D I-ffi..1 Virginia Department ofHisto,ic Resources

PRELIMINARY INFORMATION FORM (PIF) for INDIVIDUAL PROPERTIES

DHR No. (to be completed by DHR staff) _________ _

Purpose of Evaluation Please use the following space to explain briefly why you are seeking an evaluation of this property.

Are you interested in applying for State and/ or Federal Rehabilitation Tax Credits? Yes No

Are you interested in receiving more information about DHR's easement program? Yes No

1. General Property Information Property name: Fairview Cemeterv

Property address: 11 Lambert St (across Lambert St. from Staunton USPS) City or Town: Staunton VA Zip code: -=24....,_4-'-'0""'1'----------

Name of the Independent City or County where the property is located: Staunton Citv

Category of Property (choose only one of the following): Building __ Site X Structure Object __

2. Physical Aspects Acreage: 5.87 acres (most recent survey)

Setting (choose only one of the following): Urban Suburban Town x Village ___ Hamlet ___ Rural __ _

Briefly describe the property's overall setting, including any notable landscape features:

Rural style cemetery (est.1869) set on a hillside that is today within the limits of Staunton, VA. The shape of the property can be described as a long rectangle, with a "handle" one end. It has its original integrity of layout and acreage, in a generally east-west orientation, with the oldest graves, in the western section, being often unmarked and exhibiting arbitrary spacing, gradually blending toward greater organization and markers with names and dates in the eastern end of the property.

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3. Architectural Description Architectural Style(s): -~n"-=a _____________________ _

If the property was designed by an architect, landscape architect, engineer, or other professional, please list

here:---------------------------

If the builder is known, please list here: -=n.,__a=-------------------

Date of construction (can be approximate): -"""n'"--=a ______________ _

Narrative Description: In the space belou;, briif!J descn"be the general characteristics of the entire proper!)!, sttch as its current use (and historic ttse if different), as well as the primary building or strtf{ture on the proper!)! (such as a house, store, mill,factory, depot, bndge, etc.). Include the architectural sry!e, materials and method(s) of construction, p01sica! appearance and condition (exterior and interior), and mry additions, remodeling, or other alterations.

- Located on Lambert St in the city of Staunton, and formally established in 1869, the approximately 6-

acre Fairview Cemetery is a still-actively operating cemetery, and the only African American burial ground within the limits of the city, and it is generally believed to be the largest of its kind in Augusta County.

- Situated on a southp-facing slope, Fairview Cemetery is a long rectangle from west to east. It was

originally outside of Staunton limits, and a period map by Jedediah Hotchkiss shows that the location was embedded in the African American enclave of Sandy Hollow. In the 1850s the land for the cemetery was part of a 755-acre property owned by Simpson F. Taylor, a prosperous farmer.

- Two churches acquired rights to the property in 1869 in trust, for the purpose of "interment of colored

people who were members of either the Augusta Street United Methodist Church or the Mt Zion Baptist

Church." 1

- the total number of graves was estimated in a study done by Frazier & Associates (prominent architectural firm in the city) in 2005, as 2,000 to 3,000. However this estimate may be low because of the number of unmarked graves in the "rural cemetery" ( or western )portion. The oldest (pre-1900 portion of the cemetery) is the western third, where there are onlyl48 grave markers, often barely legible, and a number of unmarked graves, estimated to be as many as 1,000.

- in 2008 Rivanna Archaeological Services (Charlottesville) did a GPS mapping of the cemetery's identifiable graves and recorded the names for almost 1,600 individuals. These sites are mostly in the eastern or "park cemetery" half of the site.

- A 3x8 ft canvas "map" of burials was maintained by the Jones Funeral Home of Staunton for many decades, and was scanned by Rivanna at the University of Virginia in 2008.

1 The Frazier docwnent ("Land scape and Preservation Master Plan, April 2005")

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Brief!J describe any outbuildings or secondary resources (such as barns, sheds, dam and mill pond, storage tanks, scales, railroad spurs, etc.), including their condition and their estimated constrndion dates.

- In the eastern end of the cemetery there is a two-story cottage, circa 1870s, that had been owned by Edward Shea, an Irish stoneworker who lived in it with his wife and 8 children. (The restoration of this structure, keeping to its historical period and character, is a subject of immediate interest for the cemetery.)

- interesting architectural features of the cemetery include its entrance walls, constructed from local bluestone; a mausoleum building; and a viewing terrace on the top of Gibbs Hill (along the north boundary of the property), that might have been a loading dock in the 1870s.

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4. Property's History and Significance

- A generous part of Fairview Cemetery's historical significance is tied to the numerous prominent African American citizens buried there. These include Willis McGlascoe Carter (1852-1902) who, though born a slave a decade before the Civil War, became an educator (he served as school principal as well as president of the Augusta County Teachers' Association) , newspaper publisher (The Staunton Tribune), orator and activist for education, human rights, and other social causes. Carter's biography is presented in a book published in 2015 (From Slave to Statesman, LSU Press, Baton Rouge). A 2010 letter by Henry Louis Gates Jr. of Harvard University, commemorating Carter, is now part of the cemetery's historic legacy.

- In addition to Willis Carter, Fairview Cemetery has the graves of great many prominent African Americans, so that the property presents a profile of the region's cultural, economic, civil and commercial histories. Among other prominent citizens interred at Fairview include:

James Morris (b. 1867) , Staunton's first African American lawyer; Charles Points (b. 1843), founder of a bank and trustee at Mt. Zion Baptist Church (one of the two churches that founded Fairview); Robert Cicero Pannell (b. 1865), pastor for 50 years years at Ebenezer Baptist; Queen Miller (b. 1874) founder of an orphanage; Prof. George Ambrose Newman, Jr (d.1944) and his wife Ellen J . Beale Newman. Professor Newman was a community leader and educator who taught at the Fairview School during the first decade of the 20th C. (Ref. Guide to Historic Staunton, by Edmund Potter, 2008). He was formally recognized for his penmanship, artistic and musical skills, and opened a business, art and industrial school at the Ebenezer Baptist Church in 1908. Alonzo Harden (b. 1895), builder of over 100 homes in the Staunton area; along with Julius Gaines (b. 1909), a founder of Harden & Gaines Bros. Builders; the parents of William H. Sheppard, the first African American missionary to Africa, where he helped in the struggle against the brutal suppression of the people of the Congo (simply known as the "Congo Horrors" ) under the rule of Leopold II of Belgium; Mary Matthews Scott (1880-1934), a housekeeper at Mary Baldwin College, who was such an inspiration to her community that a building at the college was named after her; Arthur Ware Jr (1912-2003), author, educator (he was principal of the Booker T. Washington H.S.), administrator, in honor of whom a school was named; Ruth Washington Waller (1906-1995), teacher and counselor in Staunton City Schools, with roles in the Woodrow Wilson Birthplace Foundation, the American Red Cross, state and National Education Association-- her husband Charles was a physician, NAACP local president and founder of Staunton's Montgomery Hall Park; Fay Wright Gaines (1917-2000), who owned and operated a prominent catering business for 50 years. The "Fay Gaines Kitchen" is commemorated by the city, with a plaque at the R.R. Smith Center for History and Art.

- Staunton's role as the region's "Queen City" and the consequent economic, social and cultural influences, converging on the city, amplify the historical significance of Fairview Cemetery. As the broader community is becoming aware of the importance and role of African Americans in the region's

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development, appreciation of the importance of Fairview is growing, and research to uncover more of this legacy is ongoing.

- Fairview is generally well preserved and unspoiled. The fact that the cemetery has suffered from limited funding and limited attention for a long period, has paradoxically enabled its preservation by impeding efforts to "upgrade" the property with the result that historically valuable traits have been kept intact. As approached from the eastern end walking west, the character, style and orientation of the grave sites provide a sort of chronograph from the present, backwards toward the period preceding the Civil War. There is credible speculation that the land was used for burials even before its formal establishment via a trust in 1869.

5. Property Ownership (Check as many categories as apply):

Private: x Public\ Local __ Public\State __ Public\Federal _ _

Current Legal Owner(s) of the Property (If the property has more than one owner, please list each below or on an additional sheet.)

*Signature required for processing all applications.

In the event of corporate ownership you must provide the name and title of the appropriate contact person.

Contact person: ---------------------------Daytime Telephone: _________ _

Applicant Information (Individual completing form if other than legal owner of property)

name/ title:

organization:

Ilkka T. Ikavalko and Barbara Rosen, Members -

Fairview Cemetery Planning Committee

street & number: ---'-4~02~ F"""'r.,.,as,..,,e""-r-""'L""-n"--------------------------

city or town: --=S=ta=u=n=to=n,..__ __ state: Virginia zip code: - =2'-'-4--'-40=1~----

e-mail: - "+iju=·x"'"6""'6@~gm~a,.,,,il""'.c""'o""'m.,____ telephone: (540) 526-5505

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6. Notification In some circumstances, it may be necessary for DHR to confer with or notify local officials of proposed listings of properties within their jurisdiction. In the following space, please provide the contact information for the local County Administrator or City Manager.

name/ title: Stephen F. Owen, City Manager

locality: City Manager's Office, City Hall, 3rd Floor

street & number: -~1~1~6_W~. B~ev~e=r=le=-,v1-=-S~t - ------------

city or town: ----=S=ta=un=t=o=n~_ state: _V_A ___ zip code: __ 2~4_4_0_2 ____ _

telephone: (540) 332-3812 email: owensf@ci.staunton.va.us

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Maps

0£"NET£RY Lo, 6AoRE8.

Fig 1. Above, first recorded survey of Fairview Cemetery, from plat dated June 28, 1869.

1,

Fig 2 Aerial view Fairview Cemetery today, from Staunton GIS, showing identical boundaries. Exact modern surveyed size per assessor, 5.87 acres.

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STAUNTON PARK

Montgomery Hall Park

' Fairview Cemetery

Gypsy Hill Park

0. ~l'i,, Ooo,~

Mary Baldwin O'

University

q

@ Stau nton

El

WEST END

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Fig 3. Fairview Cemetery location by reference to Staunton city center and Mary Baldwin University.

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