NPS Form 10-900 OMB No. 1024-0018 United States Department of the Interior National Park Service NOV 0 ·~ 2013 National Register of Historic Places NAT. Re018TiR OF HISTORIC PlACES Registration Form NATIONAL PARK SERVICE This form is for use in nominating or requesting determinations for individual properties and districts. See instructions in National Register Bulletin, How to Complete the National Register of Historic Places Registration Form. If any item does not apply to the property being documented, enter "N/A" for "not applicable." For functions, architectural classification, materials, and areas of significance, enter only categories and subcategories from the instructions. Place additional certification comments, entries, and narrative items on continuation sheets if needed (NPS Form 10-900a). 1. Name of Property historic name George Washington Birthplace National Monument other names/site number Wakefield. Popes Creek Plantation , VDHR File #096-0026 2. Location 1732 Popes Creek Road not for publication street & number L-----' city or town Colonial Beach ~ vicinity state Vir inia code VA county Westmoreland code _ _;_:19'--=-3- zip code -"'2=2:....;.4"""43.;;...._ ___ 3. State/Federal Agency Certification As the designated authority under the National Historic Preservation Act, as amended, I hereby certify that this _!__nomination_ request for determination of eligibility meets the documentation standards for registering properties in the National Register of Historic Places and meets the procedural and professional requirements set forth in 36 CFR Part 60. In my opinion, the property .K._ meets __ does not meet the National Register Criteria. I recommend that this property be considered significant at the following level(s) of significance: x_ b state ' Ide "x n J.VIA.rVI In my opinion, the property .x..._ meets_ does not meet the National Register criteria. State Historic Preservation Offjcer Virainia Deoartmant of Historic Resoyrces Title State or Federal agency/bureau or Tribal Government 4. National Park Service Certification I hereby certify that this property is: _determined eligible for the National Register !ermined not eligi~tt&tiif~6fttlefttationApproved _removed from the National Register George Washington Birthplace National Monument Westmoreland County, VA Name of Property County and State 5. Classification Ownership of Property Category of Property Number of Resources within Property (Check as many boxes as apply.) (Check only one box.) (Do not include previously listed resources in the count.) Contributing Noncontributing private building(s) 11 22 buildings public - Local district 0 0 district public - State site 13 0 sites public- Federal structure 10 2 structures object 1 objects 35 25 Total Name of related multiple property listing Number of contributing resources previously {Enter "N/A" if property is not part of a multiple property listing) listed in the National Register N/A N/A 6. Function or Use Historic Functions Current Functions (Enter categories from instructions.) (Enter categories from instructions.) LANDSCAPE/park LANDSCAPE/park RECREATION AND CULTURE/monument/marker RECREATION AND CULTURE/monumentlmarker RECREATION AND CULTURE/outdoor recreation RECREATION AND CULTURE/outdoor recreation FUNERARY/cemetery FUNERARY/cemetery AGRICUL TURE/aQricultural field AGRICULTURE/agricultural field 7. Description Architectural Classification Materials (Enter categories from instructions.) (Enter categories from instructions.) LATE 19th AND 20th CENTURY REVIVALS/Colonial Revival foundation: BRICK, CONCRETE BRICK, CONCRETE, WOOD/Log, walls: Weatherboard roof: ASPHALT, ASBESTOS other: 2 George Washington Birthplace National Monument Westmoreland County, VA Name of Property County and State Narrative Description (Describe the historic and current physical appearance of the property. Explain contributing and noncontributing resources if necessary. Begin with a summary paragraph that briefly describes the general characteristics of the property, such as its location, setting, size, and significant features.) Summary Paragraph George Washington Birthplace National Monument is located near the northwest end of Virginia's Northern Neck peninsula, in Westmoreland County. The National Register district boundary encompasses 550 acres of federal land within two non-contiguous parcels that are separated by privately owned land. These lands are a portion of the extensive plantation that George Washington's father, Augustine, owned at the time of George's birth in 1732. Bounded on three sides by the waters of Bridges Creek, the Potomac River, and Popes Creek, and lightly settled lands to the southwest, the district's rural setting remains remarkably intact from the period of significance. The district contains a total of 35 contributing resources and 25 non-contributing resources. Resources associated with the period of the Washington family's ownership of the land during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries include historic-period archeological sites, agricultural ditches and landscape features, and burial grounds. Other contributing resources are associated with efforts to preserve and commemorate the birthplace site during the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. These include the George Washington Monument, a granite obelisk erected by the Federal Government in 1896; the Memorial House, Colonial Kitchen House, and Log House Tea Room and Lodge constructed under the auspices of the Wakefield National Memorial Association (Wakefield Association); and buildings, structures, and a designed landscape developed by the National Park Service after George Washington Birthplace National Monument was established and incorporated into the National Park System in 1930. In addition, three pre-contact period archeological sites provide evidence of the Native American use of the property from the Late Archaic through Late Woodland periods. George Washington Birthplace National Monument was established by an act of the United States Congress on January 23, 1930, to preserve the birth site of the nation's most celebrated founding father. As a historic area within the National Park System, George Washington Birthplace National Monument was administratively listed in the National Register of Historic Places on October 15, 1966, after the passage of the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA). Although two separate draft nominations were prepared for the area (in 1994 and 1997, respectively), no National Register documentation has ever been formally approved for the area. The National Park Service has attempted to identify contributing and non-contributing resources within the park through other means, including consultation with the Virginia State Historic Preservation Officer on the park's List of Classified Structures (LCS), Cultural Landscape Reports, Cultural Landscape Inventories, and Section 106 compliance projects, but no comprehensive accounting of historic resources has thus far been compiled. This National Register Nomination Form, therefore, constitutes the original documentation for George Washington Birthplace National Monument and supersedes all previous evaluations and determinations of eligibility for resources within the district. Narrative Description Setting The George Washington Birthplace National Monument National Register Historic District (referred to hereinafter as the "district") is located in a predominantly rural section of northeast Virginia, on a tidewater peninsula known as the Northern Neck, approximately 40 miles east of Fredericksburg and 75 miles south of Washington, D.C. The Potomac and Rappahannock rivers form the long and narrow peninsula as they flow southeast into the Chesapeake Bay. Forty miles upriver from the bay, where the district is located on the Potomac side, the neck is only eight miles wide. Numerous creeks cross the low, flat landscape and spread into marshlands near the rivers. The irregularly shaped district occupies 550 acres in two non-contiguous parcels on a roughly triangular spit of land at the mouth of Popes Creek. The main parcel is over 460 acres bounded by Popes Creek on the east, privately owned property and the Potomac River on the north, and privately owned land on the west and south. The smaller Bridges Creek edges the northwest boundary. The second parcel spans 82 acres along the Potomac River northeast of the main parcel and includes a portion of Longwood Swamp. 3 George Washington Birthplace National Monument Westmoreland County, VA Name of Property County and State Rural agricultural land uses, patterns, and features dominate the district and its surrounding landscape. Large expanses of open fields support small grain and soybean crops, truck crops such as tomatoes, livestock pastures, and some ornamental tree and shrub nurseries. Extensive drainage ditch systems and rows of mature trees (Eastern red cedars and other old­ field pioneer plant species) separate the fields, which are interspersed with pine plantations and woodlots. Hard-packed earth, crushed stone, and grass farm roads provide access from the fields to wood-frame residences and outbuildings. State Route 204 connects the district to State Route 3/Kings Highway, the Northern Neck's circulation spine that links up with major north-south routes further northwest. The closest area of denser development is Colonial Beach, a late nineteenth-century resoli town approximately six miles to the northwest with a year-round population of about 3,500. CONTRIBUTING RESOURCES1 The 35 contributing