A Farmer in his Native Town: Cultural Landscape Report for the Martin Van Buren Farmland, Volume I

Searle, Llerena

The purpose of this cultural landscape report (CLR) is to trace the physical history of Van Buren’s farmland and evaluate the significance and integrity of the landscape. This information will provide a basis for the development of a management program for the farmland and inform the development of a General Management Plan for the site, now underway. This report builds upon the 1995 Cultural Landscape Report for Martin Van Buren National Historic Site, written about the main house and Lindenwald house lot. Unlike the earlier CLR, this report focuses on the largely-undocumented agricultural land which surrounds the house lot and formed the bulk of Van Buren’s property. This agricultural property is not currently owned by the National Park Service, nor is it within the current park boundaries. However, negotiations are underway with the various landowners of Van Buren’s original agricultural property with the aim of protecting this land from future development. This CLR serves as an important resource for the park as it develops strategies for including this agricultural land in the park’s interpretive and management agenda. The agricultural property is a vital part of the setting and story of Van Buren’s Lindenwald. For this CLR, exhaustive research was carried out for the period of significance, Van Buren’s ownership of Lindenwald, 1839-1862. Census records, deeds, Van Buren’s correspondence and accounts, and nineteenth-century descriptions of the property provide good documentation of the farmland and Van Buren’s farming practices. Other periods, however, were only investigated in a limited to thorough manner, partly because little evidence has survived of agricultural and landscape-related practices for these other periods. Where specific information was lacking about the site itself, the site history includes discussion of agricultural practices and trends in the vicinity of the site to provide contextual understanding. Aerial photographs and interviews with former owners greatly augmented the investigation of changes made to the site in the twentieth century. Sources for the site history are located in footnotes and in the bibliography; a list of repositories consulted appears at the end of the report. The existing condition section describes with narrative and photographs the appearance of extant landscape features at the site in May of 2002. The analysis section examines the significance of the site to determine whether the agricultural lands contribute to the property’s eligibility on the National Register Historic Places, and it provides an analysis of the integrity of the landscape in light of its significance. A summary describes the historical site features that contribute to the character of the landscape. The treatment section describes treatment implications for each of the four possible treatment options: preservation, restoration, rehabilitation, and reconstruction. After the NPS completes a General Management Plan, a CLR Volume 2 for the agricultural property will propose treatment recommendations in more detail. A list of topics for further research is provided.

A Farmer in his Native Town: Cultural Landscape Report for the Martin Van Buren Farmland, Volume I

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