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The Mosby Heritage Area Association Newsletter - March 2008 Statement From The President I’ve also had the opportunity to attend monthly meetings of the newly formed Loudoun County Preservation and Conservation Coalition. These meetings offer an opportunity for the various preservation and conservation groups to sit at the same table and discuss their concerns and if there is an immediate crisis facing one of the organizations they then have the benefit of feedback and support. To name just a few of the organizations that are represented: the Piedmont Environmental Council, Lincoln Preservation, Goose Creek Association, Loudoun Archaeological Foundation, Loudoun County Historical Society, Morven Park, Mosby Heritage Area, Mount Zion Church, Preservation Society of Loudoun County, Snickersville Turnpike Association, Unison Preservation Society, Waterford Foundation and the Citizens Committee for the Historic Cavalry Battles of Aldie, Upperville and Middleburg. I look forward to working with the coalition in the coming months and getting a better understanding of each organization’s concerns and goals. MHAA has a full agenda for the next month. Our “Exploring Olde Loudoun” Field Trips start in April, we have partnered with other organizations for a Conservation Easement Workshop at Oatlands at the end of April. Our Aldie Triangle School Program takes place this week. Also, the planning for the Mosby Descendant Reunion on June 10th is well under way and the dates and plans have been finalized for the 11th Annual Conference on The Art of the Command in the Civil War to be held October 3 to 5, 2008. The details for these events are listed below. And last but not least to help you celebrate the arrival of spring in the Mosby Heritage Area, the Fauquier and Loudoun and Leesburg Garden Clubs will host a tour of houses and gardens in the MHAA on Sunday, April 20th and Monday April 21st as part of Historic Garden Week in Virginia. The tour this year is titled “In Colonel Mosby’s Shadow, Gardens of the Middleburg Countryside” The Rector House in Atoka will be open with a guide available on both days. For more information call 540-338-3514. We hope to see you all at some of these events. Until then Happy Spring!Gayle DeLashmutt MHAA Offers Loudoun History Field Trip Series Part history lesson and part field trip, the series is aimed at those who don’t know much about Loudoun, including newcomers, but also is open to longer residents who’ve never had the time to explore the historic county’s past. MHAA hopes that participants will include families, teachers new to the area, groups of neighbors with an urge to explore, senior citizens who have moved here to be with their children, and those who live in Loudoun’s new residential communities. Richard Gillespie, the Director of Education for MHAA, leads the series. “Loudoun means so much more as you drive its roads and walk its streets when you know the history of the area,” Gillespie says. “It’s hard to feel like a Loudouner if you don’t know its history.” Schedule:
Trips begin and end in Leesburg at Loudoun County High School at Dry Mill Road and Catoctin Circle. Participants should meet the bus at 1:45 for these 4½ hour tours. Reservations are required. Trips are $25 per person. To reserve a seat or to ask questions, call the Mosby Heritage Area Association at 540-687-6681.
By limiting development, the agreement is designed to protect the property’s conservation values—its natural, scenic or historic features—that contribute to making the property, and the larger Piedmont landscape, such a special place. Many precious acres of the Piedmont’s landscape have been protected through the use of conservation easements. While the concept sounds easy, many landowners miss the opportunity to take advantage of conservation easements because they either don’t understand the value or feel that the process is too daunting. To help both new and long-time landowners understand the importance and value of conservation easements, the Mosby Heritage Area Association will co-sponsor “An Introduction to Conservation Easements” at The Oatlands Carriage House on Wednesday, April 30, 2008, from 6 – 7:30 p.m. There is a $10 fee per participant. A light supper will follow in the garden, weather permitting. Mr. Michael Kane, a Land Conservation Officer with the Piedmont Environmental Council will be a participant. “The event on April 30 at Oatlands will provide a great opportunity for landowners to get an introduction to the benefits of preserving their land through a conservation easement,” said Mr. Kane. These benefits include not only the satisfaction of knowing the future of their land, but also the significant state and Federal tax incentives associated with donating a conservation easement.” Other co-sponsors are: Friends of the Blue Ridge Mountains, Goose Creek Association, Loudoun Restoration and Preservation Society, Marshall International Center at Dodona Manor, Oatlands, Piedmont Environmental Council, Preservation Society of Loudoun County, Snickersville Turnpike Association, Unison Preservation Society, Waterford Foundation Please make checks payable to “Oatlands, Inc.” RSVP by April 26th to:
The Aldie Triange; Impact of War The MHAA, in partnership with Mr. and Mrs. Thomas DeLashmutt of Oak Hill, the Northern Virginia Regional Park Authority at Aldie Mill and the Mount Zion Church Preservation Association, has hosted this inter-disciplinary interpretive program for the past four years. During this four-hour program, students get a glimpse of life during the Civil War and how that life was affected by the war in this region as they visit Oak Hill, Aldie Mill and Mount Zion Baptist Church---the Aldie Triangle. Schools participating this year are: Aldie, Middleburg, Banneker, Pinebrook, Cool Spring, Hillside, and Lincoln Elementary Schools, The Hill School, and Loudoun Country Day School. Aldie, Middleburg, Pinebrook (the former Arcola Elementary) and The Hill School have been participating since 2004. This program brings local history alive for students. By hearing the stories from the past and experiencing the sites first-hand, these students come away with a better understanding of where they live.
Mosby Ranger Descendant Reunion MHAA also will sponsor a descendant reunion on June 10, 2008, on the anniversary of the official organization of Mosby’s Rangers--June 10, 1863. This reunion will be for granddaughters and grandsons only. Mr. & Mrs. Jay Zeiler of Green Garden just outside Upperville, the home of Ranger “Dolly” Richards, will host the event at their home. Our special guests will enjoy a picnic dinner and live music. The Gray Ghost Interpretive Group will interpret the events that happening at Green Garden in March 1865. MHAA is looking for granddaughters and grandsons for the June 2008 event. If you or someone you know is a granddaughter or grandson, please contact the Mosby Heritage Area Association at 540-687-6681 or by email at info@mosbyheritagearea.org.
MHAA 2008 Civil War Conference Dates Announced Speakers for the 2008 Conference include: PETER CARMICHAEL, GARY ECELBARGER, DENNIS FRYE, Ms. LESLIE GORDON, Mr. KIM HOLIEN, ROBERT K. KRICK, STEPHEN R. POTTER and, JEFFRY D. WERT. Speakers subject to change. For additional information and the complete Conference Program please visit the MHAA website: www.mosbyheritagearea.org
Updates The Sampler Tour of the Mosby Heritage Area is coming. It just will not be available the first of April as promised. The text is now at the printer and we are awaiting a proof. We hope to have this brochure available for distribution in May. It will be posted on our website during the first week of April. The Western Prince William County Heritage Scavenger Hunt also is at the printer. It should be arriving at Atoka in the next two weeks. You can download this scavenger hunt, as well as the three others, on our website by going to the ”Plan A Visit” page and scrolling under the map to the section on scavenger hunts. In the past month members of MHAA should have received in the mail a package that included our Annual Report and a copy of The Piedmont Virginian. The magazine is a benefit of membership. However, to receive the magazine free for a year, you need to mail the postcard that was in the package to the editor. The letter accompanying the package indicated that we would be including our latest publication, Quaker Sites of Loudoun County, which was updated from a brochure to a booklet in 2007. The package had to weigh less than one pound for MHAA to receive the non-profit rate for bulk mailing. The Quaker Sites booklet pushed the weight above one pound, so it was omitted from the package. If you would like a copy of The Quaker Site brochure, please call us at 540-687-6681 or email us at info@mosbyheritagearea.org
MHAA Store You will want to get a shirt for your grandchildren when they come to visit the Mosby Heritage Area. The shirt gives you the opportunity to tell the story of Col. Mosby’s most exciting raid into Fairfax Courthouse in March 1863. You might even take the grandchildren to Fairfax Courthouse to see the Gunnell House where General Edwin Stoughton was roused from his bed by Mosby, and where Mosby told the general, “No, Mosby’s got you,” when Stoughton asked if his Union soldiers had captured Mosby. The shirts can be ordered online through PayPal, or by using the MHAA Order Form to pay by check or credit card. CLICK HERE.
Site of the Month: The Burwell-Morgan Mill, Millwood, VA
In the mid-nineteenth century the mill operated 24 hours a day, seven days a week, processing more than 60,000 bushels of wheat a year. It escaped the destruction that claimed many other mills in the Valley during the Civil War and remained active through World War II. The Clarke County Historical Association acquired the property in 1964 and restored the mill to its current condition. It is open Thurdays, Fridays and Saturdays from late April through October from 10:00 am to 5:00 pm and on Sundays from noon to 5:00 pm. The mill will be open daily during the “Art at the Mill,” event which begins April 26th and ends on May 11th. The show is open on Sundays through Thursdays from 12:00 noon to 5:00 p.m. and on Fridays and Saturdays from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. |
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