Humpback Rocks Visitor Center: Cultural Landscapes Inventory, Blue Ridge Parkway

Regions 1, 2, & 4 Park Cultural Landscapes Program

Inventory Unit Description: The Humpback Rocks developed area is one of eight recreation areas spaced along the Virginia section of the Blue Ridge Parkway that contain larger land areas to accommodate motorist needs, interpretive programming, and recreational opportunities. Humpback Rocks is the northernmost of these recreation areas, and was sited on the landscape around the dramatic geologic formation that had served as a local landmark for more than a century. Thus the Humpback Rocks developed area is the first such facility encountered by motorists traveling south from milepost 1 of the Blue Ridge Parkway. The Visitor Center component landscape is located between mileposts 5 and 6 along the Blue Ridge Parkway, and is one of four component landscapes of the Humpback Rocks developed area. Construction took place from 1955-1956. The original visitor center building was destroyed by arsonists in 1981, and a new, enlarged building generally based on the original opened in 1982. The component landscape encompasses the access road to the visitor center and associated parking area, with the visitor center building and orientation plaza along its primary facade, which houses the park’s administrative offices, restrooms, exhibits, and a bookstore, overflow parking, and a path that leads to the Mountain Farm exhibit. Ornamental plantings, fences, and identity, directional, wayfinding, and interpretive signage exist in the landscape of the complex. It is bounded by the Mountain Farm component landscape to the south and by the Blue Ridge Parkway to the east. This component landscape is significant under Criteria A and C. The period of significance identified for the parent landscape—Humpback Rocks developed area—is 1939–1965, which encompasses initial parkway construction through completion of proposed developments consistent with early master plans for the site. Parkway design principles are conveyed throughout the developed area, including the Visitor Center component landscape, tying it to the broader 469-mile linear historic landscape. In addition, Humpback Rocks affords several of the key components that early designers considered important for motorists to experience when traveling the corridor, including opportunities for visitors to connect more deeply with the region through recreation and education, picnicking, and other amenities.

Humpback Rocks Visitor Center: Cultural Landscapes Inventory, Blue Ridge Parkway

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