Speeding west of Washington, D.C., on busy U.S. Route 29 -- past strip malls, fast-food outlets and row after row of new suburban homes -- it's easy to pass right by this tiny 18th century town.
BUCKLAND, Virginia — Speeding west of Washington, D.C., on busy U.S. Route 29 -- past strip malls, fast-food outlets and row after row of new suburban homes -- it's easy to pass right by this tiny 18th century town.
And that's exactly what some Buckland residents hope development will do: just pass by.
"This really is our heritage," said David Blake, owner of Buckland Farm, where dozens of thoroughbred horses graze over 550 acres of rolling fields. Except for the sounds of Route 29, the 21st century does not intrude.
Buckland's townsfolk are hardly unique in the United States, where preservationists say so-called cultural landscapes are under threat. Not all the endangered places are as scenic as Buckland, with its old mill, town common and unsullied views of fenced pastures and woodland.
Of seven U.S. sites designated as endangered by the Washington-based Cultural Landscape Foundation, at least one looks like a genuine eyesore: a massive 120-year-old dockyard in northern Minnesota. But beauty is not really the point, according to the foundation's Charles Birnbaum.
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"Beauty is not part of this designation," Birnbaum said in a telephone interview. "What we're interested in is landscapes that possess authenticity."
It doesn't get much more authentic than Buckland, where colonists settled, presidents visited, free blacks were sheltered and Civil War soldiers skirmished.
Blake and other Buckland landowners want their town bypassed by the highway and turned into a center for study, possibly a place where artisans might work and visitors might learn. They know they could sell their land at a hefty profit to real estate developers but choose not to.
"This is so much greater to us, all of us who live here, than just getting a big price and moving on," Blake said. "I couldn't sleep nights. I think we all feel that way."
Preservationists have long struggled to save American landmarks that are easy for citizens to accept, like battlefields and historic homes. Cultural landscapes are a bit harder to define, but Birnbaum acknowledges that the foundation can be thought of as an anti-sprawl group.
AMERICAN EXPERIENCE
"The nation's historic working landscapes, the cornerstone of the American experience, are being erased by residential and industrial sprawl," the foundation said in a statement announcing the seven threatened landscapes. "Many working landscapes are rich in cultural values, often identified with a community, an ethnic group or a site that reflects the cultural identity of everyday people who shaped the landscape."
Buckland makes the list because of its place in American history. First settled in 1774, it became a town in 1798. George Washington visited, a Civil War battle was fought along the banks of the creek that goes through town, and an early turnpike brought commerce to the area.
But as a mill town, it was a dismal failure, and commerce went elsewhere, leaving Buckland as a well-preserved time capsule of the mid-19th century. What kept growing was the road that bisected the town. Now known as Route 29, it is a major artery through Washington's sprawling Virginia suburbs.
Virginia's Department of Transportation has long-term plans to widen the highway from four lanes to up to eight to relieve traffic congestion. Buckland's residents say that would bring speeding vehicles perilously close to their doorsteps and interfere with the town's quiet character. Instead, they want a bypass, but Virginia officials say this is not in state plans.
Meanwhile, home builders and home buyers look to the area around Buckland as a possible haven from soaring prices closer to the U.S. capital, some 40 miles away.
"The problem that we're running into is that the whole conversation about urban sprawl and development is tilted towards conservation and preservation," said Ed Tombari, a land use planner with the National Association of Home Builders, a Washington-based trade association.
"When you take land out of the supply that's available for building, then you create affordable housing problems," Tombari said by telephone. "We have a growing population and we need to put the people somewhere."
Besides Buckland and the Agate Bay dockyard in Minnesota, other cultural landscapes recognized by the foundation are:
-- Acoma Pueblo, a mesa-top village in New Mexico that is one of the oldest urban settlements in the United States, dating back to the 1300s;
-- Orson Adams House, the surviving remnant of a 19th century Mormon development in Harrisburg, Utah;
-- Cienega Corridor, an area near Tucson, Arizona, that includes thousand-year-old native American archeological sites and 19th century remnants of the westward expansion;
-- Ridgewood Ranch, the home of Depression-era horseracing champion Seabiscuit in Willits, California, which remains a working ranch, despite the threat of development;
-- Whitney Farm, a small family-run dairy operation in Sherborn, Massachusetts that was an active concern until recently; a development company now plans to subdivide it for houses.
Source: Reuters
