Cultural Landscape Report for Booker T. Washington National Monument: Site History, Existing Conditions, Analysis, and Treatment

Nowak, Lisa; Foulds, H. Eliot; Troutman, Phillip

Booker T. Washington National Monument has been the subject of numerous studies focusing on long-range planning, archeology, and interpretive programming. The following cultural landscape report (CLR), encouraged by National Park Service policy and recommended by the park’s 2000 General Management Plan (GMP), provides background information and basic treatment recommendations to implement sound cultural landscape treatment. This report includes an illustrated chronological site history documenting how the property changed over time due to internal and external forces. The existing conditions chapter documents what resources are extant, including vegetation, structures, topography, hydrology, and views. The analysis and evaluation chapter addresses the significance and integrity of the landscape based on the National Register of Historic Places criteria. Landscape treatment recommendations are provided in keeping with the philosophical foundations of the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for the Treatment of Historic Properties. Together, these chapters offer management a tool that is based on historical research and comparative analysis of related properties. It was intended that this report consider and balance the many complexities of the site, including the limited documentation of the primary period of significance, the goal of representing multiple layers of history, and the sensitive question as how to tangibly interpret slavery. These and other considerations are incorporated into the treatment recommendations. This report has further served the park as an opportunity to build an important relationship with the academic community. In this, the park and the Olmsted Center have partnered with the Carter G. Woodson Institute of Afro-American and African Studies at the University of Virginia for completion of chapters that consider historical significance and a contextual survey of landscape treatment at similar properties. These chapters, written from an academic perspective, offer insight into the more complex issues of slavery, race relations, and interpretation at poorly documented sites. The recommendations found in this report support the goals and objectives of the GMP, the park’s primary planning document. The goals of this project have been to develop landscape treatment recommendations informed by historical research that are consistent with interpretive and resource management objectives and in compliance with the cultural and natural resource management policies of the NPS. Based on existing and new research, the narrative history documents the evolution of the Booker T. Washington NM landscape as it relates to the significant periods and themes in its history. Existing conditions documentation classifies the major categories of landscape features. The Analysis and Evaluation chapter reiterates the current National Register of Historic Places status, and proposes possible periods and areas of significance in addition to the primary significance associated with the life of Booker T. Washington. Treatment recommendations, building on the direction provided in the GMP, provide guidance for implementing actions and physical treatment of features relating to the cultural landscape. The assistance of the Carter G. Woodson Institute for Afro-American and African Studies has been especially valuable in helping to evaluate the historical significance of the site and philosophical choices behind treatment recommendations. Period Plans are a typical element of a CLR that graphically depict a property at a fixed point in time. Acknowledging the many uncertainties in preparing maps for a site with limited documentation, these period plans were drawn using historical maps, the Robertson oral interviews, analysis of the topography, and aerial photographs. The CLR contains maps depicting the years 1865, 1894, 1945, and 1956.

Cultural Landscape Report for Booker T. Washington National Monument: Site History, Existing Conditions, Analysis, and Treatment

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