—New listings are in the counties of Amherst, Bath, Botetourt, Clarke, Culpeper, James City, and Nelson; and cities of Newport News, Richmond (3), Roanoke, and Virginia Beach —
—VLR listings will be forwarded for nomination to the National Register of Historic Places—
Among 13 places approved for listing on the Virginia Landmarks Register by the Department of Historic Resources are districts in Roanoke and James City County that highlight the economic impact of railroads in the late 1800s, a municipal electric power plant and waterworks in Culpeper, a mill from the 1700s in the northern Shenandoah Valley, and a 101-year old theater in Botetourt County.
The Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad’s extension across Virginia’s Lower Peninsula to Hampton Roads spurred development of the Toano Commercial Historic District after the railroad reached Toano in 1881. The C&O boosted prosperity in James City County and Toano by the movement of goods and people through the region and by providing greater access to northern cities, soon engendering a new market-oriented economy in the county, one centered on truck farming. Shipment of products to urban markets also gave rise to new manufacturing operations in Toano with the construction of a barrel factory and a cannery.
Around 1903, the town saw the construction of a group of commercial buildings including a bank. In 1906, to further propel growth, the the town relocated its depot and original rail line, which had cut through the town center, impeding development on its eastern and southern margins. That action effectively opened the town for redevelopment and the construction of new buildings.
During the early 20th century, the advent of motor vehicles brought new commercial opportunities to Toano when in 1926 Richmond Road, stretching along the district’s southern margin, was paved and merged into a new system of national highways, and designated US 60. Roadside inns, restaurants, and gasoline stations appeared along the road, although many were later demolished when US 60 was widened in 1966. Today’s district hosts an array of buildings constructed between 1903 and 1930 in a vernacular Commercial Style.
The Roanoke neighborhood encompassing the Belmont Historic District developed in the late-19th and early-20th centuries by providing housing for the inflow of workers filling positions at the Norfolk & Western Railway’s operations, begun in the city in 1881. The earliest speculative housing development in southeast Roanoke, Belmont started in 1888 when the recently-formed Belmont Land Company purchased rural acreage along the N&W line’s south side. Subdivisions arose, with street car lines reaching Belmont by 1905. The earliest houses, mostly those closest to the railroad, tended to be of Folk-Victorian vernacular design and two-story frame construction. The district includes some larger Queen Anne and Colonial Revival-style houses built for managers and business owners, but as the neighborhood grew the majority of residential architecture continued to be modest housing with limited detailing.
In 1917, a new industry further fueled growth in Southeast Roanoke, when the American Viscose Corporation established a plant nearby along the Roanoke River. American Viscose gave rise to houses on scattered vacant lots in Belmont nearer to the N&W line or concentrated in the less-developed southern section, further from the railroad. American Foursquare is the dominant form of these later houses with detailing in either the Colonial Revival, Craftsman or Prairie styles. As it filled in during the 1950s, other housing forms – Cape Cod, Ranch, and Minimal Traditional – were built in lots scattered throughout Belmont.
Consisting of two buildings, the Culpeper Municipal Electric Plant and Waterworks is associated with trends in municipal electric generation and distribution, and improved treatment of drinking water in rural America during the 20th century. Completed in 1934 to replace an older power plant, Culpeper’s Municipal Electric Plant was the first such facility funded with federal Public Works Administration (PWA) financing as part of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s administration’s emphasis on rural electrification.
Culpeper’s plant proved to be an economical and efficient source of electric service. Within its first five years the new plant reduced consumer rates by approximately 10 percent and profited the Town. That success prompted other Virginia municipalities and utility companies to evaluate their rate structures and improve their services. With upgrades over the years, the Culpeper Municipal Electric Plant remained in operation until a new facility on a different site replaced it in 2006.
Culpeper’s Waterworks, completed in 1947, incorporated technological advances in water treatment, and adhered closely to revised and expanded water treatment standards issued by the U.S. Public Health Service in 1946. Those standards regulated the bacteriological quality of drinking water and introduced methods for removing disease causing substances and pathogens.
Both the electric plant and waterworks buildings exemplify the era’s Moderne style, as shaped by federal involvement. The PWA’s stringent oversight and regulatory standards for design, engineering, and construction are evident in the Electric Plant. The Culpeper Waterworks building continued a federally standardized Moderne style into post-World War II. The red brick facing of both structures matches building materials used historically throughout Culpeper and visually softens the industrial nature of the complex within its surrounding residential neighborhood.
In the Shenandoah Valley, Locke’s Mill is a legacy of Clarke County’s rural milling industry, which survived during the Civil War and the subsequent collapse of the South’s slave-based economy. The milling industry from 1870 to 1930 constituted the bulk of Clarke’s economic activity. Locke’s Mill used an advanced system of “continuous milling,” a system employed in the county. Developed by 18th-century inventor Oliver Evans, continuous milling relied on elevators, pulleys, and augers to move grain and flour through the mill. The Oliver Evans system eliminated the manual labor required to haul sacks through a mill and enhanced production, radically transforming America’s milling industry.
The original Locke’s Mill was likely adapted to the Evans system in the late 1700s. In 1876, Joseph Price rebuilt the mill re-incorporating the Evans system, and the mill remained active until 1936, when flooding heavily damaged it and production ceased. In 1992 the mill was restored, largely reviving Price’s work, although only pieces of the Evans system remain. Today Locke’s Mill mostly serves local distilleries for custom milling work, maintaining a two-and-a-half century tradition of local milling.
Since its construction around 1917, the Buchanan Theatre has served as a principal entertainment venue and social hub in the Botetourt County town of Buchanan. Originally known as the Star Theatre, the two-story gable-fronted building was built and operated by the Shank family. Jack and Homer Jackson purchased the building in 1946 and, in 1949, remodeled it in the Moderne style, adding a new brick facade, neon marquee, ticket booth, and restaurant wing. The interior, with its knotty-pine lobby, streamlined concession stand, and Art Deco seating dates to the remodeling and a subsequent, less extensive remodeling in the 1950s.
During the 1950s and 1960s the theater occasionally hosted live acts including bluegrass entertainers such as the popular duo Donald Wesley Reno (1926-84) and Arthur Lee “Red” Smiley (1925-72). In 1999, new owners undertook renovations to the theater, and in 2001 a nonprofit formed to manage the venue. Having won a number of awards and hosted film festivals, the Buchanan Theatre remains a vibrant and contributing presence in the Buchanan Historic District, listed on the National Register in 1999.
Elsewhere in Virginia, additional listings to the Virginia Landmarks Register, approved by DHR’s Virginia Board of Historic Resources during its December quarterly meeting, include the following:
The Virginia Department of Historic Resources will forward the documentation for these 13 newly-listed VLR sites to the National Park Service for nomination to the National Register of Historic Places.
Listing a property in the state or national registers is honorary and sets no restrictions on what a property owner may do with his or her property. The designation is first and foremost an invitation to learn about and experience authentic and significant places in Virginia’s history.
Designating a property to the state or national registers—either individually or as a contributing building in a historic district—provides an owner the opportunity to pursue historic rehabilitation tax credit improvements to the building. Tax credit projects must comply with the Secretary of Interior’s Standards for Rehabilitation. The tax credit program is voluntary and not a requirement when owners work on their listed properties.
Virginia is a national leader among states in listing historic sites and districts in the National Register of Historic Places. The state is also a national leader for the number of federal tax credit rehabilitation projects proposed and completed each year.
Together the register and tax credit rehabilitation programs play significant roles in promoting Virginia’s heritage and the preservation of the Commonwealth’s historic places and in spurring economic revitalization and tourism in many towns and communities.
Originally posted: December 13, 2018
Updated: June 21, 2019