Green Springs National Historic Landmark District is a national historic district in Louisa County, Virginia noted for its concentration of fine rural manor houses and related buildings in an intact agricultural landscape. Admitted to the National Register of Historic Places in 1974, it became the first rural National Landmark Historic district. Named for one of the historic manor houses (itself named for a spring known to Thomas Jefferson who grew up and lived in Albemarle County nearby), the district comprises 14000 acre of fertile land, contrasting with the more typical poor soil and scrub pinelands surrounding it.

Description

The district is located 1.5 miles (2 km) north of Interstate 64 from exit No. 136, "Zion Crossroads." The district is roughly bounded by U.S. Route 15 and Virginia Routes 22 and 613. The area is named for a natural spring noted by Thomas Jefferson as possessing "some medicinal virtue." The district features a mixture of wooded and farmed lands. About 600 million years ago, when most of what became the eastern United States (including Virginia) was covered by a shallow sea, volcanic activity left a basin-like topographic feature which contains the only mineral deposit of consequence in the area, vermiculite. That volcanic feature led to a heavy clay soil that retains plant nutrients and moisture, creating an open landscape suitable for farming. The area is noted for its park-like views, particularly from U.S. Route 15.

Preservation

The district was preserved following attempts in the early 1970s by then Governor Linwood Holton, a Republican, and the Commonwealth of Virginia's Department of Welfare and Institutions, to build a diagnostic and detention center on 200 acres owned by Richard Purcell, brother of longtime politician turned Circuit Judge Harold Purcell. While early plans suggested that payroll alone at the site would add $2 million annually to the local economy, opponents circulated drawings showing that the cellblocks surrounded by a 30 foot security fence and guarded by a 60-foot control tower would become an environmental eyesore, quite unlike the historic Rotunda at the University of Virginia a half hour's drive away and shown dwarfed in the corner as a scale model. Opponents, who ultimately incorporated as Historic Green Springs Inc., noted the district had many historic homes which represented nearly a century and a half of architectural development, as well as vistas showing land "enhanced rather than despoiled" by human presence. They ultimately used litigation citing the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966 and the National Environmental Policy Act of 1970, together with favorable reports from the Virginia Historic Landmarks Commission and the National Trust for Historic Preservation, and an unfavorable report from the National Clearinghouse for Criminal Justice Planning and Architecture at the University of Illinois. Initially, Governor Holton planned to use revenue-sharing funds promoted by fellow Republicans in the Nixon Administration, specifically newly available federal block grants distributed through the Law Enforcement Assistance Administration, as authorized under the Safe Streets Act. However, after an unfavorable legal decision by the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals written by Judge Simon E. Sobeloff, which overruled Judge Merhige's pro-development ruling, Holton changed plans. Now Virginia would forego the million dollar grant and self-fund the center's construction, despite cost estimates having doubled in the interim. Initially, only one building in Green Springs, Boswell's Tavern (built circa 1735 and four miles from the proposed prison site) had been listed on the National Register for Historic Places, but by the end of 1970, two more were listed, and by July 1973 there were 34 listed properties. When in October 1972 Governor Holton suggested obtaining sufficient conservation easements (permitted by the Virginia Open-Space Land Act of 1966) by next March could change his mind about constructing the prison at Green Springs, more than 7000 acres were placed under easement by that spring, compared to less than a thousand acres in Virginia as a whole since the act's inception. In February 1973, the VHLC recommended designating Green Springs a historic district, despite its rural location and more than 10,000 acre scope, and forwarded its recommendation to both Governor Holton and to the federal keeper of the National Register of Historic Places. Nonetheless, on March 30, 1973, Governor Holton announced the prison construction would proceed, since nearly half of the land in the district (especially the 1000 acres now owned by Richard Purcell and other parcels held by owners who hoped for vermiculite royalties discussed below) was not subject to the checkerboard of conservation easements. By fall, Republican Secretary of the Interior Rogers C.B. Morton (a Kentucky-born former Maryland congressman and chairman of the Republican National Committee) wrote the term-limited Governor Holton criticizing the proposed prison's location. The Richmond Mercury published a cartoon entitled "Holton's Vietnam" (showing the governor opening his shirt LBJ-style to display an outline of Louisa County with the prison location starred), echoing a Washington Post editorial. In December 1972, W.R. Grace & Co. proposed to strip mine vermiculite from the area for fire-proofing insulation and cat litter, among other uses. Although a combination of negative publicity and legal liability for other toxic mining techniques would propel Grace into bankruptcy in 2001, the strip mine was constructed, albeit on a smaller scale. Google Earth maps of the area clearly show the destruction caused by the mine) but not on the scale that was intended originally. A great many significant houses and lands continue to be preserved and excluded from the development that is transforming some of the area around the district.

National Register properties

Significant places listed individually on the National Register of Historic Places include:

Major historic properties

Major historic properties in the district include:

Other properties

Other historic properties include: The district also includes the village of Poindexter at the intersection of Virginia Routes 613 and 640.

Status

On May 30, 1974, the district was declared a National Historic Landmark. On December 12, 1977, the United States Secretary of the Interior agreed to accept preservation easements for nearly half of the 14004 acre in the district. These allow the NPS to own development rights to the land, and to ensure its continuing rural and agricultural nature. The district is an affiliated area of Shenandoah National Park. The National Park Service does not provide any facilities in the district.