Historic Preservation in Vienna: Does it Mean Anything?

Historic Status Sought for Vienna's Freeman Store, Town's First Library
By Brian Trompeter
June 27, 2009

Historic Vienna Inc. officials soon will ask Vienna officials for permission to apply to have the Freeman Store and original Vienna Library added to the Virginia Landmarks Register and the National Register of Historic Places.

If the council approves, group officials will fill out a preliminary information form and evaluation, which will be reviewed over a three- to four-month period by the Virginia Department of Historic Resources. If all goes well, approval could come by the end of the year, said Sarah Jane Brady of Historic Vienna Inc.

The application first would be reviewed in September by the agency’s Northern Regional Preservation Office in Stephens City. If found worthy, it will be passed on to officials at the main office in Richmond.

If the agency approves the proposal, Historic Vienna officials then must submit a larger application that will require much more investigative work and research by a historical architect, said Cathy Salgado, the town’s parks and recreation director.

While there is no charge for being added to the historic registers, the historical architect’s work would cost about $5,000, Brady said.

Historic Vienna Inc. would finance those fees through its own moneys or apply for grants to cover the expenses. Group leaders will not ask the town government, which is strapped for cash during the recession, to pay for those costs, she said.

The Freeman Store, built in 1859, was used as a Union hospital and officers’ billeting station from 1862 to 1866.

“We have a lot of diary records of women who nursed wounded Union men at the white house on Old Georgetown Road, which was renamed Church Street in the 1870s,” Brady said.

The building served as a store and an insurance agency until 1941 and then served as a private residence throughout the 1950s. The town of Vienna bought the Freeman Store in the late 1960s and refurbished it in time for the nation’s bicentennial in 1976, Brady said.

The Freeman Store is a fine example of a country store from the Victorian era, she said.

“We believe it helps people see how the common man lived and put themselves back in that time period,” Brady said.

The original Vienna Library was built in 1897 and located on Library Lane at the town’s west end. The square clapboard building, which measured 20.5 feet on each side, was moved to Maple Avenue and Center Street in 1913.

The library continued operating until 1962, when a temporary facility was built at a nearby shopping center. The building was moved to the Freeman Store site in 1970 during construction of Patrick Henry Library.

The original library has about 35 bookshelves and a collection of books dating from the 1830s to the 1950s.

The historic-register application requires at least four interior photographs of each building; exterior photos taken from north, south, east and west; and pictures of the general setting and other buildings on the sites.

Historic Vienna leaders obtained sketch site plans and U.S. Geological Survey quadrangle maps for each site. Sketch site plans show the historic sites under consideration, as well as outbuildings, nearby roads and highways, and potential and known archaeological sites.

Separate applications would be required for the Freeman Store and library, Brady said.

The library application may face an obstacle because it was moved from its original location.

A similar move of the 1897 Oakton Schoolhouse, which was relocated a half-mile north on Hunter Mill Road, disqualified it from being considered from the National Register of Historic Places, Fairfax County officials said.

Brady, who has worked at Gunston Hall in Mason Neck and Gadsby’s Tavern in Alexandria, said officials had said those sites “never” would be included on the national register, but eventually were.

Owners of sites listed on historic registers can apply for preservation easements, which reduce real estate taxes, and qualify for state and federal historic-rehabilitation tax credits.

Historic registers do not protect buildings on those sites from being torn down, but certain restrictions may apply in cases where easements are donated and grants or tax credits accepted.

The Vienna Town Council will decide on July 6 whether Historic Vienna should go ahead with the application process. The group’s proposal was well-received at the council’s June 8 work session.

“This is a very admirable and long-overdue thing to do,” Mayor M. Jane Seeman said at the work session.