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Advancing Landscape Preservation and Interpretation at Chatham Manor
The Process of Preservation
When Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park was listed to the National Register in 1966, Chatham Manor was identified as one of the park's resources. A 2016 National Register update was followed by a Cultural Landscape Report in 2019. Together, these documentation tools are part of how the NPS advances stewardship and interpretation in landscapes with layered history, remaining committed to the preservation mission while considering new research and study.
Designed garden at Chatham Manor. The surrounding agricultural fields are visible beyond the wall. NPS
The National Park Service documents properties that are new to NPS administration, as well as places that have been part of the National Park System for decades. Understanding the significance of these resources is part of planning for their care and sharing their history. Often this landscape significance is related to the reason that the park was established, but it can also incorporate new research or information about the lives and activities in a place over time
Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park was established on February 14, 1927 and transferred from the War Department to the NPS in 1933. The Chatham Manor property was added later, between 1964 and 1978.
Fredericksburg across the Rappahannock River from Chatham Manor. Starting in 1768, William Fitzhugh operated a plantation on the Chatham Manor landscape, which prospered under enslaved labor and the connection to the young town of Fredericksburg. The plantation continued under several owners until the Civil War. NPS / Mary O'Neill
The Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park was listed in the National Register in 1966 (with the passage of the National Historic Preservation Act) and approved in 1978. Chatham Manor was identified in that documentation for its use as the headquarters for several Union generals during the Civil War, a hospital, and the site of an early field telegraph relay station. It was also noted for its architectural style.
Since then, efforts have been made to revise the 1978 National Register documentation to address recently-added park property and more thoroughly document the resources and areas of significance. This expansion identified the park and landscape’s role in Civil War commemoration efforts, federal battlefield park development, the work of the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930s, and landscape architecture, particularly the 1920s Colonial Revival design of the Chatham Manor formal garden by landscape architect Ellen Shipman. The overall period of significance in the 2016 National Register nomination update begins in 1768 with the construction of Chatham Manor, and ends in 1965, the 100th anniversary of the end of the Civil War.
The 1931 Period Plan in the Chatham Manor Cultural Landscape Report identifies significant features of the landscape at that time. NPS / Olmsted Center for Landscape Preservation
When locations and features are identified as contributing resources at Chatham Manor, it establishes their importance to the park’s areas of historic significance and helps to create the pathway for their preservation. A Cultural Landscape Report for Chatham Manor was published in 2019. The landscape that visitors experience when they visit Chatham Manor today reflects this expanded documentation. In addition to the Georgian style main house and connections to Civil War history, the surrounding landscape contains evidence of the agrarian and industrial economy of antebellum Virginia and the lives of the enslaved and free people who lived there.
Even with the additional documentation in the updated National Register nomination, there is opportunity to expand the investigation of post-war commemorative activities and the roles of African Americans at Chatham Manor during and after the war. This includes additional archeological work to better understand the lives of enslaved people at Chatham.
These recommendations and updates at Chatham Manor demonstrate how National Register documentation is a tool in landscape preservation, but it’s not the final decision. Even at a park that has been part of the NPS since 1933, the preservation focus can be adjusted as more is discovered about the landscape.
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Related Documentation
National Register of Historic Places
Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania County Battlefields Memorial National Military Park(1966, updated 2016)
Civil War in Virginia: Multiple Property Documentation (2019)
Cultural Landscape Reports
Chatham Manor Cultural Landscape Report (2019)
Chatham Manor Cultural Landscape Inventory (2017)
Period of Significance
- 1768 - 1965
Part of a series of articles titled
Overview of Cultural Landscape and National Register Documentation.
Previous:
Exploring the Landscape of the Recent Past at Catoctin Mountain Park
Next:
Documenting the Howland Hill Road Cultural Landscape
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- Fredericksburg & Spotsylvania National Military Park
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