Ashburn resident Helen Green does not want her village on the National Register of Historic places.
The longtime Ashburn resident of the unincorporated village of Ashburn said the village already is historically known through word of mouth. “We are historical within ourselves,” she said. “We already lost our lands. … If you come and squeeze the remaining life out of Ashburn, you won’t have an Ashburn.”
Green wasn’t the only Ashburn resident who spoke against the proposed nomination for an Ashburn Historic District at the county’s May 8 public information meeting, which was attended by about 30 people. The meeting compensated for a missed meeting required before the nomination was sent to the Virginia Department of Historic Resources (VDHR) State Review Board.
“We were here first,” said Charlene Lawlor, a 29-year resident of Ashburn. “Our houses are old, but they are homes … where we live. It would be wonderful to preserve what we have.”
Lawlor said she was not against the state or national designation but was afraid the local government would add on a local historical designation, which carries with it architectural criteria for remodeling and development of properties.
County representatives at the meeting said the county has no plans to pursue a local designation for the village. “There is no motivation to create a local district,” said Julie Pastor, director of planning.
“It has to come from the residents. If a majority come forward, it will go to the Board of Supervisors,” said Supervisor Chuck Harris (D-Broad Run). The local, state and national designations are enacted at resident insistence and cannot be brought forth by any government agencies.
THE DESIGNATION is honorary and does not bring any restrictions or regulations to property owners, said David Edwards, director of the Winchester Regional Preservation Office for the Virginia Department of Historic Resources. “There are misconceptions of what this designation means. … It cannot mandate historic preservation. It can encourage it with local governments. We encourage local governments to identify their historic resources,” he said. “You’re still in control as property owners.”
At the insistence of about a dozen residents, Harris put an end to the designation process, which was precipitated by resident request. “This will not go forward based on what I hear tonight. It will go forward if I hear residents want this,” he said. “It’s up to the folks. The county has gotten its money’s worth in terms of identifying what we have in the old Ashburn area,” Harris said.
The county received a $7,000 matching grant from the state to conduct historic district surveys, and at Harris’s insistence, began with a survey of the village of Ashburn. The county met with Ashburn residents in March 2001 to explain the survey, telling them after the survey was completed, they could decide if they wanted to submit an application for the designation. The public information meeting was missed, so the county asked VDHR to remove the nomination from the June 12 agenda of the State Review Board.
VDHR MANAGED the contract for the county to survey historic properties in the village of Ashburn. The survey consultant, EHT Traceries, Inc. in Washington, D.C., began work in May 2001 to survey 56 properties 50 years or older, including 42 residences, two commercial buildings, an industrial building, a grain mill, a boarding house, a firehouse, a school and three churches, along with 72 secondary resources such as barns, sheds and garages. One of the churches, the Ashburn Presbyterian Church built in 1878, is already listed on the National Register of Historic Places, designated in 1999.
Traceries surveyed historic properties on 109.1 acres roughly bounded by the village’s primary road Ashburn Road and Stubble Road, Hay Road, Partlow Road and Jenkins Lane.
Ashburn sits alongside the former Washington and Old Dominion Railroad (W&OD), converted in 1988 into the 45-mile W&OD Trail that crosses Ashburn road at the village’s center. The first phase of development in Ashburn occurred in the mid- to late 19th century, according to the National Register of Historic Places Registration Form. The earliest homes in the residential and commercial village date from the late 1860s to early 1870s, following the introduction of the Alexandria, Loudoun & Hampshire Railroad (AL&H) in 1860.
The village at the time was a railroad stop known as Farmwell, renamed to Ashburn in 1898 at the insistence of the U.S. Post Office over confusion with two nearby towns that had similar names. The arrival of the W&OD in 1911 initiated a second phase of development that continued until the passenger service was terminated in 1951. Most of the homes built at the time were of the Gothic Revival, Queen Anne, French Revival, Colonial Revival and Craftsman styles, with 60 percent of the homes built between 1875 and 1914. In 1980, there were 36 single-family homes and by 1900, there were 279 homes.
TRACERIES identified two of four criteria Ashburn as a historic district could meet. The criteria require the properties to be associated with historical events, such as architecture and transportation in the case of Ashburn, and to embody the characteristics of a type or period of construction, in Ashburn 1860 to 1951.
“The idea is to record our history,” Pastor said.
Harris agreed. “If we don’t know what assets we have or where they are, we don’t have the opportunity to protect or save them,” he said.
Harris plans to send letters to residents in the village of Ashburn indicating the historic district nomination has ended and that individual property owners can apply for the designation. Harris admitted being disappointed by the residents' low esteem in local government. “They don’t trust their own government, but it’s unfortunate because we’re still in this as a community,” he said.