Focus on Preservation
Buckland Preservation Society members believe ownership is the best foundation for good stewardship. We are in agreement that historic preservation is the highest and best use of our properties, and strive to protect the historical integrity of the Buckland Historic District and surrounding landscape, including the core ground of the Battle of Buckland Mills Battlefield.
Buckland is listed in the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) and the Virginia Landmarks Register (VLR).
Buckland was first listed in the VLR in 1987 and in the NRHP in 1988. The initial focus was on the town, which was established in 1798, and the nineteen-acre Buckland Historic Overlay District established by Prince William County. In 2008 the area of historical importance was significantly expanded to approximately 410 acres to include numerous archaeological sites relating to Civil War battlefields and the Buckland Farm and Cerro Gordo plantations.
In 2019 an updated inventory and documentation provided the most recent information about the district’s historic resources, physical condition, and history. The report included results of archaeological investigations within Buckland of the Fauquier and Alexandria Turnpike, authorized in 1808 by the Virginia General Assembly, determined to be of national significance.
Nomination Documents:
Preservation Easements
The society uses purchases, leases, easements, options, covenants, life tenancies, and other creative means of ownership to support our vision for Buckland. The society and various property owners have placed permanent protective easements over this land to preserve and further study the site.
We oppose the use of condemnation, litigation, regulation, owner-contested rezoning, or other coercive methods.
From the Director of Archeology, Jamestown Rediscovery:
“In my opinion, properly protected and researched, Buckland has the unique potential to teach generations to come much about American values, especially the role of free enterprise in the development and growth of the U.S., during its founding years between the American Revolution and the Civil War era.
Too often, as at Jamestown, no architectural evidence, and few documents survive to help tell significant pieces of the story as it does at Buckland.”
Buckland Historic District and Virginia Department of Historic Resources Easements
Battle of Buckland Mills 380-Acre Environmental Conservation Easement
Buckland Preservation Society Board Members David Blake and Linda Wright accept a $40,000 donation to BPS preservation efforts, on October 30, 2013, from Scott Plein of Equinox Investments, LLC, developer of the Villages of Piedmont at Leopold’s Preserve in nearby Haymarket.
The development is within the Battle of Buckland Mills study area. Partnering with the society for its preservation aims, Equinox preserved more than 380 acres through a conservation easement,“Leopold’s Preserve,” named after noted conservationist Aldo Leopold. The preserve is open to the public for passive recreation.
