Grassroots activism returns farm to ancestral owners: citizen involvement can help save parks from development

Parks & Recreation, Oct, 2004

A national historic landmark was recently saved thanks to the combined efforts of its surrounding community residents, private not-for-profits and the federal government.

The 210 residents of Waterford, Va., rallied to save the 144-acre farm that originally started the village in 1733, when it was settled by Quaker Amos Janey. Waterford, a National Historic Landmark rich with Quaker and African-American history, had been under siege since March 2003, when a developer bought the historic Phillips Farm to transform it into housing.

"It would have ruined the view of Waterford and also was jeopardizing the historic landmark status of the town," says Susan Clark, director of public affairs for the Trust for Public Land (TPL). TPL donated its time and legal counsel to help the Waterford Foundation purchase the farm from the developer, Historic Fields, LLC.

The "Waterford Foundation's mission is to purchase or protect land through private easements in the hopes of preserving it for educational and historic purposes. Since its inception in 1943, the Waterford Foundation has protected about 850 acres in and around the village of Waterford. When the Foundation set out to buy the Phillips Farm, the Washington family did not accept its offer. Rather, the family sold the property to Historic Fields for $2.2 million, which was $200,000 below the initial offering from the Foundation.

Once the property exchanged hands in early 2003, the Foundation again sought to purchase the property away from the developer, who finally agreed after settling on a price of $3.9 million.

Cate Magennis Wyatt, then fund-raising chairperson for the Waterford Foundation, began contacting every philanthropic organization and resident, from Virginia Governor Mark Warner to private citizens living in Waterford. With a Dec. 18, 2003, deadline, Wyatt and her supporters cobbled together the majority of the $3.9 million price tag, with only about $147,000 left to pay.

The story of how the Foundation was able to obtain the money is as significant as the fact that it saved the farm from development. In addition to large donations from the National Trust for Historic Preservation and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Foundation created Waterford Preservation bonds whereupon residents could purchase these bonds in sums of $50, $100 and $1,000, and receive certificates with their names recorded. More than $100,000 was raised through this grassroots effort. Donations were also received from as far away as New Zealand and Australia, to as close as the nearby lemonade stand led by the children of Waterford. "In every fashion possible, we sought the funding," Wyatt says.

"Waterford is as important in the eye of the [U.S.] Secretary of the Interior as Independence Hall is, as Mount Vernon is, as Monticello," says Wyatt. "But it is left to the people to preserve it and to protect it and to interpret it for the benefit of all Americans."

Now that the Foundation owns the farm, it has returned the farm to its original function--producing hay. "It's in the same field patterns as it's been farmed for 270 years," Wyatt says.

Additionally, the Foundation will be implementing interpretative programs on the farm, to help tell its historical tale. "So people can even better be able to understand how essential the land is to the creation of a place like a village," says Wyatt.

As part of its mission, the Foundation's properties are home to "live history," where schoolchildren spend field trips experiencing life before the Civil War. There are now less than 600 acres left to save within the Waterford National Historic Landmark District.

"Unlike many national historical landmarks, Waterford is a living town, people live here, they occupy the historic homes and that, for the National Trust for Historic Preservation, is the best way for historic places to be preserved," says Robert Nieweg from the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

For more information on the Waterford Foundation, visit www.waterfordva.org.