Staunton, Virginia Historic District Design Guidelines

From background: "The City of Staunton, located in the heart of the Shenandoah Valley, is a small city with a large sense of history. Staunton's amazing collection of historic architecture is nationally celebrated for its extraordinary beauty and its preservation success. The grid of streets overlays a series of hills that create wonderful vistas throughout the community. This dramatic setting along with its rich architectural heritage has provided a textbook story of physical and economic revitalization in the past 40 years. The result is that Staunton has received numerous accolades from a very wide variety of national media in recent years. 'The city's greatest spectacle is the cityscape itself, a magnetic panorama of period architecture that draws the visitor in like a painting by Norman Rockwell', says Virginia Living magazine. The city is lauded for having one of the 'Greatest Main Streets in America' by Travel + Leisure, was picked as one of the 'Best Small Towns in America' by Smithsonian magazine, has been chosen as one of the 'Great Places in America' by the American Planning Association, and it was the first designated 'Great American Main Street' in Virginia by the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Staunton boasts beautifully maintained buildings designed in an eclectic mix of architectural styles. Much of the city's celebrated architecture can be attributed to one man, T.J. Collins, a talented architect who practiced in Staunton from 1891 to 1911. He designed or remodeled nearly 200 buildings in Staunton, many of which still survive today." From the Comprehensive Plan & The Design Guidelines: "The existing Comprehensive Plan of the City of Staunton was adopted in 2012, and a new plan is currently being developed in 2018. The existing design guidelines relate only to residential properties and were completed in 1996. This document is an update to those guidelines and includes guidelines for buildings in Staunton's commercial historic district as well. The update of these guidelines aligns well with the intent of the current comprehensive plan as seen in the first of the plans overriding goals." Project funding was provided in part by a Historic Preservation Fund grant to the Virginia Department of Historic Resources administered by the State, Tribal and Local Plans and Grants Division, National Park Service, U.S. Department of Interior (grant number P17AF00053).

Staunton, Virginia Historic District Design Guidelines

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