Waterford, Virginia: When do conservation processes become national heritage?

In a ground-breaking step in 2023, the U.S. National Park Service revised the National Historic Landmark status of Waterford, Virginia, to recognize the “sustained and innovative private preservation effort to conserve a comprehensive village landscape.” With this acknowledgement of a 55-year effort to preserve a cultural landscape, it is the first such heritage designation of a planning and conservation process in the United States.
In the late 1980’s and early 1990’s, I led the planning effort to implement a strategy to conserve the landscape of the village. As the top level of recognition for National Heritage in the United States, the Waterford National Historic Landmark was forward thinking in 1969, for its inclusion of the landscape within the boundaries of the village, at a time when designations included minimal landscape areas almost as an afterthought.
This lecture delves into the history of Waterford’s conservation efforts. It explores the theories of cultural heritage and landscape conservation of the period and discuss the outcomes of the planning effort. The presentation also discusses the implications of moving from a recognition of successful conservation case studies, to conservation as a form of intangible cultural heritage.
Additional resources:
The US National Historic Landmark nomination in full:
Morrissey, Catherine, Michael J. Emmons, Jr., and Kimberley Showell. 2023. Waterford Historic District, National Historic Landmark Nomination. U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service. 109pp. irma.nps.gov/D....
The 1992 case study published by the U.S. National Park Service as a model of landscape conservation:
Brabec, Elizabeth, Mary Ann Nabor and Harry L. Dodson. 1992. Linking the Past to the Future: A Landscape Conservation Strategy for Waterford, Virginia. Washington, DC: National Park Service and the Waterford Foundation. Available at: works.bepress.c....