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Background Information. The County has 21 historic
areas that are of State and National significance. The
Final Report for Survey Update of Historic properties in
Fauquier County, Virginia (March 20, 2002) indicated
that all were pre-qualified and recommended for designation
on the Virginia Landmarks and National Register of Historic
Places.
As a result
of the referenced report, the County has pursued this major
project with both Board of Supervisors’ and private
contributions. As a result of our County program, the
following nine communities have the completed documentation,
the Department of Historic Resources’ (DHR) public hearing
process and their historic areas are officially on both the
National Register and Virginia Landmarks listings: Ashville,
Atoka, Casanova, Delaplane, Markham, Morgantown, New
Baltimore, Rectortown, and the Town of Remington.
Marshall
& Paris DHR Public Hearings. Maral Kalbian, the
County’s architectural historian consultant, has completed
the detailed surveys and essential applications for both the
Marshall and Paris Historic District nominations so defined
under State and federal definitions and criteria. This
district has no connection or bearing on the Fauquier
County Zoning Ordinance’s Historic Area Overlay District
(Part 3, Section 4-300). This designation absolutely
has no connection with the Architectural Review Board (ARB)
oversight. Being listed on the Virginia Landmarks and
National Register of Historic Places only conveys an honor
and recognition of a property’s historic significance; it
does not place any constraints on the property owner. Being
listed on either register does not restrict or prevent an
owner from altering, tearing down or otherwise disposing of
the property.
The
mandatory public hearing for the proposed Marshall and Paris
Historic District nominations were both conducted on October
23, 2006, at the Marshall Community Center. David Edwards
from Virginia Department of Historic Resources advertised
the public hearings in local newspapers and provided letter
notices to all property owners within the proposed historic
area limits and adjoining property owners. Both David
Edwards and Maral Kalbian presented the survey findings and
responded to questions raised. Twenty-eight people attended
the hearing; no one spoke in opposition.
The
Department of Historic Resources staff will present these
findings to the Commonwealth Board of Historic Resources in
December of 2006. The Virginia Landmarks designation will
be acted upon in that month, while the National Register
designation takes approximately three months.
Paris
Historic District Summary Information. Paris is located
in northwest Fauquier County at the foot of Ashby Gap in the
Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia. The village sits at the
northern end of the Crooked Run Valley Rural Historic
District which was listed on the Virginia Landmarks Register
and the National Register of Historic Places in 2004. The
proposed Paris Historic Districts is compact, totals
approximately 32 acres and contains 34 properties, including
52 buildings along Gap Run Road, Federal and Republic
Streets.
Paris includes several different types of building resources
that date primarily before the Civil War. The primary
building types in the district are dwellings, several
stores, two churches, a tavern, an old school, and antique
shop from a converted old gas station. The earliest
surviving buildings in the Paris Historic District date to
circa 1810 when the town was officially established by the
Virginia Assembly. More than half of the district buildings
were built between 1810 and 1850, in addition to a
cemetery. The architectural resources in Paris portray it
much as it would have appeared in the mid-nineteenth
century, before it was bypassed by the routing of the
Manassas Gap Railroad to the south in 1852. The routing
left Paris somewhat isolated, removed much of the traffic
that otherwise passed through the village, and development
came to a halt.
Copies of
the entire survey, application and photographs are available
for public inspection upon request in the Planning Division
at 10 Hotel Street (3rd Floor), in the Warren
Green Building in Warrenton. It can also be viewed on the
Virginia Department of Historic Resources webpage
(
http://www.dhr.virginia.gov/registers/register_counties_A-F.htm
).
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