Toward the preservation of rural, cultural, historic landscapes: a method for evaluating nineteenth century Blue Ridge farms

Abstract

The research hypothesis of this study states that a systematic and operational method for evaluating rural, cultural, historic landscapes, particularly at the regional level, simply does not exist.

The purpose of this study was two-fold: first, to prove, through an informal survey of landscape architecture firms involved in historic preservation and preservation organizations, that the hypothesis was true, and secondly, to develop a method for evaluating a specific kind of rural, cultural, historic landscape -- nineteenth century farms in the Blue Ridge Belt.

The overriding objective in developing the method for evaluating nineteenth century Blue Ridge farms was to make the evaluation criteria as operational as possible, and, therefore, create a method which would be accessible to the non-professional. The criteria used to evaluate the farms was based on studies done of farms documented in the archives of the Shenandoah National Park in Luray, Virginia, the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in Gatlinburg, Tennessee, and the Historic Landsmarks Commission in Richmond, Virginia. The method was designed so that every farm evaluated by means of the checksheet can be scored based on the degree to which it represents a typical nineteenth century Blue Ridge farm.