR time period. ........................................... 56 Figure 32- The number of identified resources was significantly increased in many USGS Quadrangles ................................... 57 Figure 31- Resources identified in the 2009-10 Survey by DHR historic context ............................................................................ 57 Figure 33- Blue polygons indicate locations of properties surveyed as a part of the 2009-2010 project. Smaller land parcel sizes appear as dots, or clusters of resources may appear as one. This map is intended to give an overall view of the distribution of surveyed resources. ............................................................................................................................................................. 58 Figure 34- A Handbook and Resource Guide for Owners of Virginia’s Historic Houses is an excellent resource for owners of historic homes in Amherst County. .......................................................................................................................................................................... 66 Figure 35- Amherst Quad (Showing resources surveyed during the 2009-2010 Cost Share Survey) ......................................... 111 Figure 36- Arrington Quad (Showing resources surveyed during the 2009-2010 Cost Share Survey) ....................................... 112 Figure 37- Big Island Quad (Showing resources surveyed during the 2009-2010 Cost Share Survey) ....................................... 113 Figure 38- Buena Vista Quad (Showing resources surveyed during the 2009-2010 Cost Share Survey) ................................... 114 Figure 39- Buffalo Ridge Quad (Showing resources surveyed during the 2009-2010 Cost Share Survey) ................................ 115 Figure 40- Forks of Buffalo Quad (Showing resources surveyed during the 2009-2010 Cost Share Survey) ......................... 116 Figure 41- Gladstone Quad (Showing resources surveyed during the 2009-2010 Cost Share Survey) ...................................... 117 Figure 42- Kelly Quad (Showing resources surveyed during the 2009-2010 Cost Share Survey) ................................................ 118 Figure 43- Lynchburg Quad (Showing resources surveyed during the 2009-2010 Cost Share Survey)...................................... 119 Figure 44- Montebello Quad (Showing resources surveyed during the 2009-2010 Cost Share Survey) .................................... 121 Figure 45- Piney River Quad (Showing resources surveyed during the 2009-2010 Cost Share Survey) .................................... 122 Figure 46- Stonewall Quad (Showing resources surveyed during the 2009-2010 Cost Share Survey) ........................................ 123 Figure 47- Tobacco Row Mtn Quad (Showing resources surveyed during the 2009-2010 Cost Share Survey) ....................... 124 Figure 48- Pedlar Mills Rural Historic District Topographic Map ..................................................................................................... 135 Figure 49 Pedlar Mills Rural Historic District Site Plan ....................................................................................................................... 136 Figure 50- Sandidges Rural Historic District Topographic Map ........................................................................................................ 138 Figure 51- Sandidges Rural Historic District Site Plan ......................................................................................................................... 138 Amherst County Historic Resources Survey Report 6 Introduction, Research Design, Project Objectives & Research and Acknowledgements Design The Amherst County Historic Resources The principal objectives of the survey were: Survey, conducted in 2009-10, was funded  To survey, at the reconnaissance level, by the County of Amherst and the Virginia at least 275 previously undocumented Department of Historic Resources (DHR) properties in the county outside and was administered jointly by DHR and National Forest lands, in order to Sweet Briar College’s Tusculum Institute. broaden the thematic and geographic The survey was modeled on DHR’s coverage of the existing survey. “Guidelines for Conducting Survey in  If desired, record, at the intensive level, Virginia for Cost Share Projects” (May properties that may be eligible for listing 2005) and was undertaken by HistoryTech on the National Register of Historic (formerly The Antiquaries), a preservation Places. If an intensive level survey for planning firm based in Lynchburg, with such a property was submitted, it would assistance from Landmark Preservation have a “value” equivalent to 2 Associates of Lexington. The project was reconnaissance level surveys. administered by Kristin Kirchen, DHR  If desired, identify potential historic Architectural Historian, with assistance districts or cultural landscapes. If a from Bob Carter, DHR Historian and preliminary information form (PIF) for Community Services Division Director, and a potential district or landscape was Ann Andrus, Director, DHR Capital submitted, it would have a “value” Regional Preservation Office. The Steering equivalent to 12 reconnaissance level Committee consisted of Joe Bondurant with surveys. the County of Amherst, Travis McDonald  Create a PowerPoint presentation with Thomas Jefferson’s Poplar Forest, and outlining survey findings Dr. Lynn Rainville with Sweet Briar  Create a survey report (this document) College’s Tusculum Institute. The survey team members included Jesse Adams- Before venturing into the field, the survey Doolittle, Sandra F. Esposito, and W. Scott team reviewed existing survey files at the Smith of HistoryTech/The Antiquaries. Virginia Department of Historic Resources Scott Smith served as the project Archives in Richmond and conducted basic administrator and principal investigator. J. study of primary and secondary sources Daniel Pezzoni of Landmark Preservation within the Amherst community. Maps from Associates wrote the project report. the eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth centuries, along with modern high- Project planning commenced in November resolution aerial photography were used to 2009 and included an initial meeting identify sites that were likely to yield between the survey sponsors, Steering positive results. Finally, recommendations Committee, and consultants on November for possible properties to be surveyed were 17, 2009. Periodic meetings were held received from local citizens via telephone, throughout the duration of the survey and letter, email, and public meetings. contact was maintained through telephone and email. Fieldwork was conducted from The survey team members (Adams- November 2009 through May 2010. Doolittle, Esposito, and Smith) used the above data to guide travel on county roads in search of candidate survey sites. guidelines of the Virginia Historic Information was recorded on field forms Landmarks Commission, predecessor of the and entered into DHR’s Data Sharing DHR. Additional resources were surveyed System (DSS) database software from which in the early 1980s by staff of the Central hardcopy files were generated. Properties Virginia Planning District Commission and were also digitally photographed, and in the late 1980s by the William and Mary locations were recorded by GPS (Global Archaeological Project Center in Positioning System) units. preparation for right-of-way acquisition for the U.S. 29 bypass. Prior to the 2009-10 Amherst County covers approximately 475 survey, approximately 350 resources had square miles, or 304,000 acres. 18 USGS been surveyed within Amherst County. (U.S. Geological Survey) Quadrangle maps include portions of the County. The outer The level of documentation of the boundaries of the George Washington and approximately 350 previously recorded Jefferson National Forests reserve properties varies widely. Some have been approximately 25% of that area for public documented with complete intensive level use. However, multiple communities, surveys or have been listed on the National including Pera, Beverlytown, Oronoco, and Register of Historic Places. A relatively Coffeytown are home to residents who still complete profile of these resources is likely have title to private holdings within the available. However, other properties are National Forest. Approximately 19,200 only identified with a single photograph or acres of these inholdings were surveyed as a perhaps just a marked location on a map. part of this project. Thus, approximately The team for the 2009-2010 survey was 247,200 acres of Amherst County were specifically directed not to resurvey any of surveyed by the 2009-2010 Cost Share these previously recorded properties at the Survey project. reconnaissance level. At the commencement of the project, 20 Previous Survey in Amherst County resources within Amherst County that had previously been recorded were not mapped The systematic documentation of the for one reason or another. The survey team county’s historic resources began in the late was asked to look for these resources and 1930s with the work of the Works Progress map them if possible. At the close of the Administration of Virginia Historical project, the team had located all but 4 of Inventory, a state and federal collaboration these resources. to research, describe, photograph, and map the Commonwealth’s historic resources, Understanding of Amherst County’s historic principally elite houses dating to before the resources has also benefited from the Civil War. Only one Amherst County nomination of resources to the Virginia property, Brick House (005-0002), has been Landmarks Register and the National recorded in full by HABS (Historic Register of Historic Places. The register American Buildings Survey). This survey reports, which contain detailed historical took place in 1957. and architectural information, typically result from sponsorship by individual The next major phase of survey in Amherst property owners. This has created a bias County began in the mid- to late 1970s with towards elite residences, although the survey of scores of resources under the information on auxiliary farm buildings and other more vernacular resources is often Amherst County Historic Resources Survey Report 8 included. Amherst County properties (with Survey Report their DHR site numbers) presently listed in the state and national registers are: The survey report was prepared by Dan Pezzoni with input from the survey team  Bear Mountain Indian Mission members. The majority of the report is School (005-0230) comprised of a historic context that is  Brick House (Garland House; 005- prefaced by a brief overview and description 0002) of the county and is organized by the  Edge Hill (005-0005) following DHR themes:  Edgewood, Boulder Springs (005- 0158)  Ethnic  Edgewood (163-0003)  Architecture  Fairview (005-0006)  Agriculture  Forest Hill (005-0108)  Commerce  Geddes (005-0007)  Industry  The Glebe (005-0010)  Transportation  Hite Store (005-0058)  Government  Mountain View Farm (005-0011)  Education  Oak Lawn (005-5029)  Religion  Red Hill Farm (005-0014)  Funerary  Speed the Plough (005-0040) The discussion in each theme proceeds  Sweet Briar College Historic District roughly chronologically beginning with the (005-0219) eighteenth century. Exceptions to this basic  Sweet Briar House (005-0018) structure include the discussion of ethnicity,  Tusculum (005-0020) which begins with a discussion of Monacan  Winton (005-0021) history around 1000 A.D. and concludes with a discussion of the contemporaneous The nomination reports for these properties settlement by European and African may be viewed online at the DHR website peoples starting in the eighteenth century; www.dhr.virginia.gov. Selected information and the agricultural and industrial from the nominations is presented discussions, which are structured by throughout the survey report. subtheme as well as chronologically. The architecture theme focuses on house types, construction methods, and styles, so DHR’s Domestic theme is therefore subsumed into it, but it also includes limited discussion of non-domestic building types. The physical characteristics of most non-domestic building types are described in the appropriate thematic discussions. Selected properties from previous survey work in the county as well as properties from the 2009-10 project are referred to in the report by name or site number (163- for Amherst County Historic Resources Survey Report 9 sites in the town of Amherst; 005- for sites  Lynn Laufenberg, Ph.D., Sweet Briar outside the town). Information on historic College resources that are not accompanied by site  Lynn Rainville, Ph.D., Tusculum numbers is derived from sources other than Institute, Sweet Briar College survey files (in other words, these sites have  Martha Schley Kemp ‘12, Jennifer Will not been surveyed). The abbreviation “ca.” ‘13, Lilly Purvis ‘13, Valerie Mitchell ‘13, accompanies some dates and is used for Sarah O'Brian ‘13, and Danielle Hall ‘13, “circa,” a Latin word meaning “about” that Sweet Briar College Students indicates a date is approximate or  Virginia pottery researcher Kurt Russ conjectural. The report concludes with  Historian and orchardist Tom Burford evaluation/recommendations for properties  Virginia river, canal, and mill historian and districts that appear to meet the criteria Douglas MacLeod for inclusion in the National Register of Historic Places. The results of the survey  Travis McDonald, Thomas Jefferson’s were presented to the public at a final Poplar Forest presentation held on June 23, 2010.  Joe Bondurant and Vickie Hickman, County of Amherst A set of the survey materials will be housed  Bob Carter, Quatro Hubbard, Kristin at the Amherst County Administration Kirchen, and Lisa Williams of the Building on Washington Street in Amherst. Virginia Department of Historic The Amherst County Museum and Resources. Historical Society at 154 Main Street in Amherst will also receive a set of survey files, and is uniquely positioned to accommodate researchers by providing workspace, a photocopier, and access to a significant research library and archival collection. A bound copy of the survey report will also be available in the local history collection of the Amherst County Public Library. Acknowledgements In addition to the many county residents who suggested potential survey properties or welcomed the consultants to their properties, the following individuals assisted with the project:  Lisa Johnston of the Mary Helen Cochran Library, Sweet Briar College  Susan Pillow and Chuck Bradner of the Jones Memorial Library  Holly Mills of the Amherst County Museum and Historical Society Amherst County Historic Resources Survey Report 10