On Thursday, Virginia added 13 locations to the Virginia Landmarks Register and six of them could be not too far from where you live.
The Register is the commonwealth’s official list of places of historic, architectural, archaeological, and cultural significance.
Alleghany, Amherst, Bedford, Botetourt, Franklin, and Pulaski counties are home to six of the newly-added sites.
Those sites include:
- Green Pastures Recreation Area – Located in Alleghany County, the Green Pastures Recreation Area opened around 1939 as the first and only U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service recreation site for African Americans within Virginia. Green Pastures was meant to complement the six Virginia State Parks and included a sandy beach, a bathhouse, picnic shelter, toilets, playing fields, hiking trails, and improved walking paths and parking areas. The park was integrated in 1950 and renamed to Longdale Day Use Area in 1964.
- Scott Zion Baptist Church and Cemetery – Scott Zion Baptist Church and Cemetery are in Amherst County. The congregation is one of the largest and oldest African American congregations in the county. The Scott Zion community was formed after the Civil War and was composed of American Americans and Native Americans.
- Quarles-Walker House – This neoclassical two-story home is in Bedford County and was built around 1839. The timber-framed house contains many neoclassical decorative elements and has a small frame milk house built around 1940.
- The Greenfield Kitchen and Quarters – These two log buildings formerly stood at the center of an extensive plantation in Botetourt County that was established by Col. William Preston in the mid-1700s. In the 1990s, the county developed the Greenfield property into an industrial park. The kitchen and quarters are the only survivors of the many buildings that once stood at Greenfield.
- John Craghead House – “Faodail” is the primary surviving structure of the John Craghead plantation in Franklin County. The farmhouse was built around 1825 and was saved from the development of The Waterfront community at Smith Mountain Lake in the 1990s. The house features original woodwork, pine floors and plaster walls.
- Calfee Training School – Constructed in 1939, the Calfee Training School in Pulaski County was an elementary school for the Town of Pulaski’s Black students. However, students seeking a secondary education had to attend the Christiansburg Institute in neighboring Montgomery County. Calfee Training School closed in 1966 when Pulaski County desegregated its school system and reopened in 1968 as an integrated Pulaski Primary School.
Other historical sites added to the Virginia Landmarks Register include the WSVS Studio in Nottoway County, Upperville Colt & Horse Show Grounds in Fauquier County, Pride of Fairfax Lodge #298 in Fairfax County, Clovelly Mansion in Richmond, Annaburg Manor in Manassas, the Van Deventer House in Loudon County, and the Koontz-Cave House in Page County.
For more information on the historic sites added, click here.
Source: WSLS News 10