Part Two: Area and Site Analysis

PART TWO: AREA AND SITE ANALYSIS Anacostia Trails Heritage Area Heritage Tourism and the Heritage Area Maryland=s Heritage Preservation and Tourism Areas Program, by recognizing and certifying heritage areas, fosters partnerships between preservation organizations, parks and open space advocates, and local government officials to preserve not only individual historic sites, but their historic and cultural contexts. Successful heritage areas link sites, parks, greenways, and transportation corridors. More important, they encourage collaboration among large and small historical organizations, museums, visitors= centers, historic preservation groups, and others to form a network of interpretation that will support heritage tourism and thus add to a region=s economic development. Heritage tourists, who typically stay longer and spend more per visit than any other category of visitors, are an especially coveted market in today=s economy. This section of this report advances concepts and recommendations for the Anacostia Trails Heritage Area to develop a collaborative, region-wide system of interpretation, reflecting the historical context set forth in the preceding section. Such a system will enable this Heritage Area to capitalize fully on the significant, excellent investments in many special sites that can clearly take greater advantage of the rising trend in heritage tourism, realizing a return on that investment that will benefit not only ATHA visitors, but also its residents. The first portion of this section reviews the recommended interpretive framework, a set of themes encircled by an Aordering concept,@ or primary theme that helps visitors comprehend this historically rich, extensively developed region. In only a few square miles, fully fourteen municipalities, many major federal and state institutions, and multiple major transportation corridors jostle for space. Making interpretive sense of this heritage area is critical to helping visitors make physical sense of the myriad urban environments they encounter, and appreciate the wealth of experiences it is possible to enjoy here. The second portion of this section spins out this interpretive framework as it applies to the large number of sites explored and researched by the History Matters! team. While the remarks and recommendations applying to individual sites are by no means meant to be Amini plans,@ they are recorded in order to enable others to appreciate the possibilities of these sites, especially as they relate to advancing the overall interpretive experience envisioned for ATHA. 152 Area and Site Analysis The Interpretive Experience Visitors to the Anacostia Trails Heritage Area should expect to encounter enjoyable historic sites united in presenting facets of the overall story of the region. They should experience at least one pleasant walk along a historic street or recreational trail, or in a garden, and move from site to site with an understanding of the landscape they are seeing and the history and change it reflects. Their means of transportation may vary, but all should be related through interpretation to the transportation history of the corridor. Casual encounters with docents and workers in the hospitality industry should elicit Adid you know@ conversations that reflect local enthusiasm for the results of the rich investment here in historic preservation, recreation, research and learning facilities, and the arts. Upon returning home, they should remember the pleasures of discovery, and recall the excitement of learning about the unique places they visited, and the unique stories they encountered. While they may not recall all of the facts presented through interpretation, they should be able to explain the basic themes that interpretation advances, related to the sites they visited. Recommended Interpretive Framework Many museums, sites, and heritage areas assemble a set of interpretive themes advancing the major ideas represented in their collections, facilities, or regions. These themes should present a point of view, not merely a topic, offering a challenging perspective that fully engages the audience for a given presentation. Interpretation is just that B taking the facts and artifacts assembled by research and preservation and presenting their meaning. It is akin to storytelling B creating a strong narrative line, selecting appropriate facts to add color, and holding the audience=s attention through a performance that brings alive the story to be told. Indeed, storytelling is one form of presentation that can hold an important place in an interpretive system. Other forms of presentation include everything from first-person interpretation by Are-enactors@ and the expected docent-guided tours, to performances, festivals, publications, audio and video productions, special exhibits, driving and walking tours, and outdoor interpretive signage B anything, in short, that gets the message across effectively. Five sketches of thematic statements are advanced below. These advance the critical ideas that all interpretation in the Heritage Area should ultimately incorporate. Owing to the large numbers of sites and themes in the Anacostia Trails Heritage Area, however, the History Matters! team deemed it vital to frame these with a single, overarching theme, what the team came to call 153 Anacostia Trails Heritage Area ATHA=s Aordering concept@: From prehistoric times into the present, the Anacostia Trails Heritage Area has functioned as a connector and a corridor for people, ideas, and ideals. From this simple but compelling idea everything else should flow. Visitors should come away with a clear sense of the way in which the Heritage Area evolved, the imperatives its development has followed over time, and the way that the landscape and sites we enjoy today reflect the history that unfolded here, by accident and by design. Why This Ordering Concept? ATHA was a Aconnector@ and corridor even during the Woodland Indian period. The local Anacostan Indians participated in a trade in prestige goods that ran east-west, with shell products coming up-river from the Chesapeake Bay and Eastern Shore, and puccoon (for making red face paint) coming down toward the Bay from groups farther upstream. The local groups mined antimony, which they used as a trade item in this east-west flow, which took advantage of the rivers as highways. On the north shore of the Potomac, the Anacostans also were situated between a growing power to their south (the Powhatan Confederacy, the northern boundary of which lay along the Potomac River) and a number of other groups that were increasingly encroaching on their territory, such as the Massawomeckes to the west and the Susquehannocks to the north. Forces were converging on this area when the English arrived, first in Jamestown, and then in St. Mary=s City; the Potomac again became the boundary between these two new groups. During the early years of the Jamestown settlement, English boats repeatedly ran up the Potomac and its tributaries, first to explore and then to seek grain from native peoples. As Native Americans moved out and colonists moved in, the rivers became the major means of ingress and egress for settlers. In one sense this was little different from the experience throughout the tidewater, but from another standpoint the nature of the Potomac and its tributaries was somewhat different. The Potomac can legitimately be classified as the largest of the rivers on the Western Shore and, given its boundary status between Virginia and Maryland, it also was of political importance. Bladensburg, first in its Garrison=s Landing phase and then as a major colonial port, exemplifies this stature, shipping loads of tobacco comparable to any other Maryland port. It was one of only three or four towns 154 Area and Site Analysis in Maryland with a ropewalk, its shipyards were significant, and it supported and represented maritime commerce in a location that was surprisingly far upstream from the Bay. As land transportation became more regular, at least on a few major routes during the colonial period, ATHA was predictably located astride the important overland route from north to south. The Berthier maps, Griffith=s 1794 map, and Christopher Colles= road atlas of the United States clearly show this, and the area=s significance as a corridor is further supported by the early decision to locate one of thirteen post offices in the country there. After 1800, as the main connector between a major economic center (Baltimore) and the seat of the Federal Government (D.C.), this area differs in its history and development from any other in the state. The first telegraph message was transmitted on wires strung along one of the earliest railroads. The District of Columbia's suburbanization caused by the massive post WWII expansion of the federal government radically changed the nature of this area with two waves of migration. The proximity of Washington means as well that it is home to many local and federal experiments, including Greenbelt and the Beltsville Agricultural Research Center. Key Themes Themes that follow from the ordering concept are suggested in sketch form below. These, too, should be the basic ideas that are to be conveyed to audiences B if they come away with only that Acocktail chat@ version of their experience at one or more sites within the Heritage Area, that version should reflect one or more of these themes. These statements should be refined with the assistance of the interpretive specialists in the region, seeking to

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