The Rapidan River – Clark Mountain Rural Historic District is a nearly 40,000-acre historic landscape in Orange County and parts of Madison and Culpeper Counties that has been determined eligible for listing on the Virginia Landmarks Register and the National Register of Historic Places for its high concentration of historic resources dating from the prehistoric period through the 1930s.
Historic preservation
Highlighting African American Historic Conservation Projects
This Black History Month, we’re highlighting local conservation projects that have protected significant African American sites and cultural resources.
![These Hills Were Home](https://www.pecva.org/wp-content/uploads/people/pec_staffandboard/kristie_kendall_with_book_1000x.jpg)
These Hills Were Home
A walking history guide to the Blue Ridge Mountains of Northern Greene and Western Madison County, Virginia.
![Comments Requesting Re-evaluation of Statewide Historic Bridge Inventory](https://www.pecva.org/wp-content/uploads/historic/Pre-1933-Metal-Truss-Bridges.png)
Comments Requesting Re-evaluation of Statewide Historic Bridge Inventory
The Commonwealth’s historic bridges create a sense of place and a link to the past. These bridges – versus featureless concrete slabs – are community amenities. They provide not just the physical crossing of a stream or river, but an experience that connects people to both the road and the surrounding landscape.
![Preserving History at Jack’s Shop and James City](https://www.pecva.org/wp-content/uploads/historic/civilwar/JacksShop_Sign_500x.jpg)
Preserving History at Jack’s Shop and James City
PEC received a grant of $35,300 from the National Park Service’s American Battlefield Protection Program to research the history of two previously undocumented Civil War battles that occurred at Jack’s Shop and James City in Madison County, Va.
![Coming Together to Save the Historic Waterloo Bridge](https://www.pecva.org/wp-content/uploads/historic/Waterloo-bridge-pv-with-caption-300x.jpg)
Coming Together to Save the Historic Waterloo Bridge
Last fall, VDOT announced plans to possibly close the Waterloo Bridge to vehicular traffic due to safety concerns. PEC shared the news with local community groups and historic preservation advocates, which sparked overwhelming support for the bridge’s rehabilitation—support that transcended the usual demographics and organization affiliations.
Sacrificing History… For What?
Often environmentalists are told that we just 'say no' to things. To which I would argue — saying 'no' to a bad idea is a very important part of what we do. But it's not all we do. At The Piedmont Environmental Council we also strive to put forward constructive alternatives. That's why it's so frustrating to see the Virginia Department of Transportation, led by Sean Connaughton, make mega-projects like the Outer Beltway and Charlottesville Bypass its highest priority. Despite great arguments against both projects — fiscal, environmental, common sense arguments — and plenty of alternatives, VDOT is charging ahead. This text is from an email alert sent out on September 19, 2013:
Honoring Local History
“This part of northern Virginia has soaked up more of the blood, sweat and tears of American history than any other part of the country.” –Late Yale historian C. Vann Woodward
Tools to Preserve Rural Land
Many tools are available to preserve rural land, from private land conservation to Purchase of Development Rights programs, land use taxation, zoning provisions and more.
Unison Historic District Offers a Window to the Civil War
The village of Unison in western Loudoun, as if charmed in some way to keep from changing, is a quiet hamlet of well-kept old buildings, with many farmhouses, barns and churches that measure their age in centuries. They are settled into a landscape of farm fields and stone walls, where the curving hills and stands of trees give way, in their own rhythm, to views of the calm blue line of mountains on the western horizon.
It’s the roads in Unison that historians get most excited about, says Mitch Diamond of the Unison Preservation Society, which is leading efforts to list this area as a historic district on the state and national registers of historic places.