R.E.S.P.E.C.T.

Good news from the Commonwealth's Department of Historic Resources:

For Immediate Release
June 23, 2008

State Approves 25 New Historic Resources for Listing on the Virginia Landmarks Register

–Listing covers resources in the counties of Accomack, Arlington, Buchanan, Chesterfield, Culpeper, Cumberland, Fauquier, Mecklenburg, Montgomery, Prince Edward, Prince William, Scott, and Stafford; and the towns/cities of Alexandria, Charlottesville, Falmouth, Hampton, Petersburg, Richmond, Roanoke, Winchester and Wytheville–

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* Uptown/Parker-Gray Historic District, located in Alexandria, covers a 45-block area, and the largest of several historically African American neighborhoods in the city, dating back to circa 1810, when an enclave of free blacks settled there. The district includes a variety of individual residences and townhouses from the late 19th through the first half of the 20th century, when the district took shape during the decades of institutionalized segregation, as reflected in the district’s schools, libraries, and Colonial-style public row houses built by the City of Alexandria.

These new Virginia Landmark Register resources will be forwarded by Virginia’s State Historic Preservation Officer — in Virginia, the director of the Department of Historic Resources, Kathleen S. Kilpatrick — to the National Park Service for listing in the National Register of Historic Places.

Listing a property on the state or national register places no restrictions on what a property owner may choose to do with his property.

However, listing on the state and national register does provide a property owner the opportunity to pursue state and federal tax credit rehabilitation improvements to a property. Such tax-credit rehabilitations must comply with federal standards, which are administered in Virginia by the Department of Historic Resources.

During the past few years, Virginia has been a national leader among the 50 states in registering historic sites and districts. The state is also a national leader for the number of tax-credit rehabilitation projects proposed and completed each year. Together the register and tax credit rehabilitation programs have played a significant role in promoting the preservation of the Commonwealth’s historic sites and in spurring economic revitalization in many Virginia towns and communities.

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Kudos to those who secured this distinction for the neighborhood, including former Vice Mayor Andrew Macdonald who secured the funding for the historic district survey, to former Planning & Zoning Director Eileen Fogarty who got the process launched internally before her departure, and to Sarah Becker and Queen Street Area Business Association President Wilson Thompson for tirelessly advocating the nomination with the City's elected officials.